The current events club will have it's monhtly discussion on Thursday, July 7, at 2 pm in the Moncton Library.
All are weclome.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
July 5: Kate's baby comment sparks frenzy...
What can one say about a half-wit headline like that? Obviously, The Moncton Times and Transcipt thinks we're all hsyterical morons, and has hired a staff to match.
Much of the first section is Willy and Kate smiling and waving. So is much of section C, NewsToday. The Business section is its usual joke. One item is a new beauty shop opening (free ad). Another is a hot item for close followers of the market; the price of beer is up. There was no room for the story that child poverty in the US is now up to 25 % ot the total child population.
France's ban on fracking still has not been mentioned.
Alec Bruce has the only intelligent comment on the royal visit that I have seen.
Ed Graham (Seniority Rules) has another excellent column on an excellent idea. The Moncton Museum offers a downlad for your MP3 player, smartphone or tablet (or get it in print), then use it to take your own guided tour of downtown Moncton. Count me in. Downtown Moncton has a fascinating history and some delightful buildings.
I'll do it on a day when,, contrary to the advice of one of the high culture staff writers of the Moncton T&T, the air is not full of the roar and smell of hot rode or motorcycles.
Then there's the usual far, right wing "think tank" propaganda piece from post media. This one is a sneering and not entirely truthful account of the socialist priniciples of Tommy Douglas, and of how the party has drifted from some of this principles.
As it happens, I agree that it has drifted; and I looked for an intelleigent discussion of it. I should have know known better. In fact, those views he attributes to Douglas are not only more than a little twisted in the presentatioon, but they are also the normal. (and usually far worse) views of the big business pirates that The Macdonald-Laurier Institute and their hack writers like Brian Lee Crowley so much admire. Mr. Crowley's little contribution is a sneering, backbiting piece about a man and a pary who are still several stages above him and his friends.
Medicare is an unearned privilege? Where does Mr. Crowley think the jmoney comes from? His big business friends who are shy about telling us howomuch tax they (don't) pay? And "payiing for hangnails" is a trivialization, and an extraordinarily ignorant and distasteful one, of what medicare does.
He then inserts Bob Raie as an example of an NDP government that ran up a deficit, nicely ignoring the fact that NDP governments ner general have been the most cautious spenders in all of Nortth America. Mr. Crowley knows that, of course. So he isn't just a backbiter. He lies by ommission.
And employment insurance does not come free - as Mr. Crowley suggests. We pay for it. That's why it's called insurance.
We also pay for much of Irving's electric bills Now, that does come free for Mr. Irving. I would have looked forward to Mr. Crowley's denunciation of that - but I doubt whether he was the courage or integrity to write it.
The NDP is the party of privilege? Really? Do they get funded by by millions of dollars from big business? Do they get supported by every wealthy newspaper owner in Canada. (including, of course the owners of Postmeida who distribute propagandists like Mr. Crowley to the propaganda newspapers of the rich - like Bunswick Media.)?
Does the NDP give away land and resources to big business? Does it defend the export of a businessman's asbestos aound the world? Does it give sweetheart contracts for friends of the party? Does it continually lower taxes for the only people who can afford to pay them?
Unionized public servants are aristocrats? Do they get millions of dollars a year in pay, and millions more in bonuses? Do they, like good little premiers, get offered seats on the board and in managaement of large, parivate companies after their years of public service?
I am not pleased with the direction in which the NDP has moved on some issues. But it is still well above Mr. Crowley's (and the T&T's and Postmeida's) natural habitat in the gutter.
Much of the first section is Willy and Kate smiling and waving. So is much of section C, NewsToday. The Business section is its usual joke. One item is a new beauty shop opening (free ad). Another is a hot item for close followers of the market; the price of beer is up. There was no room for the story that child poverty in the US is now up to 25 % ot the total child population.
France's ban on fracking still has not been mentioned.
Alec Bruce has the only intelligent comment on the royal visit that I have seen.
Ed Graham (Seniority Rules) has another excellent column on an excellent idea. The Moncton Museum offers a downlad for your MP3 player, smartphone or tablet (or get it in print), then use it to take your own guided tour of downtown Moncton. Count me in. Downtown Moncton has a fascinating history and some delightful buildings.
I'll do it on a day when,, contrary to the advice of one of the high culture staff writers of the Moncton T&T, the air is not full of the roar and smell of hot rode or motorcycles.
Then there's the usual far, right wing "think tank" propaganda piece from post media. This one is a sneering and not entirely truthful account of the socialist priniciples of Tommy Douglas, and of how the party has drifted from some of this principles.
As it happens, I agree that it has drifted; and I looked for an intelleigent discussion of it. I should have know known better. In fact, those views he attributes to Douglas are not only more than a little twisted in the presentatioon, but they are also the normal. (and usually far worse) views of the big business pirates that The Macdonald-Laurier Institute and their hack writers like Brian Lee Crowley so much admire. Mr. Crowley's little contribution is a sneering, backbiting piece about a man and a pary who are still several stages above him and his friends.
Medicare is an unearned privilege? Where does Mr. Crowley think the jmoney comes from? His big business friends who are shy about telling us howomuch tax they (don't) pay? And "payiing for hangnails" is a trivialization, and an extraordinarily ignorant and distasteful one, of what medicare does.
He then inserts Bob Raie as an example of an NDP government that ran up a deficit, nicely ignoring the fact that NDP governments ner general have been the most cautious spenders in all of Nortth America. Mr. Crowley knows that, of course. So he isn't just a backbiter. He lies by ommission.
And employment insurance does not come free - as Mr. Crowley suggests. We pay for it. That's why it's called insurance.
We also pay for much of Irving's electric bills Now, that does come free for Mr. Irving. I would have looked forward to Mr. Crowley's denunciation of that - but I doubt whether he was the courage or integrity to write it.
The NDP is the party of privilege? Really? Do they get funded by by millions of dollars from big business? Do they get supported by every wealthy newspaper owner in Canada. (including, of course the owners of Postmeida who distribute propagandists like Mr. Crowley to the propaganda newspapers of the rich - like Bunswick Media.)?
Does the NDP give away land and resources to big business? Does it defend the export of a businessman's asbestos aound the world? Does it give sweetheart contracts for friends of the party? Does it continually lower taxes for the only people who can afford to pay them?
Unionized public servants are aristocrats? Do they get millions of dollars a year in pay, and millions more in bonuses? Do they, like good little premiers, get offered seats on the board and in managaement of large, parivate companies after their years of public service?
I am not pleased with the direction in which the NDP has moved on some issues. But it is still well above Mr. Crowley's (and the T&T's and Postmeida's) natural habitat in the gutter.
Monday, July 4, 2011
July 3: High school grad - moving on and out day.
I have relative who was born and schooled in New Brusnwick. As soon as he could, he got out. I now understand his feeling. The people are nice. But they accept unending crap and abuse from their leadership. And they don't seem to care, no matter what it does to them or their families or their province.
"Yessir. You can walk on my face. Is there anything else I can do for you?"
Today's paper comes close to a zero, unless you really haven't had enough photos of Willy and Kate, and haven't gushed enough yet.
The editorials in The Monctron Times and Trnascript are still on bicycle lanes. Really, t he rest of the world moved on decades ago Montreal has bicycle lanes and also cheap rentals at bicyclle racks all over the city. You can rent a bike at one, and leave it at another. Amerstdam has free bikes in racks at ever corner. Just take one, use it, and drop it off at another, convenient corner.
What next for our city councillors and our third rate newspaper editors - a proposal to build million dollar hitching rails for main street?
Days after the decision by France to ban "fracking", there is still no mention of it, even though is still going on in New Brunswick as I write this. Nor is there much discussion of it in the streets. ("please walk on my face, too, Mr rich man.")
The only item worth reading in the whole paper is a column by Alec Bruce on the editorial page. It's about the spineless way we have allowed the government to cheat our children by putting gifts to big business ahead of providing decent schooling.
And forget about this changing in the future. New Brunswick is headed in a different direction. When Mr.; Irving told us in the pages of The Moncton Times (and his other greasy sheets) that he had formed a coalition with the government, this was not just an act of stunning arroganze. (Imagine if you had made such an announcement that you were now a member of the government? So much for exlections and democracy.)
Then he capped it with the announcement he and others would plan the future economy for us. (So forget about the government we elected to do that.) And Mr. Alward, who appears to b both spineless and brainless, accepted that.
Big business has always sucked the blood of this province., and with precious little benefit for the rest of us, not even by paying decent taxes. But now it has gone a step further. I doesn 't just own governments. It doesn't just own governments. Now, it comes right out and says it is government. You like dukes? Get used to being the peasant class for the new dukes.
With the announcements of the coalition and of the economic planning group, democracy in New Brunswick is over. That is not an exaggeration. There's a word for government by a combination of politicians and big business. Check it up in the Oxford English Dictionary. Look under F.
For fascism.
Forget about hanging around in the hope of getting a cut if you're a good faxcist. There's room for only so many hogs and the trough.
Are you a graduate at any level, and looking for a job? Get out of New Brunswick.. Get out as quickly as you can. It's happening all over North America - so I'd stay away from the US, too. But there are parts of Canada where people haven't yet been beatecn down by our new dukes and barons.
Oh, and stay away from Quebec and New England. The Duke has his eye on those, too.
"Yessir. You can walk on my face. Is there anything else I can do for you?"
Today's paper comes close to a zero, unless you really haven't had enough photos of Willy and Kate, and haven't gushed enough yet.
The editorials in The Monctron Times and Trnascript are still on bicycle lanes. Really, t he rest of the world moved on decades ago Montreal has bicycle lanes and also cheap rentals at bicyclle racks all over the city. You can rent a bike at one, and leave it at another. Amerstdam has free bikes in racks at ever corner. Just take one, use it, and drop it off at another, convenient corner.
What next for our city councillors and our third rate newspaper editors - a proposal to build million dollar hitching rails for main street?
Days after the decision by France to ban "fracking", there is still no mention of it, even though is still going on in New Brunswick as I write this. Nor is there much discussion of it in the streets. ("please walk on my face, too, Mr rich man.")
The only item worth reading in the whole paper is a column by Alec Bruce on the editorial page. It's about the spineless way we have allowed the government to cheat our children by putting gifts to big business ahead of providing decent schooling.
And forget about this changing in the future. New Brunswick is headed in a different direction. When Mr.; Irving told us in the pages of The Moncton Times (and his other greasy sheets) that he had formed a coalition with the government, this was not just an act of stunning arroganze. (Imagine if you had made such an announcement that you were now a member of the government? So much for exlections and democracy.)
Then he capped it with the announcement he and others would plan the future economy for us. (So forget about the government we elected to do that.) And Mr. Alward, who appears to b both spineless and brainless, accepted that.
Big business has always sucked the blood of this province., and with precious little benefit for the rest of us, not even by paying decent taxes. But now it has gone a step further. I doesn 't just own governments. It doesn't just own governments. Now, it comes right out and says it is government. You like dukes? Get used to being the peasant class for the new dukes.
With the announcements of the coalition and of the economic planning group, democracy in New Brunswick is over. That is not an exaggeration. There's a word for government by a combination of politicians and big business. Check it up in the Oxford English Dictionary. Look under F.
For fascism.
Forget about hanging around in the hope of getting a cut if you're a good faxcist. There's room for only so many hogs and the trough.
Are you a graduate at any level, and looking for a job? Get out of New Brunswick.. Get out as quickly as you can. It's happening all over North America - so I'd stay away from the US, too. But there are parts of Canada where people haven't yet been beatecn down by our new dukes and barons.
Oh, and stay away from Quebec and New England. The Duke has his eye on those, too.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
July 2: Ooooooh look a the pretty pictures of katie's shoes. I could die. I could just die.
Yesterday, the National Assembly of France banned "fracking". They banned it because it is harmful to the environment and harmful to people. "Fracking" t he breaking of of shale rock to release a natural gas is what has been going on, unregulated and unreported, in New Brunswick for a decade. It's the process that we've learned about only because of public protest.
The government has, after a decade, finally enacted some regulations - and now it tells us to trust it because it's in control.
The T&T. which is still producing its daily, hard-hitting column on bicycle lanes, has barely mentioned fracking - and then only to tell us not to worry about it. (Obviously, fracking is somehing that Bunswick Media's boss wants to happen. There's big money involved. So who gives a damn about the people who live here?)
The T&T did not report the French ban - though it was well known long before press time. What we got, instead, was a close up picture duchess Katie's red shoes, page after page of worshipful poop about the ducal tour (being covered by 1,300 journalists to prove that Canadians are not the only population made up pre-adolescent gushers, and ours are not the only news media that pump out irrelevant drivel.)
The news that our oceans are dying made page A 7. Then it was back to Willy and Kate.
There is, way back on p. D5, a warning that the US is in danger of defaulting on its debt payments, thus causing world-wide economic catastrophe. But that comes after another page about Willy and Kate and, even on its own page, the default story was shoved aside by a wedding photo of Prince Albert (who?) of Monaco.
Yhe op ed page has an excellent article by David Suzuki on the conditions of our oceans. Above it is a column by staff writer Brent Mazerolle who obviously is intellectually and emotionally drained by his epic series on bicycle lanes.
As always, the teen columns were a good read. This time, my attention was caught by a very sensible column by Alex Corbett about the eternal question of the generation gap. He takes the view that it is much exaggerated. Too true. When I began teaching, it was to the peace and love generation. Lots of flowers.
That's the generation that grew up to vote for George Bush, torture, domestic spying, arbitrary imprisonment, world conquest. Their Canadian equivalents, flare pants now in the garbage along with the plastic flowers and love beads, have been voting for Harper - domestic spying, exporting Canadians for torture, and sending Canadians to die for American oil companies.
I remember their favourite saying, "Never trust anybody over thirty." They sure proved the truth of that one.
Oh, for the story on the French vote on "fracking", check the Google news site. (That seems to be too sophisticated a job for the hacks and propagandists at The Moncton Times&Transcript, but any kid can show you how to get it.)
The government has, after a decade, finally enacted some regulations - and now it tells us to trust it because it's in control.
The T&T. which is still producing its daily, hard-hitting column on bicycle lanes, has barely mentioned fracking - and then only to tell us not to worry about it. (Obviously, fracking is somehing that Bunswick Media's boss wants to happen. There's big money involved. So who gives a damn about the people who live here?)
The T&T did not report the French ban - though it was well known long before press time. What we got, instead, was a close up picture duchess Katie's red shoes, page after page of worshipful poop about the ducal tour (being covered by 1,300 journalists to prove that Canadians are not the only population made up pre-adolescent gushers, and ours are not the only news media that pump out irrelevant drivel.)
The news that our oceans are dying made page A 7. Then it was back to Willy and Kate.
There is, way back on p. D5, a warning that the US is in danger of defaulting on its debt payments, thus causing world-wide economic catastrophe. But that comes after another page about Willy and Kate and, even on its own page, the default story was shoved aside by a wedding photo of Prince Albert (who?) of Monaco.
Yhe op ed page has an excellent article by David Suzuki on the conditions of our oceans. Above it is a column by staff writer Brent Mazerolle who obviously is intellectually and emotionally drained by his epic series on bicycle lanes.
As always, the teen columns were a good read. This time, my attention was caught by a very sensible column by Alex Corbett about the eternal question of the generation gap. He takes the view that it is much exaggerated. Too true. When I began teaching, it was to the peace and love generation. Lots of flowers.
That's the generation that grew up to vote for George Bush, torture, domestic spying, arbitrary imprisonment, world conquest. Their Canadian equivalents, flare pants now in the garbage along with the plastic flowers and love beads, have been voting for Harper - domestic spying, exporting Canadians for torture, and sending Canadians to die for American oil companies.
I remember their favourite saying, "Never trust anybody over thirty." They sure proved the truth of that one.
Oh, for the story on the French vote on "fracking", check the Google news site. (That seems to be too sophisticated a job for the hacks and propagandists at The Moncton Times&Transcript, but any kid can show you how to get it.)
Friday, July 1, 2011
July 1: The good news is....
...it won't take you long to read the The Moncton Times and Transcript today. There's not much to read.
On page one, Brent Mazerolle continues his series on all you ever wanted to know about traffic lanes. The only other big news in Section A is that Canada Day will be sunny. WILL be sunny? Don't those ace newshawks know that we are readinig the paper on Canada Day? So shouldn't they say it IS sunny? And haven't some of the swifter minds among the editors realized that if it's sunny, we've probably already noticed it? (In fact, I am reading this at noon; and it's overcast.)
Okay, that takes care of all that's worth reading in Section A. In sports, the hot item is an an ad disguised as an editorial to shill tickets for the CFL game in Moncton. (Hurry, hurry, hurry. Only 2,000 left. plus instruction on how to order one.)
The big news (almost half of the NewsToday section) is that Willian and Kate have arrived. And they're smiling and saying they're delighted to be here. I'm so relieved. I was afraid they would frown, and say this country looks like a dog's breakfast.
And Kate wore a dress designed by a Canadian. (I could barely hold back a tear on that one.)
There was a brief mention of France supplying arms to Libyan "rebels" - an obvious violation of the UN mandate which said the NATO force was not supposed to taked sides. Why are Canadians there? Nobody seems clear on that.
The eidtorial and op ed pages are amusing. Norbert Cunnigham writes a gumpy "To the contrary" column about those who do mindless cheerleading about Canada on Canada Day. But in the editorial and the op ed pages, both of which Norbert is responsible for, are two prime examples of mindless cheerleading.
And both show an ignorance of Canada in babbling about how we welcomed immigrants of all nations, etc. In fact, Canada has a record of exploitation, killing, bigotry, and racism that takes second place to no-one. The Chinese were brought in to build the railways because they were cheaper than Canadians. They were worked close to death, then tossed aside to survive any way they could with cheap laundries and whatever else they could find. Nobody would hire a Chinese for a decent job.
Jews were banned, ghettoized, discriminated against from the 1890s on. We refused to help those who were trying to flee Nazi Germany - even though we knew what was happening to them. We continued that refusal even after the war.(Ever wonder why Israelis don't give a damn about what we thind of them?) We refused Jews, blacks and orientals equal opportunity to enter our unversities into the 1950s.
We put Ukrainian-Canadians into concentration camps in World War One. We did the same to Japanese-Canadians in World War Two, inflicting scars that will never heal. (We also stole all their property and sold it cheap to friends of the government.
We caused so much damage to native peoples that, to this day, they have not recovered.
We killed South Africans to please the British, just as we now kill Libyans and Afghanis
to please the US.
We have delivered up our own citizens for torture, knowing what was going to happen to them.
There is an column on climate change by the International Climate Science Coalition. It seems to be another of those climate change denier outfits sponsored by big business (Like the Simon Fraser Institute and AIMS); though it's hard to tell.
Anyway, it's main point is we should not waste time with cleaning up the air and the seas and the soil. We should help peoplel to adjust to the inevitable change.
Right. They should learn to adjust to having no fish in the sea, and no animal stock or fruit and vegetables on land.
The final sewage is a column from the Fontier Centre for Public Policy(another big business "think tank" on changes we should make in education. Much of it is bafflegab that I doubt whether the writer undestands. Some of it is outright lying.
This is an example of big business soft-sell to reorganize our schools so big business can get a piece of our education budget for it's personal profit. The game is to descredit the public schools, with the cooperation of propaganda sheets like the Times&Transcript, and insert their pseudo-scientific standardized testing, etc. into the schools - playing with our chnildren's minds to satisfy their greed..
Luckily, this column will have liitle effect. The writer is such a bad communicator that he doesn't know how to write for a general audience. Most people (including me) will see this just as the gibberish it is..
On page one, Brent Mazerolle continues his series on all you ever wanted to know about traffic lanes. The only other big news in Section A is that Canada Day will be sunny. WILL be sunny? Don't those ace newshawks know that we are readinig the paper on Canada Day? So shouldn't they say it IS sunny? And haven't some of the swifter minds among the editors realized that if it's sunny, we've probably already noticed it? (In fact, I am reading this at noon; and it's overcast.)
Okay, that takes care of all that's worth reading in Section A. In sports, the hot item is an an ad disguised as an editorial to shill tickets for the CFL game in Moncton. (Hurry, hurry, hurry. Only 2,000 left. plus instruction on how to order one.)
The big news (almost half of the NewsToday section) is that Willian and Kate have arrived. And they're smiling and saying they're delighted to be here. I'm so relieved. I was afraid they would frown, and say this country looks like a dog's breakfast.
And Kate wore a dress designed by a Canadian. (I could barely hold back a tear on that one.)
There was a brief mention of France supplying arms to Libyan "rebels" - an obvious violation of the UN mandate which said the NATO force was not supposed to taked sides. Why are Canadians there? Nobody seems clear on that.
The eidtorial and op ed pages are amusing. Norbert Cunnigham writes a gumpy "To the contrary" column about those who do mindless cheerleading about Canada on Canada Day. But in the editorial and the op ed pages, both of which Norbert is responsible for, are two prime examples of mindless cheerleading.
And both show an ignorance of Canada in babbling about how we welcomed immigrants of all nations, etc. In fact, Canada has a record of exploitation, killing, bigotry, and racism that takes second place to no-one. The Chinese were brought in to build the railways because they were cheaper than Canadians. They were worked close to death, then tossed aside to survive any way they could with cheap laundries and whatever else they could find. Nobody would hire a Chinese for a decent job.
Jews were banned, ghettoized, discriminated against from the 1890s on. We refused to help those who were trying to flee Nazi Germany - even though we knew what was happening to them. We continued that refusal even after the war.(Ever wonder why Israelis don't give a damn about what we thind of them?) We refused Jews, blacks and orientals equal opportunity to enter our unversities into the 1950s.
We put Ukrainian-Canadians into concentration camps in World War One. We did the same to Japanese-Canadians in World War Two, inflicting scars that will never heal. (We also stole all their property and sold it cheap to friends of the government.
We caused so much damage to native peoples that, to this day, they have not recovered.
We killed South Africans to please the British, just as we now kill Libyans and Afghanis
to please the US.
We have delivered up our own citizens for torture, knowing what was going to happen to them.
There is an column on climate change by the International Climate Science Coalition. It seems to be another of those climate change denier outfits sponsored by big business (Like the Simon Fraser Institute and AIMS); though it's hard to tell.
Anyway, it's main point is we should not waste time with cleaning up the air and the seas and the soil. We should help peoplel to adjust to the inevitable change.
Right. They should learn to adjust to having no fish in the sea, and no animal stock or fruit and vegetables on land.
The final sewage is a column from the Fontier Centre for Public Policy(another big business "think tank" on changes we should make in education. Much of it is bafflegab that I doubt whether the writer undestands. Some of it is outright lying.
This is an example of big business soft-sell to reorganize our schools so big business can get a piece of our education budget for it's personal profit. The game is to descredit the public schools, with the cooperation of propaganda sheets like the Times&Transcript, and insert their pseudo-scientific standardized testing, etc. into the schools - playing with our chnildren's minds to satisfy their greed..
Luckily, this column will have liitle effect. The writer is such a bad communicator that he doesn't know how to write for a general audience. Most people (including me) will see this just as the gibberish it is..
Thursday, June 30, 2011
June 30: The Moncton T&T calls minister of environment a liar?
On p. A8, there's stunning report (well, stunning to see it covered in the T&T) which suggests our Minister of Natrual Resources, Bruce Northrup, is not always as truthful as a good boy should be. Isn't he the one who said just a couple of days ago that "protection of the environment in our number one prioty."?
If it is, God help any priorities lower on the list.
The story is that Global Watch Canada says New Brunswick has the second worst record for Canada (PEI beats us) in protction of the forests from industrialization. Gee! Is it possible Mr. Northrup is not being as truthful as he should be?
Another thought. How was it possible the editors of the T&T let that story slip in when their owner is the leading indsustrializer of our forcests?
Meanwhile, the big front page story is about - yes - bicycle lanes again. It's been a week now that Brent Mazerolle has devoted himself to this topic, and he is obviously looking the break the record of Moses in carrying on a sustained effort. Why is this happening for such a parchial interest?
Because it takes people's attention away from the real issues. That's an old game in hack news media.
There's an education story in the NewsToday section. That's usually bad because very, very few people in the news media know anything about education. They wouldn't dream of covering a hockey game without a knowledgable reporter and, preferably, two or three. But anybody can be assigned an education story.
In this case, the story is that Canadians are not learning enough social history or political history about Canada. Hands up, quickly. What is social history? I'm willing to bet the Postmedia News reporter didn't know, either.
As for political history of Canada, the editors at the T&T have already given evidence of their crashing ignorance of the subject. (They thought coalition was illegal when, in fact, it is quite legal. Then, when Mr. Irving announced he had had formed a coalition with the government (which WAS illegal and a very serious threat to democracy), the editors said nothing.
So far, the editors' and the politicians' only suggestion for improving historical knowledge has been to make all students listen to scratchy playing of O Canada until they turn blue.
The source the reporter consults for this story is Jack Jedwab, of Association for Canadian Studies. Happens I know Jack. I taught him Canadian history. He was a good student, and was an excellent marker for me in his MA year. As well, I was several years on the national executive of Association for Canadian Studies.
I can assure you that, much as I respect Jack and the association, they know nothing about education.
Students learn very little from history courses that are based on feeding and memorizing information. That's true from kindergarten to at least the BA - and even beyond that. Anything learned that way is mostly forgotten.
Anyway, parents, business and the news media would never allow the truth to be told about any Canadian history. The history of NB, for example, is largely a history of how those with wealth and connections used their power to exploit those who didn't (and still don't) have power. What do you think would happen if the schools taught that?
The history of most of the news media is a history of corruption, lies and manipulation of public opinion.. How do you think Norbert's moustache would wiggle if they taught that?
People who have power in this country don't want people to know the truth about their history. So they keep on the pressure to ensure we will be told the nice parts like the triumph of building the CPR. They don't bother wasting time on the history of the immigrants who were worked to death at low wages to do it, or the giving of dangerous jobs to Chinese - with a resulting high death rate for them.
And they want social history to be channeled off into "cultural" differences - as though the real difference between people are cultural (and isn't it wonderful we can all live together.) Bullshit. Most people don't have the vaguest idea was culture means. And we tolerate "cultural' difference only when it's not a big deal. The truth is that Canada had (and still has) a record of bigotry, eploitation and racism that most Canadians have never heard of.
The main difference between us is that very large numbers of us are very, very poor. And a tiny number of us are very, very rich, and the very rich run the country. But if you taught that in the schools, even the poor would rise up in protest against it.
On page C-3, we are assured the Royals will enjoy a to-notch meal. I'm so relieved to hear that. I was worried they don't get enouogh vitamins at Buckingham Palace. Too bad we don't care as much about what the poor are eating - if anything.
Really, most of the paper is fluff, and ignorant fluff at that. There's the usual excellent column by Jody Dallaire (Equality Time). On othe same page is the usual mindless trivia tarted up as philosophy (City Views) by one of the staff writers.
PS: contrary to what our minister of Natrual Resrouces and Giveaways says, there have been convicions for shale gas drilling - with a fine and damages. I believe he might check the state of Pennsylvania on this.
Incidently, there has never been a convicion of a Japanese nuclear power plant. Can you imagine a government so irresponsible as to build nuclear power plans in a region noted for severe earthquakes and tsunamis? And I'm sure the Japanese minister of energy assured everyone that it was all under faultless control.
An absence of convictions does no prove innocence. On the contrary, it can indicate power and corruption.
If it is, God help any priorities lower on the list.
The story is that Global Watch Canada says New Brunswick has the second worst record for Canada (PEI beats us) in protction of the forests from industrialization. Gee! Is it possible Mr. Northrup is not being as truthful as he should be?
Another thought. How was it possible the editors of the T&T let that story slip in when their owner is the leading indsustrializer of our forcests?
Meanwhile, the big front page story is about - yes - bicycle lanes again. It's been a week now that Brent Mazerolle has devoted himself to this topic, and he is obviously looking the break the record of Moses in carrying on a sustained effort. Why is this happening for such a parchial interest?
Because it takes people's attention away from the real issues. That's an old game in hack news media.
There's an education story in the NewsToday section. That's usually bad because very, very few people in the news media know anything about education. They wouldn't dream of covering a hockey game without a knowledgable reporter and, preferably, two or three. But anybody can be assigned an education story.
In this case, the story is that Canadians are not learning enough social history or political history about Canada. Hands up, quickly. What is social history? I'm willing to bet the Postmedia News reporter didn't know, either.
As for political history of Canada, the editors at the T&T have already given evidence of their crashing ignorance of the subject. (They thought coalition was illegal when, in fact, it is quite legal. Then, when Mr. Irving announced he had had formed a coalition with the government (which WAS illegal and a very serious threat to democracy), the editors said nothing.
So far, the editors' and the politicians' only suggestion for improving historical knowledge has been to make all students listen to scratchy playing of O Canada until they turn blue.
The source the reporter consults for this story is Jack Jedwab, of Association for Canadian Studies. Happens I know Jack. I taught him Canadian history. He was a good student, and was an excellent marker for me in his MA year. As well, I was several years on the national executive of Association for Canadian Studies.
I can assure you that, much as I respect Jack and the association, they know nothing about education.
Students learn very little from history courses that are based on feeding and memorizing information. That's true from kindergarten to at least the BA - and even beyond that. Anything learned that way is mostly forgotten.
Anyway, parents, business and the news media would never allow the truth to be told about any Canadian history. The history of NB, for example, is largely a history of how those with wealth and connections used their power to exploit those who didn't (and still don't) have power. What do you think would happen if the schools taught that?
The history of most of the news media is a history of corruption, lies and manipulation of public opinion.. How do you think Norbert's moustache would wiggle if they taught that?
People who have power in this country don't want people to know the truth about their history. So they keep on the pressure to ensure we will be told the nice parts like the triumph of building the CPR. They don't bother wasting time on the history of the immigrants who were worked to death at low wages to do it, or the giving of dangerous jobs to Chinese - with a resulting high death rate for them.
And they want social history to be channeled off into "cultural" differences - as though the real difference between people are cultural (and isn't it wonderful we can all live together.) Bullshit. Most people don't have the vaguest idea was culture means. And we tolerate "cultural' difference only when it's not a big deal. The truth is that Canada had (and still has) a record of bigotry, eploitation and racism that most Canadians have never heard of.
The main difference between us is that very large numbers of us are very, very poor. And a tiny number of us are very, very rich, and the very rich run the country. But if you taught that in the schools, even the poor would rise up in protest against it.
On page C-3, we are assured the Royals will enjoy a to-notch meal. I'm so relieved to hear that. I was worried they don't get enouogh vitamins at Buckingham Palace. Too bad we don't care as much about what the poor are eating - if anything.
Really, most of the paper is fluff, and ignorant fluff at that. There's the usual excellent column by Jody Dallaire (Equality Time). On othe same page is the usual mindless trivia tarted up as philosophy (City Views) by one of the staff writers.
PS: contrary to what our minister of Natrual Resrouces and Giveaways says, there have been convicions for shale gas drilling - with a fine and damages. I believe he might check the state of Pennsylvania on this.
Incidently, there has never been a convicion of a Japanese nuclear power plant. Can you imagine a government so irresponsible as to build nuclear power plans in a region noted for severe earthquakes and tsunamis? And I'm sure the Japanese minister of energy assured everyone that it was all under faultless control.
An absence of convictions does no prove innocence. On the contrary, it can indicate power and corruption.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
June29: Wow! Hot off the press!
Front page news "Moetro centre support strong: survey" (pant! pant!)
A new poll (not one of those old polls) shows three-quarters of metro residents want a new rink at a hndred million. Well, that's it. Sure proof we have to borron a hundred mill. No money for schools. But, man, we NEED a hockey ricnk.
Seventy percent. That would be over 110,000 people. Sorta makes y' stop 'n' think. Don't it? If 110,000 ae willing take that kind of a risk in this economy, and if they really think a hockey rink is more important than schools and parks, etc., the Wildcats must be getting at least 90,000 a game. We should go NHL.
Oh, of course, they didn't question all 165,000 or so residents of metro. Just 400. That sort of boosts the marging of error quite a bit. Corporate Reseach Associates places the margin of error at 5%. That's a pretty big margin of error - and it's also subject to more error than that, error of the deliberate sort.
For a start, what is Corporate Reseracch Associates, the outfit that carried out the poll? And who is Don Mills, its boss?
Geegollywhiskers and Jiminy Cricket. Don Mills is a director of the neo-conservative "think tank" (propaganda agency) Atlantic Institute of Market Sudies. AIMS is funded by corporate bosses and the wealthy to help make the richest part of the population even richer.
You want a study showing massive support for a hundred million dollar hockey rink? No problemo. Just frame it the right way ; Are you in favour of Moncton spending a hundred million and going into debt for generations for a new hockey rink?" (Nope. That one won't do. Have to owrk on the wording.)
Then you question 400 people (and just forget about all those who refuse to answer; that makes it much easier to get your three-quarters.) There are other things one can do to skew the figures. But I'm sure Mr. Mills, who makes a living out of serving big business, wouldn't dream of doing anything dishonest.
Curiously, the story does not mention who paid for the survey. Perhaps it was some public-spirited person who prefers to do the faity godmother thing anonymously. And I'm sure it's just acoincidence that the T&T has been a big xupporter of the rink (oops. events centre) from the start.
What a corrupt newspaper!
There isn't much else in the paper. The editorial writer has the exoected tirade against postal workers and the NDP, accusing the latter of hypocrisy. The NDP should take this seriously. When it comes to hypcorisy, eidtorial writers at the T&T know what they're talking about.
On the op ed page, Brian Cormier has one of his dimmer columns - no mean feat. It's another rant - for the fifth day - about the most pressing issue of our time, bicycle lanes. Kidding aside, Brian, is this part of a clever scheme to dumb evertbody down, and keep them all riled up so they don't notice when big business and hack politicians are ripping them off?
He ends with a stunning piece of idiocy, "Building a commnity requires the consensus of all, not just a select few. "
Can you think of a single project in the whole history of New Brunswick (or in the world) that has had the consensus of all? The T&T recently praised a public meeting on spending a hundred million that drew only fifty people. Fifty out of 165,000, How many have attended Mr. Alward's "consultations"?
For that matter, where is the consensus in electing our municipal, provincial and federal governments?
But the punch line actually occurs in the second to last paragraph.
"I suppose none of this matters now. I'm too stupid to know better; right?"
Grammatical error aside, that line is a keeper.
A new poll (not one of those old polls) shows three-quarters of metro residents want a new rink at a hndred million. Well, that's it. Sure proof we have to borron a hundred mill. No money for schools. But, man, we NEED a hockey ricnk.
Seventy percent. That would be over 110,000 people. Sorta makes y' stop 'n' think. Don't it? If 110,000 ae willing take that kind of a risk in this economy, and if they really think a hockey rink is more important than schools and parks, etc., the Wildcats must be getting at least 90,000 a game. We should go NHL.
Oh, of course, they didn't question all 165,000 or so residents of metro. Just 400. That sort of boosts the marging of error quite a bit. Corporate Reseach Associates places the margin of error at 5%. That's a pretty big margin of error - and it's also subject to more error than that, error of the deliberate sort.
For a start, what is Corporate Reseracch Associates, the outfit that carried out the poll? And who is Don Mills, its boss?
Geegollywhiskers and Jiminy Cricket. Don Mills is a director of the neo-conservative "think tank" (propaganda agency) Atlantic Institute of Market Sudies. AIMS is funded by corporate bosses and the wealthy to help make the richest part of the population even richer.
You want a study showing massive support for a hundred million dollar hockey rink? No problemo. Just frame it the right way ; Are you in favour of Moncton spending a hundred million and going into debt for generations for a new hockey rink?" (Nope. That one won't do. Have to owrk on the wording.)
Then you question 400 people (and just forget about all those who refuse to answer; that makes it much easier to get your three-quarters.) There are other things one can do to skew the figures. But I'm sure Mr. Mills, who makes a living out of serving big business, wouldn't dream of doing anything dishonest.
Curiously, the story does not mention who paid for the survey. Perhaps it was some public-spirited person who prefers to do the faity godmother thing anonymously. And I'm sure it's just acoincidence that the T&T has been a big xupporter of the rink (oops. events centre) from the start.
What a corrupt newspaper!
There isn't much else in the paper. The editorial writer has the exoected tirade against postal workers and the NDP, accusing the latter of hypocrisy. The NDP should take this seriously. When it comes to hypcorisy, eidtorial writers at the T&T know what they're talking about.
On the op ed page, Brian Cormier has one of his dimmer columns - no mean feat. It's another rant - for the fifth day - about the most pressing issue of our time, bicycle lanes. Kidding aside, Brian, is this part of a clever scheme to dumb evertbody down, and keep them all riled up so they don't notice when big business and hack politicians are ripping them off?
He ends with a stunning piece of idiocy, "Building a commnity requires the consensus of all, not just a select few. "
Can you think of a single project in the whole history of New Brunswick (or in the world) that has had the consensus of all? The T&T recently praised a public meeting on spending a hundred million that drew only fifty people. Fifty out of 165,000, How many have attended Mr. Alward's "consultations"?
For that matter, where is the consensus in electing our municipal, provincial and federal governments?
But the punch line actually occurs in the second to last paragraph.
"I suppose none of this matters now. I'm too stupid to know better; right?"
Grammatical error aside, that line is a keeper.
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