May 8: Big news, today. I mean b - i - g

On page 1 of section A, summer is coming. Who would have guessed? On A3, preparations are in place for a Moncton byelection. I'm SO relieved to hear that. I was sure they were going to have it without preparations.  We know nothing whatever about what either of these candidates stands for - though one  says he want' to make Ward 2 a nice place. That's nice.

On A 7, we learn that we learn that there is a new restaurant opening at Parlee Beach - and there's even a picture of the new restaurant, and of its owner.

On A8, for mature readers only, their is a stunning photo of a portable toilet.

All this, and great car ads with pictures. Find your favourite chair, sit back.........

And close your eyes.
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NewsToday has a story on Farley's Mowat's death which I can say, even from my slight acquaintance with him. is pretty superficial. It gives only a mention that he served  in the Canadian army for the whole of world war 2 - and he served in the very difficult and costly Italian campaign. Out of that he became one of the few to write about fear - his own fear.

The book is "And No Birds Sang". Mowat knew fear, but he was a tough, cocky, swaggering (often annoying) little guy who wasn't afraid to say he was afraid - afraid to the point of terror.

C3 also has a atory on Ukraine "Putin softens over Ukraine". It really tells us very little, and that little is hidden by lots of hostile criticism from NATO - all of it with no evidence.

What is surely noticeable by now is that our yahoos like Stephen Harper have done nothing but issue threats, Putin has usually been the one looking for a peaceful solution. That surely must give a hint as to who it is that wants a war.

Then there's a bizarre, only in New Brunswick story on C3. "Spending legislation introduced". Under new legislation, if the government fails to reduce the deficit or fails to maintain a budget surplus, each of its cabinet ministers will be fined $2,500.

This is a childless pitch to those voters who are.........well....not very thoughtful. In fact, this is Hicksville stuff.

Running an economy is not a simple matter of balancing the budget or even reducing it. It's a matter of knowing what kind of spending is essential for the province. And it's about people, people and their welfare. It is NOT a business exists only to make money. It has responsiblities to all of us. Sometimes only a fool would balance the budget. Sometimes, extra, targeted funding is essential not only to present needs but for future growth..

As well, It's not just cabinet minsters who have a voice in the budget. In fact, I'm not sure at all. This province has A LOT of budget interference from big business. Will it face fines for overspending?

This looks like a typical move by some clown who wants to impress big business.

This is childish legislation. We need a government with some real understanding of economics and budgeting. We need a government that knows how to focus on human needs. We don't need a government whose idea of managing a province is to spank the naked bottoms of naughty cabinet ministers.

C5 has a story that TandT normally doesn't pay attention to. As is shaping up in Ukraine, there is a civil war in Syria. It is one savage and brutal war. The rebels,  most of whom are hired mercenaries from other countries and from terrorist groups, are armed and paid by the US, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and a few others. But the stories on the war never mention that. It looks very much like the civil war that's shaping up in Ukraine. But we won't mention that, either.

The purpose of the war is to destroy Syria as a nation. This is a war of pure slaughter and destruction. It is not possible to have any respect for a western world  which not only accepts this but leads it in its brutalities. But you'd never guess that from the (very few) Irving press reports.

So where are the demands from Harper and NATO to tell the US to bug off from Syria?
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The editorial reads as though it is meant to settle scores with somebody. It blasts city council for not being nice enough to a  builder, and for not saving Moncton High School. At the time, the Irving press never showed it gave much of a damn about Moncton High, and was light on ideas of how to do it.

I don't know what the greasy story is behind this editorial. But I'm sure there is one.
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Norbert is back to choppy writing on three topics at a time. But his story about Facebook is worth a read.

Alec Bruce is in great form on the wage gap. It begins with a book by one of the Toronto Globe's wackier writers. (Yes, Virginia. The Globe has some writers as wacky as the (almost) worst at the TandT. This column is an important one to read on a gap we have not taken nearly seriously enough.

Rod Allen continues his string of not very funny stories about his not very interesting life. This is a disgrace to appear on the op ed page of any newspaper.

Beth Lyons is what an opinion column should be about - an informed opinion on a matter of some importance to all of us. This one, about women who are marginalized in our society by income, violence, drugs, and so are isolated from help, takes a bit of thinking to understand - but it's worth the effort.

May7: The story of the day....

Brent Mazerolle must have been in a state of high excitement as he got his big assignment of the day - for a front page story. Should he wear his hat with the big PRESS card stuck on to it?

No, too showy. He settled for the corduroy suit that would stand up to the strain of chasing down a big story. It was a good choice. Dogged, enterprising, chasing down leads, he chased down the scoop of the year. And it appears right there on page 1 where a big story belongs.

"Is it time to change how we handle spring cleaning?"

All the big questions are there. Should we just put unwanted items at the curb? or should we donate them? There's even a picture of a woman who collects items left at the curb. Why have other news media not told us about this?

This is the sort of news story that makes you stop and think.  (And then just keep on going.)
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The only news of any importance is on A4 "YMCA Reconnect aims to help Moncton's needy". This is a story about how hardship is on the rise, and what it's like to have only volunteer help to rely on. And it made me think.

Next time Mr. Irving asks the government for a grant for for half a forest,  why don't we send him from door to door asking for contributions of money, and asking country people for a few trees each?
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NewsToday opens with a bizarre story. "Tories to ban crossing legislature floor". Occasionally, an elected member will leave his party and join an opposition party - perhaps on principle, perhaps for personal gain. That's because, officially, we don't elect parties, we elect people. No doubt it annoys some.. But it can hardly be classed as a threat to democratic government. Are there no greater problems facing the government?

C4 has :"N.B. parties differ over shale gas report," N.B. parties means, of course, just the Liberals and the Conservatives. And since both parties are really quite close on the issue, it wasn't much of a debate. Energy Minister Craig Leonard was obtuse, childish and - how can I put it? - a speaker of untruth. Gallant was waffly. Both simply confused the issue.

The only intelligent, honest, and expert statement came out of the office of the Chief Medical Officer. And I have to give the Irving press credit for giving good coverage to the statement from that office.
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The only foreign news in the section is on C12. It's about Ukraine, and it's the usual report that tells us nothing. And it's sloppy. The sub-headline tells us that 30 pro-Russian insurgents were killed in street fighting. Half-way through, we are told that the number killed was ten, and  that many of those were not insurgents but ordinary civilians - and it admits there is not way to confirm any of those figures.

And, as always, it begins the story in the middle, as though all this suddenly happened when Russia took control of Crimea. In fact, it started when Ukrainian mobs - obviously with big money and training from somebody -  staged a coup against the elected government, and set up their own government. And that new and illegal government is the one that is on our side.

Now, NATO is talking about the need to set up bases in Poland? That seems odd when you consider that this did not start with Russia interfering in the rest of Europe. It started with the US interfering in Ukraine. It was certainly not Russia that overthrew the elected Ukrainian government, thus threatening Russia.
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Norbert has now written the same column for three days in row. And its still bar-room economics.

The wealthy in New Brunswick (and Canada and the US) are getting wealthier while everybody else is getting poorer.  Laying off public servants will not change that. That kind of economic development does not produce prosperity for anybody but the very rich. Use your eyes Norbert. Look at Congo. Look at Central America. Look at Europe. Look at the US. Wherever the rich are allowed to run free, they create wealth for themselves, and poverty for everybody else.

Please forget this crap about the rich creating jobs and general prosperity. It's not true. And it never has been.

Perhaps your country village newspaper will start acting like a real, grown-up one, and publish some stories about what is happening in the US - about the record numbers reduced to poverty, about 20% of American children suffering malnutrition, about record rates of homelessness- while the super-rich are making their biggest profits in history, and have been for years.

His concluding quotation is, "You cannot spend your way out of recession...." Norbert, what the hell do you think got us out of the depression of the 30s? Try this quotation. "You cannot starve yourself out of poverty."

Alec Bruce writes on the shale gas report. And, I regret to say, he's playing the game by the official rules.

Brian Cormier offers us another sermonette. He says spreading rumours is dishonourable. "Fact", he says, "becomes fiction. Fiction becomes fact."He puts much of the blame on social media.

Has he never read the Irving press?

There's an interesting story in Eric Lewis' column. It's about a naval base that used to be in Riverview in World War 2. It was a control centre for our ships in the North Atlantic. Now, that war in Europe was a closer run thing than most people realize. If we had lost control of the North Atlantic, and we almost did at one point, we would have lost the war.

The story of how our tiny and neglected navy grew up in a hurry to get that control is one of the turning points of history. Veterans want a monument to HMCS Coverdale and it's crucial role. I would go further than that.

This deserves to be a museum to one of our finest moments, The Battle of the Atlantic.

May 6: Let me go back a few days......

The big news for today is the banner headline  on page 1 of the Times and Transcript. "Roads are a priority for Dieppe: Mayor" That's right up there with keeping a full supply of toilet paper in city hall washrooms.

Big story on A4, A local cat has been inducted into the Purina Hall of Fame for alerting its owners to a house fire. Well, we've had worse. There is, for example, our philanthropic hall of fame.

On A6, we learn that wine-lovers  will be poured into the casino tomorrow. Well, that's better than filling the place up with wine.

But let's go back a bit on the shale gas report story.

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This was the report of the Canadian Council of Academies on shale gas, touted as a study by experts on the safety of shale gas. This is the one that was featured in the Irving press, that has some members of our Energy Board on it, and that advised us to go slow on shale gas until we know more.

Though I was kind to the first news story that appeared on this, I was uneasy. I was kind because it was one of very few news stories in the TandT that was well written, and that appeared to be unbiased. For the same reasons, I was suspicious.

By the final story, I was convinced this was a con job. The Irving press never tells the truth in a story that has anything to do with its owners. And the repeated reference to a moratorium rather than a ban on fracking fit in to the Liberal platform (which is a sellout), and could even be accommodated by the Conservatives.

Reason? Frackers have no intention of immediate development. A go slow policy suits them fine. So they'll come this summer to pretend they are doing research - when they are really checking the potential of the oil fields. Then, in a couple of  years, they'll issue a report saying they have completed their research, and have suggested the world's toughest regulations to make it safe.

So I checked to find out something about the people who issued the report, The Council of Canadian Academies.  Got the image in your head of independent university researchers with a full range of expertise for the job?

Forget it.

The CCA is a private corporation. It was chosen by Harper to do the job. In other words, this is the equivalent of those phony think tanks. Recently, I had a note from a very trusted information source who attended their meetings.

They refused to address well known problems of the shale gas industry, including high greenhouse gas emissions, unreliable pipe failure rates.

None of the members is an authority on public health. It refused to discuss recent reports on congenital birth defects and other abnormalities associated with shale gas.

This lying of the Irvinig press is more sophisticated lying than usual. But it's still lying.

And, gee, is it possible to buy academics to play such a game? You bet it is. Most will refuse. But there are plenty left for a lifetime of phony reports. These private, 'research' companies routinely work the universities looking for people with titles who will say the right things. I was approached by one of them many years ago. It was like getting propositioned by a pimp.
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NewsToday has not much news, though most is about Ukraine. Harper continues to issue inflammatory statements about the situation. So far, he has not said a word about any peaceful solutions. Of course not. He couldn't care less about the Ukraine. What he's working on is the Ukrainian-Canadian vote in our next election.

 He claims, without the slightest evidence, that the Russians are invading Ukraine in "slow motion".

A second story, from The Associated Press simply gives us more confusion. It also gives us propaganda in the shape of a story that Putin is spreading lies about  the prominence of the Nazi party in the Western Ukraine. In fact, Ukraine does have lots of Naziis, possibly more than any other country in the world. Several of them are in the government. And that's scarcely a secret.
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Harper continues his very dangerous game in continuing his attack on the integrity of the Supreme Court.(The last thing any country needs is the destruction of faith in its high courts). He has now been joined by Justice Minister McKay, the person who should know, better than any other, the importance of public respect for the Supreme Court.

In effect, Harper has accused the court of cheating him in a legal decision it made. No prime minister has ever done that. Harper is weakening the fabric of the country over a relatively petty issue. In this as in so many other ways, he is a dangerous man, and  the worst prime minister we have ever seen.
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I have no idea what the editorial is about. That's because it is so badly written. I think it has something to do with painting pictures on garbage cans in order to beautify the city.

Norbert wrote his column on the same topic as last time (our financial condition) and he says nothing new. More important, he again completely ignores the role played by his boss and other corporate bosses in our economic problems.

Somebody named Steve Lafleur, who is a 'public policy analyst' for one of those phony think tanks that make up propaganda for the rich, contributes and op ed column..

It says you should sometimes 'buy local' - but not always. It's up to you.

Some analyst. I could get advice as good as that in any Sunday School. It's also bad writing. This is a collector's item for those with a passion for banality and trivia.

Not really a strong day for the TandT.

May 5:Petty unprofessionalism.

I missed something in the issue of May 3. I'm no expert on photography; but even I should have caught it. Stephen Downes, of Moncton Free Press (it's on the web) is an expert on photography and on a good deal else to do with news media. He spotted it right away. And it's a no-no in all but the sleaziest of newspapers, the ones with headlines like "Shocking news. George Bush is pregnant".

The picture on C3 is (it says) of three deer in Parkindale. And it's a fake.

The second and third deer are exactly the same (one) deer. The trees in the forest behind them are fake. The whole photo is fake. The process  (which I don't understand but which Stephen Downes does understand) is called photo-shopping. Almost any journalist at the TandT should have recognized it was a fake. Any editor MUST have recognized it.

In any newspaper with any pretence of being ethical, the photographer would have been fired on the spot. And it's very likely that at least one editor would go, too.

It may sound like a small thing. It isn't. It is unethical for any journalist to publish news knowing that it is not true. I well remember, back in my radio days, a TV news reporter who was covering a strike. When his crew got there, the strikers were quietly sitting down, talking to each other.  That wasn't good enough. So the producer told them to stand up, put them in a line, pushed strike signs into their hands, and told them to march up and down the street shouting slogans.

I shall never forget the storm of anger that caused. The reporter's name was mud with everybody in the business. The station publicly apologized.

It's a serious business in almost all newspapers to deliberately lie - even when it's just a cutesie picture of three deer.

(I wonder how the new ombudsman will handle this one.)
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I'm hearing a lot of doubts about my view of how dangerous the Ukraine situation is, and how it is linked to to Project for the New American Century. Look. You can read all this for  yourselves on the web. It's not a secret. The members of the project announced their plans in 1998. Eighteen of them became senior figures on the George Bush White House team. One of them, Dick Cheney, was Bush's  VP. And he was the guy who was the real president. (You surely don't think that a dolt like George Bush ran anything..) Another was Bush's Chief of Staff. Another was George's brother, Jeb.

They, not I, said that the US had to conquer (dominate) the world. 9/11 became the pretext to start wars, and the first target, already planned well in advance, was Iran. Afghanistan was planned from the start, way back in 1998.

The PNAC closed in 2008 because it's work was done. American government had been completely rewired to aim for world domination. And the White House is still full of PNAC connections, including the Assistant Secretary of State who helped to set up the Ukraine crisis.

And the person who recently wrote in support of a war with Russia was not me. It was Brezezinski who has been close to PNAC, and a major policy advisor at the highest levels going all the way back to Jimmy Carter.

They have all said for many years that Russia has to be invaded. Obviously, Ukraine is their excuse.

If you want confirmation, don't read me. Read them.
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The headline says that our food banks are in trouble just when many people depend on them for survival. Yep, lots of people are having a hard time  now. Makes you wonder how we can afford to spend over a hundred million on an events centre - or even 200,000 to redecorate a university president's home. Makes you wonder how Harper can spend millions to fly himself and 300 friends to Israel to hear him give a nothing speech. Makes you wonder how big corporations can manage to hand out millions in bonuses to CEOs.

But then, them there folks is hungry because they're lazy. Same thing back in the 30s. There really was no economic problem. It was just a mass attack of laziness. That's why the average US salary is now less than it was 40 years ago. They're lazy.

And don't worry about the massive shift of money from the poor to the rich. That's good. Because now the rich can give back a tenth of one percent of it to build a philanthropic hall of fame where they can hang up their own portraits.

Otherwise, Section A is its usual barren desert. It has two military stories about how much we respect our veterans. It  does not have the very recent story about a soldier living the horror of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and who was promised military leave of absence to deal with it.

But then he spoke in public about the nature of PTSD. Harper and our super-patriotic generals promptly cancelled his leave.
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NewsToday really has no news. How could it, with only a page and a half. There's a long story on Ukraine. But it says nothing of any value. It says Harper is putting more sanctions on Russia. Big deal.
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The editorial, on education again, really is an example of how easy it must have been to graduate when the editorial writers were in high school.  This one, which seems to end up talking about getting back to the basics, makes the point by talking about a school that is demonstrating a 3D printer. I'd certainly love to see that. But I'm damned if I can see what that has to do with getting back to the basics.

No Alec Bruce today.  Instead we get an item by a Ben Eisen with fancy titles from Atlantic Institute of Market Studies - a front for propaganda for big business. It's all about the best way to deal with poverty. (Yeah. From an institution bankrolled by people who don't give a damn about poverty.)  He quotes the insights of another propaganda front for  rich people, The Brookings Institution, claiming business-friendly solutions to poverty have the effect of lifting four million Americans out of poverty every year.

Really? Wow! So how come the US now has the highest rate of poverty in its history?

And Norbert has a column on the excessive cost of health care and education. And they both have one thing in common. Neither of them says a word about the real money power in this province, and how that money power has decided not to lift a finger to do its share.

And there's hint in here. Watch for big business to increase its muscling in on education and health care - for a small profit. Yeah. I know. We;ll call it a public private partnership. Yeah. Partnership.
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I don't understand, I really don't understand why Craig Babstock has a column. He takes stories of court cases, then draws sweeping moral lessons from them as though they have any lessons to give. Doesn't the TandT have anybody who knows enough about anything to have something to say?

Steve Malloy has a light piece, but a very nicely written one about people who tell us what we should be allowed to read and what sort of music we should be allowed to listen to. I called it light - and his touch is light, but the matter is serious.

Personally, though, I think we should ban all music recorded since the early 50s. I want songs that have words and tunes. And is sung by people who can sing.

And playing a guitar should carry the death penalty.

May 3: The fat's in the fire....

Two days ago, Zbignew Zbrzenski wrote an open letter which didn't make the Irving press (perhaps it had nobody who was sure how to spell his name.). He demanded war with Russia over the Ukraine. He also said the west would be helped by it's "good friends" in China.

Now, this is not just your man off the street. This man has been a major policy advisor to presidents of the US since Jimmy Carter. Obama now listens to him. His general view? The US needs to defeat all regional powers to make itself the world's dominant power.  Sound familiar?

It should. It's the policy of Project for the New American Century. And not many years ago, he was calling for a war against our "good friends" in China.  (After that would come India, etc.)

But our "good friends" in China are not nearly so thick as Zbigniew seems to think. They know that they're next on  his list. So, today, China declared full and active cooperation with the Russians in the Ukraine affair. In other words, if the US goes to war against Russia, China will be at Russia's side - and the two countries are now planning joint military exercises.

What does this all mean? It means that the corporate bosses in the US want a war with Russia and, in fact, almost certainly were setting this one up from the start.

Add a footnote to that. The performance of the American military in conventional warfare has been dismal, even against much smaller and poorer opponents. I don't know why that is. Until 1945, western powers routinely beat the pants off such opponents, the British taking India with only a few thousand men, for example. The only great victory of the US in over fifty years has been the conquest of Grenada, a tiny nation of cocktail waiters. That's why the US has been switching from conventional wars to the use of assassination squads and drones.

Based on the record, it is hard to see how the US could beat Russia and China in a conventional war. It would have to go nuclear.

This is where greed and the stupidity bred by greed have taken us.

Where does this take us? Well, quite possibly to an exchange of nuclear bombs But even if that doesn't happen, the strain on American society will be unbearable. Most Americans don't want any more wars. Most American are suffering a tremendous strain just with the recession.

Can Americans be propagandized into supporting a war? Maybe, with news media supported by skilled propagandists and with a police state to create fear, it's possible. It would also create a society so ridden by fear and hatred that no-one can predict what it would do.

Harper has sent a half dozen jets, and is sending some 50 soldiers. No, it's not much. But it's enough to commit us to an insane war. And to make us a target.

Why did he do it? 1. Because the corporate leaders who support Harper are as greedy and foolish as those in the US.  2. Because corporate leaders hope to get a share of the spoils of war - and they can't if they don't join.

So prepare yourself fpr patriotic speeches by our leaders about how our service men and women are giving their lives to save democracy.
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There is only one story in section A. It's on A12 "Anti-shale gas spokesman 'validated' by report". Of course, it's a reference to the Council of Canadian Academics, and how they have shown that additional research must be done on the effects of shale gas.

But I'm not at all sure this is a victory for the anti-shale gas forces. Why would the Irving press which has specialized in suppressing news about shale gas, and in boosting it and in lying, suddenly permit a series of honest, well-written, and  unbiased reports on the subject?

I'm afraid this really is a soft sell. The shale gas companies are not ready to start operating in NB. They won't be for at least two years, maybe more. So let the antis have their little victory. Let them feel good. And for the two years or more, publish little stories about how well the research is going. Then, with no real research having been done, premier Gallant will announce that the government has now studied the most up to date reports, and has prepared the toughest regulations in the world. So we can go ahead.
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NewsToday has a story on Ukraine. But it's already old news. Ukraine has launched a military offensive against the eastern part of the country. Well, that should certainly calm things down.

At no point has the west proposed any workable solution to the problem. It has allowed the situation to drift out of control so that a major war is now almost inevitable.

Was there ever a solution? I think there was. It would have called for the will on both sides to settle this quietly. But that will does not exist on our side.

On the same page is a story about Harper publicly rebuking the judges of the Supreme Court for making a decision against his wishes in a case he had an interest in. To the best of my knowledge, that has never before happened in Canada. And it shows an astonishing lack of respect by the prime minister, of all people, for our highest court.

Steve, baby, the vote by the seven best legal minds in the judiciary of this country went against you by 6 to  1. You have publicly focused on just one judge, a woman. And you are, God help us, the leader of this country publicly denouncing an institution which needs (and merits) respect. And there  you are, foaming at the mouth and spitting contempt, and perhaps waving your lousy  Economics degree.

You really are not fit to be the leader of anything.

The Business page has a good third of it devoted to the publication of an anthology of poets, to somebody getting an award for community stuff at Crandall U, changes to bus routes, and a new scholarship fund  at Ude Moncton. The closest thing to business news is an announcement of a Royal LePage garage sale.
Maybe that was all supposed to be on the Faith Page.
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The editorial confirms my opinion that we're getting a soft sell on shale gas.

Bill Belliveau and Norbert write columns on the same topic, a recent book by a UdeMoncton professor on New Brunswick's wobbly financial condition. And they and the author have at least one thing in common. None of them mentions the role of giant corporations and wealthy individuals in this.

Nor does either of them mention a report that appeared in the Regina Leader Post that wealthy Canadians have AT LEAST 170 untaxed and now untaxable billion dollars stowed away in tax havens. And that's in addition to the the tax breaks and the gifts and favours they get.

How can anybody write a book or even a column on the economy and never mention that sort of thing?

The reality is that the rich in New Brunswick have for generations robbed this place blind and avoided taxes. And, as happened in Ukraine, Greece, Ireland, etc. the rich have decided the poor have to pay for the cost of the gluttony of the rich. Yeah, cut back on those medical services  (the rich all have private plans, anyway). Cut back on education.

When a society develops a class that is rich, and has power because it is rich - an aristocracy - the rich come to think of themselves as superior to the common people. Thus the absurd pretensions of the aristocrats of Britain, many of whom were and are brain dead.

They are not only superior to common folk; they have contempt, even hatred for them. After all, if the poor had any gumption they'd be rich, too. I have seen those attitudes taught in the private schools. I have heard the conversations on the rare occasions when I move among my social betters.

They don't like us. They even hate us. Do we have a recession because banks and corporations broke all sorts of laws in their operatons? It's the fault of the poor. So in the US, they gave law-breaking billionaires more billions in taxpayers money - and cut food stamps to the poor.

Never kid yourself about the "better sort".

Once again, Brent Mazerolle writes a trivial little story, and calls it an opinion column.

Gwynne Dyer is back in form with an excellent piece on the behaviour and attitudes of Israel. Zionism long ago became a destructive force, and, most sadly,  destructive of Judaism, itself. I first encountered Judaism in Montreal,  and was enchanted by it sense of social responsibility, love for others, commitment to community. I was so enchanted by it, I moved largely in Jewish circles for the better part of my life. But Jews like that have become a minority. The rest are caught up in the worldliness, violence, and disrespect for others created by Zionism.

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Today's sermonette is about how the writings of Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky kept Christian faith alive throughout the rule of the brutal and atheistic Stalin. That's nice.

When do the Moncton churches plan to do something like that?

May 2: glimpses of responsible journalism...

The front page actually has two stories that seem to belong there.

The first one is about, I think, a much more serious problem than the story suggests. The wife of the president of U de Moncton was given a $200,000 contract to redecorate their house. The president says it wasn't him who did it; it was the Board of Governors. Yeah. I'm sure he protested, but they muscled him aside. Tough gangs these boards of governors.

By the way, who sits on a board of governors and who dominates it? Usually, it's businessmen.

Then he says the board did it because it noticed that many presidents received a housing allowance. Yes, many do. That's because many universities have bought into the private business practice of offering absurdly high rewards  to  CEOs - which is what a president is.

Some years ago, I was offered the presidency of a university. I was stunned at the "generosity" of it. If I had been fired on the first day for coming in drunk and naked, it would still have a severance package to live well on for the rest of my life. (And there was no housing allowance. U de Moncton was certainly under no pressure to supply one - and certainly none to supply such a generous one.)

The is particularly disturbing coming from the U de Moncton.  Now, to the best of my knowledge, U de Moncton is a good school, and deserves support. I like the atmosphere in it. The few professors I've met seem solid stuff. But I can't help notice that the university has several people whose major work seems to be kissing up to the wealthy of the province and to those servants of the wealthy that we call a government.

Professor Lapierre springs to mind. And have you ever heard Donald Savoie utter a criticism of big business? In fact, he has recently written a biography of a very wealthy man who is just a wunnerful, wunnerful person, and who learned all his wunnerfulness from K.C Irving.

It doesn't take many professors and administrators like that to give a university an unfortunate reputation. And it is happening now in just about every university that the presidents and upper level administrators take their orders from big business represented by boards of governors that know nothing about education or universities - except how to use them to their own benefit.

The first page also has an excellent story on the need to do more research before extracting shale gas. This comes one the basis of a recent report by Environment Canada. Both sides of reaction to the study are presented with no evident bias.

I"m still a little suspicious that this, like a couple of earlier reports, is part of a "soft sell"  campaign for shale gas. But I certainly don't know that it is. And I can see no reason to criticize this story. It's well done.

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In news today, Mr. Alward says French immersion, especially early immersion, needs more study. In my first year of teaching, back when dinosaurs were still a traffic problem, I would have agreed with him. But the world has moved on, and the only dinosaur left is Mr. Alward.

Mr. Alward, how do you think you learned to speak English? Was it just in your genes? Were you born an anglophone? Was it just pure luck that your parents could understand you because they had English in their genes, too?

Look. All us anglos learned to speak English by early immersion. Right from birth, our parents spoke to us in English. That's why we learned English so painlessly and naturally. So why do you use an argument which suggests that we should not be permitted to speak at all until grade three?

Of course, early immersion is better. That's why so many francophones in New Brunswick speak excellent English, and so many anglos can only, at best, struggle with French.  Francophones grow up surrounded by English.  The get early immersion in English simply because of the nature of the province..

There's even another important story on P. C1, this one about Harper's electoral reform bill. Though Canadians are paying little attention to this bill, the intent of it is obvious - to ensure that no party in this country will ever again win an election without massive support from the wealthy. We will, in short, become like the US. (More on this further down.) This is an important story, almost as important as the photo on the same page of a girl paddling a kayak in Florida.

Your Business, as always, has no significant news about any business.

C3 has a lead story about how the NB government is going to promote cross-border tourism. It will, it says, create a brand, new market. Apparently, the government is unaware that the US is in severe recession with millions not knowing where their next meal is coming from, let alone planning how to take a family on a holiday on the minimum wage of ten dollars an hour.

The story from the Ukraine is on C4. It's not a terrible job. It's just that is gives us a lot of bits of information without giving us any understanding of what is going on. The clue to why it offers no understanding can be found in paragraph 2, line 17. The former president,  its says, "...who was ousted...."

Nice word, ousted. It could mean anything. It could mean he was hauled into a back lane by foreign agents who beheaded him. Or it could mean he lost an election. Or it could mean his own party forced him to resign. Why choose such a vague word as 'ousted'? The western press has consistently done that. Why?

Because they don't want to admit the reality. He was elected in a democratic election. His government was overthrown by street mobs so big and sustained, it had to have been supported by considerable organization, training and spending.

That's the beginning of story, the beginning that the western news media refuse to talk about.

Leaders of the mob then appointed their own government. That's two, illegal acts - overthrowing a legally elected government, and then appointing an unelected government.

What's equally interesting is that the European Union and the US IMMEDIATELY recognized this illegal  government. Obviously, they didn't need to wait to understand what was going on. They already knew, and they recognized this  as a legal, constitutional government.

That's why the western news media never use the correct word to describe what happened. The government was not simply 'ousted' or 'replaced'. There was a coup. a violent and illegal act.

(Was the president corrupt? Who knows? We hear it. But we get no evidence. And if that gives adequate reason to take up arms and overthrow the government, why not start with our legion of corrupts who became wealthy in politics - Tony Blair and George Bush Jr. come to mind - so does George Bush Sr. if you look at his employment record. I have noticed that even in New Brunswick, some former leaders become very wealthy indeed after their political service.)

Look, let's get a clear and simple look at what's going on. It's not complicated.

1. US business leaders have decided the US should conquer the world. It's not a secret. They have published it on the web years ago. They call it The Project for the New American Century. The project has its Canadian admirers, one of whom is almost certainly Stephen Harper. Canadian and European big business is hanging onto the coattails of American big business, hoping to share in the goodies.

2. This is not a criticism of the American people. They are not the ones leading the push for domination. Nor is there the slightest chance they will get any benefit from it. Neither will the Canadian people. If big business triumphs, it will be as happy to starve, beat and murder us as it has long been to starve, beat and murder Guatemalans, Haitians, Congolese - anybody.

A war against Russia is a war against us.

3. Nor is their any reason to see Putin as our hero, Like Obama, he represents the economic upper 1 % of his country. Russia, after all, has the same economic system as the US.

4. If Russia's 1% is defeated, then the next war will be against China's 1%.  Then there will be a series of wars between the surviving 1%s.

What it's all about is greed, pure greed, nothing else. And if it continues, we can expect to be abused and impoverished as much any other country touched by that greed.

That's what's happening. And the role of most of the media is to hide the reality and to make us hate - to hate Moslems, to hate Russians, to hate Chinese - whoever.

Walking on a treadmill today (lord, it was boring), I watched a TV interview with Obama on CTV. It was followed by a CTV analyst who either had no idea what he was talking about or was a willing assassin of the truth. Essentially, he supported Obama's line of pure propaganda. He even missed an Obama statement that was perhaps the most bizarre ever to come from the mouth of an American president. He said this modern world cannot afford countries that invade others. ????? How could any American president say that with a straight face. How could even a half-wit commentator miss it?

We live in a world in which greed rules. Big business operates with no morality whatever. As a result,billions suffer and die. If it gets its way, we'll have the same fate as everybody else it has abused. And greed breeds stupidity. That's why big business, if allowed to, will destroy itself as well as us.

That's why I get impatient with the churches' insipid moralizing which is always designed not to offend anybody of power.
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The editorial criticizes the wild mob at the annual Pollet River Run, a mob that instead of cleaning up litter filled the river with broken bottles and garbage of every sort. That's reasonable enough. But it should go further.

Behaviour like that is one sign of the breakdown of a society. It is quite possible that those louts are what we are becoming.

Norbert has a very fair column about Rob Ford. It's sympathetic, and it's generous. On balance, I prefer that to the feeding frenzy that most of the press has made of him. This is a serious case. It involves a high level of government. It involves, whatever you think of him, a human. Norbert treats him as most of the press has not - with honesty and compassion.

I have less admiration for Alex Bruce's column. It wants shale gas, and wants it - NOW. There are risks, but sometimes ya gotta take risks.

Mr. Bruce.we don't yet even know what the risks are. And  you want to plunge ahead?

And have you never learned that there are some things you just cannot have?

Then he accuses those opposed to shale gas as being 'aesthetes'  "...who have an exasperating tendency to despise fossil fuel and wind power in equal measure." I have met people who opposed windpower on aesthetic grounds - but not many. And I have never seen any congruence with them and those opposed to shale gas.

Norbert had a really good day. But Alec Bruce's column comes close to making up for that.

The last paragraph comes close to being both brainless and loutish. "Say what you like about (Texas) that red-necked, killer-executing home of George 'Whacko' Bush. At least, they do things big."  That's a quotation that will probably go down big with the Pollet River Run gang.

The column by Cole Hobson fearlessly attacks one of the great questions of our time. Should we have wi-fi in national parks? My own feeling is that we shouldn't. And that everyone entering a park should do so in a state of nature, stark naked. And any who get sexually aroused by that should be cast out. Forthwith.

There's also a guest column about disposing of used batteries. It has some useful information. But surely, that's a news story, not an opinion column. A page editor should know the difference.

There's a good letter to the editor "Biggest discoveries get toughest testing". I'd like to see more from the writer. But he's going to have to learn how to write for a general audience. This one will be incomprehensible to almost all readers, including ol' BA me.

May 1: Today, we have the comment of the century.

The only story in Section A worth reading - and even that only for a sort of bitter amusement - is "Tories set to tackle spending:: premier". Wow! The Flash in person.

It took him four years to recognize there is a problem - and it's a  problem New Brunswick has had for a very, very long time. And he's going to do something about it. Yep. He's going to order cabinet ministers to stay within their budgets. Well, that should wrap it up.

The problem is that neither he nor Mr. Gallant has given the slightest indication of any understanding what has caused our economic problem in the first place. The only clue either of them has is to make the poor pay fpr problems caused by the rich. Alward doesn't even mention the rich. - and a good thing for him he doesn't. If he did, he'd get his little bottom smacked until it turned red.

That's it for Section A.
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NewsToday, at last, has a real news story on Ukraine. "Ukrainian leader addresses tensions". And it actually tells us something.

Instead of simply quoting provocative statements with heavy bias in favour of western leaders, it actually gives us information to help us understand what is going. And the statements    it does quote give essential information. Well done by The Associated Press.

The story is that the President of Ukraine admits that his government cannot cope with the pro-Russian rebellion in east Ukraine. Not only is it out of his control, but many of his own troops are in sympathy with the rebels, and are joining them or cooperating with them.

So what we are supporting, with a great deal of moral huffing and puffing and the threat of a nuclear war, is an illegal, unelected government in Ukraine which has very limited popular support. Hurray for democracy!

Yulia Tymoshencko (leading presidential candidate and extremely wealthy woman) has added to the turmoil by calling for volunteers for a resistance force she is setting up. Great.

Yet another army running wild. She is not likely  to attract many Russian-speaking Ukrainians to her resistance force. It was not long ago she was publicly demanding that all Russian-speaking Ukrainians should either be expelled or killed.

This is what a news story should be - not just scattered quotations, but giving a clear picture of what is actually happening, and doing it without bias or propaganda intent.

Alas! The Irving press missed several items, important items, in reference to Ukraine.

A couple of days ago, The Wall Street Journal interviewed Assistant Secretary of State Kerry. Kerry said, yes, nuclear war is possible if the west keeps pushing and being provocative. And he intends to keep pushing and being provocative. So, yes, he intends to risk setting off a nuclear war.

In other words, there are important people in the US who are in government or who are influential who want a war with Russia. I don't know why - but there are unquestionably such people. They may feel a prompt disposal of Russia is necessary before the US economy gets into desperate trouble. It may be they feel it necessary to destroy Russia before China and India rise to challenge American power. It may be they have invested so heavily in a war machine that they cannot just let it rust, and probably cannot replace it as it ages.  In any case, Kerry has put the risk on the table. It's real.

Oh, another point that may have been influential. The American people are turning against the last 14 years of American wars of aggression. After 9/11, the support for war was high. But now, Americans are showing they've had enough. 47% of those polled recently say they want to the US to back off on its warring foreign policy.

Then, there is the comment from Kerry, hilarious coming from him, and one that will go down in history books, "You just don't in the 21st century behave in a 19th century fashion by invading another country on a completely trumped up pretext."

I gather he said that with a straight face, too.
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The editorial trumpets "Gas could be our main energy source". Well, yeah. So could coal. So could wood. So could demolished houses. There's no end to the possibilities. But what the world is talking about right now is whether gas SHOULD be an energy source or whether it's too dangerous in the long run. Come on, editors, try to follow the bouncing ball.

Norbert takes another run at Gallant, accusing him of having to economic plans. True enough. But, as Norbert shows , he doesn't have a clue either. Instead, he says the people should tell the politicians to make plans. Well, duh. The people don't make demands because the boss doesn't want anything done, and the boss knows neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives will do anything. So as long as the people keep voting for those two, wretched parties, ain't nothing going to happen.

And Norbert still shouts about the economy without once mentioning the role of big business and wealthy people in making in such a mess.

Alec Bruce's column was on early immersion, and it brought back memories of me, in my first year of teaching, listening to a speech by the father of early immersion, Dr. Penfield. We all pretty much dismissed his silly idea. But then it was new, and we were still in the dark ages. We know now it works. I should have realized that early.

I grew up in an overwhelmingly francophone district. My sister's friends from the age of 4 or so were French. (Girls played with each other. Boys formed gangs and fought.) By the age of seven, my sister was so fluent in French that her friends' parents all believed she was French.

Of course, early immersion works. And it works even better if it starts BEFORE school. Time for New Brunswick to wake up.

For the first time in my experience Tod Allan has an opinion column that is an opinion column. Big improvement. But he almost destroy it in the last two paragraphs which he uses to make a pointless joke. You don't do that. Your final paragraph should rub in the point you want to make. It shouldn't be something that trivializes all one has said.

Excellent column by Jody Dallaire on the federal government's foreign worker programme. It's really not so much an opinion column as it is an information one. But that's what you have to write when people aren't getting adequate information in the first place. Parts of this programme are a real horror show - and one has to wonder about the motives of those who drafted it.