August 6: Two in one....

There's almost nothing to say about today's TandT because it's so inane. Instead, I'll probably spend more time on yesterday's - which had its own inanity.

In fairness, I checked out the Globe and Mail yesterday. Only the busines section placed it above the usual TandT.

There's really nothing in today's paper except for a quite terrible story on p. 1 about a python that escaped a pet shop, and strangled two, young boys. I wonder at the mentality of people who think keeping such a pet is a good idea.

The editorial beats the drum (again) for contracting highway maintenance to private companies. It will, says the editorial writer, give a hand-up to small operators. I'll bet it will.

You know, the little guys who can barely afford twenty trucks and a few hundred employees. - until, of course, some subsidiaries of big corporations get in on the game. Then watch your costs rise.

Norbert defends the police against charges that they have caused a rise in the crime rate. I haven't heard anyone dumb enough to make such a charge. Then he wanders off into a confused 'analysis' of statistics to suggest that doubling the police force would increase the crime rate. Then he suggests the crime rate is rising because young people are rushing into Moncton. But by that point, he had long lost me.

Alan Cochrane writes about motorcycles; in effect, writing vroom-vroom over and over. This is a good column for those who are easily thrilled.

Damn. I accidentally erased everything after this. Oh, well.....
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Monday's paper was pretty silly, too. Norbert told us we had none of them there arrogant and pretentious folks like Halifax has. No. Fredericton society is famous for its openess and warmth and jes' folks like the Irvings and McCain's, etc.  He also praises our very own Northrop Frye, the best known and least read author ever produced by Moncton. To bad Norbert was confused about the spelling of the famous one's last name. (It has an e at the end, Norbert. He ain't a long and skinny thing that goes with hot dogs.)

I disagree entirely with Steve Malloy's comments on language. But the greater part of his column is good stuff. He's not a pretentious writer - and he is blessed with common sense and insight.
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Then there was a letter to the editor. "N.B.'s finances keep getting worse". The writer suggests our government needs a board of management made up of successful businessmen.

Look-----
Our government already HAS such a board. It always has had.  That's why the finances are getting worse.

The most recent incarnation of such a board was created by Mr. Irving when he (illegally) made himself a member of the government and appointed "advisors" to the minister of finance - who is also an Irving retread. Politicians do not run the economy of this province.l Businessmen do.

The problem is that a government is not a business. It exists to define social needs and fund-raising, both based on models that reflect some form of philosophy and morality. Unfortunately, neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives have any concept of social needs, fund-raising, philosophy and morality.  Nor can business fill the gap.

Business economics are entirely devoted to just one thing - profit - unlimited profit that amounts to unlimited greed with utter indifference to social needs or any morality whatever. Business will happily destroy such a social need as education or medical care whenever it can make money by doing so. It has fought wars, beggarred whole nations, tortured, stolen - whatever it takes to make a profit.

That's why I am appalled that there are clergy who can be hired to preach at the Irving Chapel where we are invited to stroll in the beautiful grounds of flowers that are God's creation..... with a little help  for God with money raised by risking the public safety by cutting corners on railway costs. That's a little something to ponder when next you are sitting in the simple hush of the chapel.

A democratic government is based on parties with some code of morality and some philosophy of the nature of society. That cannot be said of either the Liberal or the Conservative party in this province (or federally). It cannot be said of Alward. It cannot be said of Goguen.

Essentially, there are two political philosophies - liberal and conservative. All others are related to them. The form they take will vary greatly according to the morality which guides them. Our Liberals and Conservatives have neither philosophy nor morality. They are simply labels that only the ignorant can believe in.

The sloppiest form of government is one in which certain groups (like business leaders)  are given power simply because of who they are. That sloppiness is what we have - and it's proper name is fascism.
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This evening at 7 p.m., I'll be meeting with the current events group at Moncton Library. My topic will be the real meanings of liberalism, conservatism, socialism, and fascism.  Everyone is welcome.

I've been working on this current events group for three years. But getting people in this province to turn out for public discussion is tough sledding. I had a such a group in a suburb of Montreal that was smaller than Moncton - and averaged attendance in the hundreds for fifteen years.  But Moncton is not a city that is accustomed to public discussion - so I'm lucky to get three or four. I'm seriously thinking of giving it up - so it would be nice to see some people.

August 3: stop press news...

....NB beer sales dropping.

what other newspaper in the world would run drivel like that as a big, front-page story?

In fact, there's only one story in all of section A worth reading - and that's worth it only because it's such a fine example of propaganda presented as news.

A U.S. State department official at the sentencing hearing of private Bradley Manning testified that his Wikileaks revelations harmed U.S. efforts to bring human rights to the world as people in some countries became afraid to deal with US officials to get help with human rights.

Sure, all over the world, people are turning to the US to help them get human rights. Come off it. In fact, the US is today the single most important nation in the crushing of human rights all over the world. The TandT story refers to the people "seeking rights" as "activists". Actually, the correct word would be spies. Choice of words is important.

There's nothing in NewsToday unless you really, really love to look at a whole page of people grinning inanely and holding up giant cheques. 

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Bill Beliveau offers a mediocre high school essay on why we should preserve the Senate. He's probably right that Harper cannot, on his own, change the Senate or abolish it. But he's dead wrong in thinking it can be reformed.

There is no point to electing a Senate when we already have an elected body in the House of Commons. Forget this rubbish about it representing "regions". Elected bodies represent people, not regions or mountains or lakes. And if it is appointed, we will get the same clowns we've been getting for almost a hundred and fifty years.

The Senate gives sober second thought to legislation? That's a crock. Most of them are deadheads who rarely have a sober first thought, let alone a second one. They are also, for the most part, ignorant political hacks. (I have known some honest and intelligent senators. But they were damn few.)

I have also appeared before a few Senate committees, notably the one on the film "The Valour and the Horror". This was a highly political (Conservative) committee designed to do a hatchet job on the film - which was about World War Two. They fawned all over witnesses who criticized the film, and squashed anyone who defended it.

I got off lightly because, though I defended the film, I spent most of my time pointing out that the senators on the committee seemed almost entirely ignorant of the history of the war, and quite ignorant of even simple elements of military practice. They didn't know, for example, that most bombing in World War Two was wildly inaccurate. They didn't know that most Canadian troops sent to Hong Kong were hopelessly unready and poorly equipped for combat. They were really a rare collection of 

bozos to be telling Canadians what films they should allowed to see about the war.

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Norbert's column suggests he really needs to lie down and rest in a quiet place. His faithful readers, of whom I am one, will remember that yesterday he said it was obvious that the Toronto police were completely right in shooting a knife-wielding man what was alone in a stopped trolley car. People who disagreed with him were "nervous nellies", chronic doubters, and even - ugh - that dreadfully unprofessional CBC.

Today, again referring to that Toronto case, he says unethical media and individuals jump to conclusions without adequate evidence. Again, there's lots of name calling - pandering, sleazy tabloids, activist driven fears about shale gas which overlook facts, news outlets which allow anti-social media who pander to the ignorant.....

Norbert. Yesterday, with no evidence, you jumped to the conclusion that the Toronto police were right to shoot. Today, on that same case, you say the available facts are few. Norbert, if you don't know the facts, how the hell could you jump to that conclusion? Doesn't that make you a "nervous nellie"? And you pour contempt on all those who want fuller information.

Of course, somenpeople who jump to the conclusion that the police were wrong are ignoring facts and working on prejudice. And of course such people can be wrong and sleazy, ignorant and prejudiced..

And so, obviously, can you, Norbert. By your own admission, you were wrong, sleazy, ignorant and prejudiced in your column of yesterday.  Almost all of your columns are just one ignorant and bigoted rant after another.

There are certainly questions I would like to know answers to. Nine shots were fired. That's a lot of shots. Now, think hard, Norbert. If all nine were fired by police, it suggests the target was not up close to an officer and threatening him. It also suggests a lot of misses (unless they were pumping slugs into a corpse.) It's lucky a bystander wasn't killed.

Your headline is right, though. "Some news media are tossing away their credibility".

Brent Mazerolle breaks away from his usual "What I did last summer" story to write on the same police shooting. He does a much better job of it than Norbert did.  

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Solid column by Gwynne Dyer. It's about the army takeover in Egypt - and one should pay special attention to a point he mentions only briefly - "that permanent collusion between well-fed Egyptian soldiers and the foreign military and commercial interests who feed them".

We are encouraged to believe that most wars are caused by religion or politics. In fact, most wars are caused by capitalism that has run so far out of control that it has reversed roles and taken over the powers of government. That's what Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia have really been all about.

Indeed, almost all western wars of recent centuries have been fought for that reason.  

That's what the War of 1812 was about - though you would never guess if from our official "celebrations". Our news media kid us that they are for democracy when, in fact, our specialty is more often in destroying democracies - as we did in Iran and Guatemala.  An out of control capitalism feeds on poverty, dependence, dictatorship - and muscle in the form of troops. We westerners - including leading Canadian companies - have been responsible for millions of deaths in places like Congo.

As we watch China is its switch to capitalism, the potential for war is something to worry about. For thousands of years, China was probably the least aggressive country in the world. The only wars were against potential invaders.

That pattern of leadership was smashed when western capitalists used military force to open China to their trade. That experience forced China into more than a century of social and political chaos marked by forced addiction to opium, starvation, disease, looting by western business, and internal fighting.

The question now is whether China can control its capitalist leaders. Or will it go the way the west has gone, to hand over real political and military power to the capitalists?  (oops. sorry. I should say "entrepreneurs". It's such a nicer word.)

If China becomes like us, we're in real trouble.

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Oh, speaking of China - loved the Whatever section with its big story on NB students in China, and lots of good, thoughtful student columns, including one on the China trip. How I envy them. I lived and worked in China for a time. Loved it.

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And a final thought. When will our tough as nails reporters ask the big questions about Lac Megantic?

Why were the railway regulations changed a year ago? Who did it? At whose request?

This wasn't just a minor accident. Almost fifty are dead. Doesn't anybody give a damn?

Obviously not.

August 2: Wow! 12 billion dollars just for jobs in NB

That's certainly the impression given by the headline on p. 1. "$12B pipeline is 'a game changer' "
The same tone is picked up in the story (several stories, actually) and the editorial and Alec Bruce's column. Yes. Those who left will come streaming back. NB's economic problems are solved. We're all going to be rich.

Right.  All that money will go to create jobs, and all of those jobs will be in NB. Right.

At the same time, we are hastening and worsening the catastrophe of climate change. But the important thing is that Irving stocks should do well for the coming months.  And the climate change won't bother the stockholders. They can guarantee that through special prayers at the Irving Chapel.

Directly below the story is a photograph of a leading oil executive.
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In related news (p, A4), Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians will be at the Capitol Theatre on Tuesday at 7 p.m. on Tuesday to say why we should oppose shale gas. It'll be nice to hear from somebody who hasn't been bought.

NewsToday and Your Business have more wow! Wow! Wow! stories on the pipeline. One of them says that the Liberals and the NDP and the People's Alliance all clapped hands for the project. I expected the Liberals to do so. They approve of whatever they're told to approve of.

The NDP is a disappointment - and not for the first time over the last dozen years or so. The Green Party opposes it. Trouble is the Green Party has too narrow a policy base to ever form a government or even an effective opposition.

A reader, responding to yesterday's blog, said that we have only two choices facing us. We will either develop a more progressive political system, or we will develop a fascist one. Not true - because we already have a fascist one. Mr. Irving made that very clear when he announced himself as a member of the government, and when he and his friends appointed committees to "advise" government departments and city council.
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The search for bodies has ended in Lac-Megantic. Now, can we begin the search for responsibility?  Who changed the regulations last year? There are strong indications that one of those changes is what caused the disaster. So who did it? For what reason? Who asked for it?

Give a call to your man in Ottawa, the man who speaks for the people and who serves them. Give a call to Robert Goguen. And good luck.

All those people are dead. Did they all die to save a buck? Of course, they did. The only question is who made this possible....

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There is no mention of serious and growing riots throughout Turkey in opposition to the government for its Alward-like habit of kissing corporate rear ends. Turks are also opposed to its attempts to establish strict Islamic law. Interestingly enough, the US supports the extreme Islamist government in this quarrel. But that's a long story involving the whole hoax of the 'war against terrorism and extreme Islam'.
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The editorial is the usual corrupt pitch to contract road maintenance to private business because it would be cheaper. It provides not the slightest evidence that it would. And the editorial writer would be an even bigger fool if he tried to prove it.  Government contracts to private business are notorious sources of corruption and overspending. That's one of the things President Eisenhower warned about in his final speech as president.

Norbert talks about something he knows nothing about - proving his opponents wrong in his usual way  by calling them names.  A young man had been threatening people with his knife in a Toronto  streetcar. It stopped, and everyone got off. The police came to deal with this man in a stopped and otherwise empty streetcar. When he refused to drop his knife, they shot him.

Were the police right to do so? I have no idea. Neither does Norbert. If he attacked the police, they were certainly right to shoot. If he just stood there and refused, they weren't right. But there seems to be no evidence on this one way or the other.

But, oh, Norbert knows all about it. And those protesting the shooting are "spouting nonsense" based on "bias and pure speculation". Speaking of nonsense, bias and pure speculation, I 'd be willing to bet that Norbert doesn't have even the faintest idea of who those people are or what reasons they gave.

He concludes with a quotation from Martin Luther King which has no clear relation to his column and which, I suspect, Reverend King would find offensive.
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We'll skip lightly over Alec Bruce.
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Michael Sullivan has a quite reasonable column about how and why Alward's Conservatives are in real trouble.  Mr. Sullivan's problem is that he still thinks there is a difference between Liberals and Conservatives. Even more bizarre, he thinks Liberals are on left, and Conservatives on the right.

Look. The terms left and right were coined to describe which side of the speaker members sat on in the National Assembly that followed the overthrow of monarchy in France. They have nothing to do with political philosophy.

As well, neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives have anything that could be called a political philosophy. Provincially and federally, both parties exist solely to serve big business, and to create career openings for smoothies like Frank McKenna who get a chance to show big business how useful they can be.

This column really decided me. My next talk at the Moncton Library (the first Tuesday of August at 7 pm) will be on the correct meanings of Conservative and Liberal. I invite Mr. Sullivan to attend.

(Oh, yeah. The word 'tory' has pretty much gone out of use except for older members in some of the more exclusive men's clubs in London.)
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David Suzuki is, as always, pretty solid.  And he's the only one in this paper who would never clap hands with joy over the pipeline.
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Watch out for a subtle note that you'll find in the papers - that we have to cut social spending because
1. Our debt is becoming too big.
2. It encourages people to avoid work.
3. We have to practice restraint in spending because of the recession.

This is a serious propaganda campaign being spread over the western world, a campaign financed by big business. In contradiction of it........
1. A debt can become too big by spending. But it can also become too big by letting big money pay absurdly low taxes - and by spending money on gifts to big business.
2. Countries like Sweden which have extensive social programmes do NOT suffer from large numbers who stay home and loaf. Nor has cutting social programmes, as in the US and much of western Europe, had the slightest effect on increasing employment. Most people on social programmes are on them because they need them, not because they suddenly became lazy.
3. Practicing restraint will not end a recession. It has not done so in Spain or Greece or France. It did not do so in the 1930s. Quite the contrary, cutting social programmes makes a recession (or depression) worse. In Canada, the prime minister who was the first one to understand that was R.B. Bennett in 1935. He is the real starting point for Canada's social programmes.

And, for the benefit of Michael Sullivan, R.B. Bennett was a Conservative. And if you use the word conservative correctly, it is natural that a Conservative should be the one to introduce social programmes.

And why would big business be so eager to crush social programmes? For the same reason it created this recession. It's a mix of greed and stupidity. As a result of the recession, big business has made massive profits, shifting an ever-greater share of the world's wealth into the hands of a very few people.

But there is still some left to get. Cutting social programmes would create money that could be funnelled to the very rich. We are watching an income gap growing at a rate never before seen in modern history. It would also, with the destruction of unions, force incomes down to third world levels. So far, it's working as average salaries in North American have been in decline for years.

What will the result be? Massive poverty and suffering. Crime. Violence. More of the wars we have been waging since 1945, many more of them, wars of the rich against the poor, wars for even bigger profits....a strong possibility of widespread fascism.

The alternative? We remind the rich that even they are just equal - not superior -, to elect government that honour that principle, governments which will force the very rich to live under the law just as the rest of us do.

And we don't want their crap newspapers feeding us ignorance and propaganda.
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August 1: Norbert criticizes the CBC...

but loses it.

It's funny, really. Norbert has a magnificent vocabulary that is an echo of nineteenth century rural life. CBC editors, he suggests are "nervous nellies" and "sourpusses".  Boy. And they talk about Shakespeare.

The CBC, it seems, is also superficial, with minimal research. He even compares it to tabloids. You know, the ones with headlines  like "Harry shocked to learn that Prince George is not his child." Of the tabloids and, presumably,the CBC, he concludes, "The tabloids operate in an amoral parallel universe where the bottom line is selling newspapers."

Oh, Norbert. You're speaking of privately owned papers - like the one you sold yourself to. The CBC is publicly owned, and far the best news service in Canada.

As well, your paper goes lower than "amoral tabloids". Not only does it exist to sell newspapers but to go a step lower down to amoral to immoral with its lying propaganda.
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It's hard to know whether the editorial writer is in on a government fix - or is just dumb. His column is about a new committee being formed to check railway regulations. That's a great way to take attention away from the real issue.

There has been an agency to check railway regulations. It has existed for over a century. The Lac Megantic disaster was not caused by a lack of committees to regulate railways. It was caused because somebody or some committee changed the regulations last year. That's why almost fifty people are dead.

Who was that somebody? Who was the responsible person? Why were the regulations changed? Who requested a change? Is there any connection to any railway company or user of one? Those are the questions an editorial writer and the whole Canadian media should be asking. Is it a coincidence that the regulations were changed just as a desire developed to transport large quantities of oil?

Another committee won't do a damn thing to answer any of those questions. Harper could assign a clerk to answer these question in two minutes. But he won't. He'll set up a new committee - clap, clap.
And we still won't know why all those people died. And the new committee is being created to make sure we don't ask. Who are you covering for, Harper?

Oh, as an aside. The writer also says Moncton lines have an excellent record. It also says several people have been killed in train accidents in Moncton. Well, you can't have it both ways. You can't have a record of several people killed - and say the record is excellent - not unless you are an executioner.
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Then there's Rod Allen's 'opinion' column. 'Bring back the Wikiwalk; bring it back, woo!' Well, that's fair warning. If you read this crap you have only yourself to blame.

Excellent columns by Beth Lyons and Alec Bruce. In the case of Bruce, he offers a well-reasoned column on why Justin Trudeau has picked up the pot issue. I don't say that to defend or support Trudeau in any way. And Bruce doesn't put it that way, either. This column is neither for nor against Trudeau. It is simply an intelligent and impartial explanation of why he has picked this issue.
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The Sports section is still a cheap, lazy and sloppy few pages for people whose lips move when they read. This time is has a sort of sports column - on fishing. But if fishing is a sport, then chess is a sport and, in comparison, a violent sport with heavy body contact.
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In Your Business, Adam Huras has an article on how a new shale gas video praises a "research" panel. Have you no shame, Adam?

The video was put together by the same people who put together the "research" institute. Of course, it praises the "research" panel.

Huras also mentions research and researchers frequently, giving one the feeling, along with the word "institute" that this is really an impartial, scientific body devoted to carrying on research. And that is loaded writing, and loaded writing is dishonest. This is no more a research institute than is Atlantic Institute of Market Studies or the Fraser Institute. This is a collection of scientists who are flexible in their views, put together to serve the interests of the very, very rich.

I didn't see the name of Dr. Cleary on the list of this "research institute". Nor do I see any medical doctor. Gee, I should think that a good reporter would have the brains and integrity to ask about that.

As for those who are named to this "research institute", I would suggest that universities clean up their act, and establish some code of ethics for their intellectual prostitutes. Of course, that's not going to happen. After all, our university presidents were all among those who dutifully trotted out a few years ago when Irving invited them to be on his highly improper committee to plan the economic future of New Brunswick.

Not surprisingly, Huras also mentions the "pioneering" work of Frank McKenna. Yep. Good ol' Frank. That's how he's made his money. He's a "fixer" for the very, very rich. Don't expect him to be the kind of guy who lies beside you in bed with his hands above the blankets.
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Private Bradley Manning will soon learn his sentence for telling the truth about the American government. It had lied to the American people about its reasons for going to war and killing over a million people. It had lied (or covered up for very serious war crimes). Now, he's going to die.

Oh, that won't be the sentence. That will be the effect in the new, US police state. He has already been held three years in solitary, forced to sleep on the stone, cell floor with no blankets, and wakened every half hour. Whatever time they give him, he'll go back under those conditions. And he'll die.

Now, they just have to murder Edward Snowden for telling the truth. Move over, Mao and Stalin.
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There's really no news in NewsToday. So here's a story they could have used  - but never will. Did you know that Canada has at least four units of special ops - troops trained for special missions, raids, assassinations? Did you know that they are closely tied to US special ops, the ones that Obama sends at random into any country at all to kill or destroy?

Okay. Do you also know that we have no right to decide on or even hear about their actions? The only people who do that are the prime minister, the minister of defence, and those in special ops.  Parliament is completely in the dark.

In short, Harper has the power to send troops into combat in any foreign country. That's an act of war. In other words, Harper can commit us to a war without consulting parliament.

He wouldn't do that? He already has. So, for that matter, did at least two of his predecessors. Canada, through its special ops, was in combat in Afghanistan from the start. It still is.

It can also be useful for, say, Canadian mining execs who have a world reputation for brutality and destruction.  Their behaviour commonly raises local opposition. How nice that they can just drop a word to Harper - and we'll secretly send in some thugs to terrorize those trouble-makers. US special ops does that. It's a safe bet that ours do, too.

If these are heroes, then so are mafia hit men.

Above all, we have a constitutional right to decide through parliament when and where we will go to war. You may well  hear that on Nov. 11. They gave their lives to maintain our rights and freedoms. In particular, (read your history), those who died in World War I died to win us the right to decide for or against war.

That right has gone. So - where is the column by the editorial writer? Where is the indignation from Norbert? A lot of other rights have gone, too, like freedom from arbitrary invasion of our privacy. The US is a police state as vicious as any in history. We, especially under Harper, are rapidly moving in the same direction.

But maybe good ol' Frank McKenna can help to set up a province wide discussion so we can find - you know - common ground.
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And, surprise, surprise, our pipeline will be built. Too bad that so many people in Lac Megantic died too soon to hear the good news.

So, let's see. What does this mean? With most of the scientific world warning us that we are close to tragic effects resulting from burning fossil fuels, we are going to encourage the heavy consumption of the world's dirtiest oil for decades to come.

Meanwhile, I see no great activity at any level to deal with the tragedy this will lead to.

Anyone who can still vote either Liberal or Conservative is either a fool or, like our corporation bosses, too greedy and stupid to see the end of this road.

July 31:Now, it gets dirty...

A communications specialist, so-called, is commonly a spin doctor - a person who lies for whoever will pay for it. There's a beautiful example of it on p, 1 of today's TandT.  "Shale gas foes claim victory" That wasn't written by one of the TandT's hack editors.

Think of it. When was the last time you saw a story anywhere in the TandT (let alone on page 1), that had to do with the anti-shale gas movement?  And when was the last time you saw the TandT publish a story about the anti-shale gas movement as though it were doing well?

Nope. The fix is in. The shale gas people are trying a new angle  to divide the voters, to appear reasonable by offering protection in areas that don't really matter while ignoring those that do.

The real meaning of that headline, the one it was designed to evoke, is that the shale gas people are reasonable, and we can surely all discuss this. Yeah. And the subtext is that them there protesters is the unreasonable ones. That will unite the shale gas lovers with the wobbly middle ground, and isolate the protestors. That's why "communications specialists" can make big bucks. It also means, not surprisingly, that the TandT has still never heard of journalistic ethics, and has made itself a partner in the con game.

This is all part of the new approach coming from all those reasonable people at Irving Oil, and other companies we have learned to love and trust.

That headline says the shale gas protestors have won - and that means we should all have a reasonable talk and find common ground.  You want to sicken and kill people. We say no. Okay is the answer, you have won. Now, let's discuss to find common ground. What if we kill only five percent?

On p. C3, we find Frank McKenna, everybody's friend, pimping for an oil pipeline to benefit much the same people as shale gas would. Frank has made himself a wealthy man by appearing to be a friend to us common folks. Not sure where all that money came from. But I don't think it was from us common folks.

Of course, the shale gas supporters will continue to ignore the advice of Dr. Cleary and the entire medical profession. That was pretty clear advice. The risk of serious damage to human health and life is very, very high. This is the major area in which we have expert opinion. And it is an area they have avoided discussing. They will also continue to ignore the problem of what to do with waste water that is toxic.

Expect to see a rash of letters to the editor from experts who once read a book saying shale gas is good for you.

And always remember - international corporations don't give a damn what risk they put you to. They've shown that in third world countries where millions suffer and die from their working conditions and from environmental destruction. They showed it in Canada for years with extremely dangerous working conditions for factory workers in this country. And it was unions that put the pressure on them to clean up their act, and install safety equipment.

It doesn't happen any more? No? What to you think happened at Lac Megantic? Irving oil had to know that it was taking a risk with human lives when it contracted with a railway company that had a bad record of safety, and would be sending a train of oil cars driven by just one man, and left untended every night.

Irving Oil company didn't break the law. But that's because somebody changed the law just last year. Irving Oil didn't break the law. But it knew the risk it was taking. And almost fifty people paid the price of its greed - and the company doesn't give a damn. It doesn't give a damn about our lives, either.

By way, when is the TandT going to ask the big question. Who changed the regulations a year ago to permit the use of just one engineer for a train? And who asked for the change?

Meanwhile, if you want to kill me, my answer is no. Don't waste your time making videos so we can discuss it and find common ground. There is no common ground. To insist there is is just stupid.
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Speaking of stupid, check out the editorial. Most of it is reasonable enough comment on the rise in the Moncton crime rate. But, about the middle, the writer notes that Moncton is enjoying better economic times than most cities and, therefore, "This could likely result in criminals coming here looking for a place to practice their art."

Yeah, I can it all now - a street scene in Toronto...
"Harry, what are you going to do now that you've quit high school? Just hang out?"

"Hell, no. I got ambition. I'm going to Moncton to train to be a criminal."

Maybe we could make it a community college programme.
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Norbert, not unreasonably, thinks something should be done about the Senate.  True enough. But it's obvious in reading his piece that he has no knowledge of the problems in the areas he mentions. For example, an elected Senate would be a very bad idea, indeed.

First it would seriously weaken the House of Commons. After all, if it's elected, it has to have power - and there's only one place for that power to come from. Secondly, It would create three groups struggling for power over each other - the house of commons, the senate, and the provincial premiers. And that could very very divisive, indeed, for the whole country.  Thirdly. we have a system in which, unlike the US, the head of state has, or seems to have, no real power. The greatest power level we have is that of prime minister. But the pm is not elected to that position. He gets it only as a result of having support in the house of commons. It's not at all clear what role the senate could play in that - or whether it should. What if we have a situation in which the pm has support in the house of commons, but not in the Senate? Well, I can guess what would happen. Chaos.
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I regret to see that Alec Bruce has bought into the "let's have a reasonable discussion" camp on shale gas. I can neither agree with or trust a word that he wrote in today's column. This looks very much like 'spin-doctoring'.

The op ed page has the usual, pointless stories by Eric Lewis and Brian Cormier - two lovely people with nothing to say, and too much in love to say goodnight.
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The move is done. But I still have no idea when I shall have a computer. Bell-Aliant seems to be very relaxed in its approach to business. I have been give some reason, but no certainty, that I might be able to have something in place in only a week or so.


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July 30: Life is.....

...I'm sorry. But there is a time when a man, a real man, must use coarse or foul language.
I  have been moving since Saturday. Everything hurts. I'm tired. I feel every day of my age - and there are a lot of days in it. I'm using a borrowed computer because I probably won't have one operating for a week. Tomorrow, I go back to the old place for the last part of the move. Then I have to deal with the mass of garbage bags and boxes in my new place.

I'm sorry. But I have to say it. Ladies, (with the exception of those on St.. George St. under police surveillance) should avert their eyes before the next sentence.

Moving is heck.
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Looking quickly through the Monday and Tuesday papers, and not looking for topics, I was struck by something I had not paid attention to before. The Irving Press is really run on the cheap - and for maximum profit with minimum spending (or news).

The proportion of ads in the average issue is a little high. But with the frequent inserts it's extremely high. The revenues for the Irving press must be very, very high. But, oh, it's cheap in news coverage and staffing.

Most of the 'news' items seem to be purchased from news  wholesalers like The Canadian Press. Lots of papers do that. But they have editors who know which stories are important. The Irving press does not. Its editors seem to be so lazy or so ignorant of the business that they just choose whatever is on sale for the day.

The press also saves money on opinion columnists. Most other newspapers have opinion columnists who do nothing else. Writing an opinion on most papers is a full time job. That way you develop people   who can write columns with some insight and authority. But the Irving press uses columnists who are either staff people who also have other jobs to do - and a few part-timers.

The problem with this shows up chiefly with the staff writers. They really don't seem to know enough to have any opinion worth discussing. That's why a section of the paper that should be stimulating is full of cutesie stories about riding a motorcycle or a childhood pet dog. And so you get opinion columns by people who really don't have any opinion about anything - with the occasional ranter like Norbert who pronounces on matters he clearly knows nothing about or, on a good day, about something interesting (but irrelevant) he just read.

It was the sports section that really brought this to my attention. I had never before seen a sports section with no sports columnist. Nor does there seem to be any specialist in sports reporting. The result is a sports section that reads like the rest of the paper - stories bought cheaply off the wire with no evident sense of what is important in the field, a few,usually trivial, local stories...and no analysis.

So what we get is a paper designed to be cheap to operate (and therefore highly profitable) - and full of pro-Irving propaganda. That's certainly a businessman's idea of a newspaper - but it is certainly not any journalist's idea of one.

It's also not a very bright idea. Since Irving owns all the papers in the province, he could hire a few, really good opinion columnists, and use them for all the papers.  (Of course, there are many good journalists who would rather share dinner from the cat's dish than work of Irving press.)

As a consolation prize. here's a question for serious, sports fans. Maurice Richard of the Montreal Canadiens was known as "the rocket".  His younger brother, Henri, became the "pocket rocket".
But there was a third brother who played defence.  He, too, played for the Canadiens - but only for a short time. However, I once saw all three on the ice at the same time.

What was the nickname for the youngest brother?  I'll bet nobody at the TandT knows.
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Once, a man dropped to his knees, and begged the love of his life to marry him.

She sneered. "I wouldn't marry you if you were the last insect on earth. You're vulgar, selfish, rude and disgusting."

He jumped to his feet, and placed a hand on her shoulder. She hit him with a left, the solid product of years of martial arts training.

"Ah, shrink not from me," he said. "Let us seek common ground. I'll prepare videos to show you. We'll tour the province for public discussion of our differences. I'm sure we can find common ground, somewhere."

The full story - so -called - is to be found on p. A2 "Common ground sought on shale gas."  It's really a free plug for a scheme hatched by - guess who - Irving, SWN and other bottom feeders.

The reality that there is no common ground. Either you develop shale gas or you don't. There is no compromise between right and wrong.

The major players appear to be the usual hangers-on - like Professor Savoie - who knows more about medicine than doctors do. Indeed, a name prominently missing is NB's chief medical officer, Dr. Cleary.  In fact, there is not a single medical doctor listed. Obviously, there must not be a competent doctor in the whole of NB. But who needs a medical doctor when you have sages like Professor Savoie  who are qualified experts on all topics. Indeed, I wouldn't be surprised if a Norbert Cunningham, feeling the pains of appendicitis, should immediately call Professor Savoie to come over right away, and bring his pen knife.

This is obvious manipulation with the TandT a willing accomplice. It will continue to lie, to give heavy publicity to this campaign, and to ignore those who oppose shale gas. We pay, every day, for a newspaper whose major function is to lie to us so that we accept the interventions of people who want to make money out of us - and who don't give a damn what it does to us.

I have never seen a newspaper before with such a combination of lies, ignorance, journalistic incompetence, and indifference to the interests of its readership.

As a footnote, we have a  government in Fredericton and one in Ottawa which are ignoring the warnings of a vast majority of scientists all over the world. We face a crisis in climate change. It is too late to stop it; but we can limit its damage and prepare for it. But relying on fuel sources like shale gas will soon make it too late to limit the damage.

We cannot go on using fossil fuels. Cannot. Not should not. Not maybe a little bit. Not common ground.  Cannot. Cannot. Cannot. It isn't a matter for debate. There is no compromise of common ground. We cannot.

But neither Fredericton nor Ottawa has shown the slightest interest. Indeed, Harper has virtually  destroyed all environmental protection and research. The energy interests are sitting on trillions of dollars worth of fossil fuels. They have to sell that before the the danger becomes so obvious, they have to stop selling it. They are rich. And they are greedy. And their greed makes them stupid.

If we don't stop them, our children will suffer terribly. Indeed, it is happening fast enough that many of us will suffer. Some already have.

Cannot. Like greedy and demanding children, there are people who do not understand 'cannot'.

There is no common ground. There is no compromise.

Lord, what a stinkingly corrupt, lying, manipulating, and intellectually vapid press we have in this province.
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July 27: The ultimate in non-news....

When the front page carries a big story that the CEO of Walmart is all excited about developing sales in Moncton, you know this is going to be a slow day. But that's what it says. The CEO has stores in  New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Boston....But Moncton,wow! This is where the action is.

What follows is a long story that's really an ad for Walmart; and a pretty simple-minded one at that. In the five minutes it took to go through the whole paper, I saw only three items of even casual interest. Even Gwynne Dyer's column was of no great import.

The only letter to the editor that caught my attention is "Report the news, don't create it". This is a bizarre one. It charges the TandT with over-reporting demonstrations by protesters.  Protesters are described as people who are against everything, have a negative approach to the development of the province,, and who get "extravagant coverage" by the paper.

Extravagant coverage? The writer mentions only one story about the protesters. That is "extravagant"? In fact, the TandT has suppressed almost all information about the protestors, from Dr. Leary all the way to the weeks long confrontation with SWN.

But it's a useful reminder that there are people who think like that. They just don't like protestors. That's it. Case closed.
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In yesterday's comments received from readers, there is one about Irving Oil being connected with the Lac-Megantic disaster. Being in the midst of moving, I didn't read the account it mentioned until this morning. I would be cautious about it.

There is obviously an Irving connection. But this article by Presscore goes much too far with the evidence it has. Heavy prejudice is evident throughout the article - and others that appear in Presscore. The choice of words is dreadfully loaded. It reads like a column written by Norbert's evil twin brother.

The thrust of the article is that Irving Oil deliberately organized the whole disaster in order to get a pipeline approved as a safer alternative to rail transportation.

I can certainly see a case that Irving OIl was acting without taking adequate measures to assure public safety - perhaps even deliberately taking risks to cut costs.  But deliberately creating a disaster? The evidence presented for that is not well supported.
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There is, in fairness, an important story on p. D3. It's about a climatologist who reports that the melting of Arctic ice means we can expect more incidents of severe weather such as tornadoes. Indeed, he says, it is already happening. And the melting of the arctic ice is the result of climate change - which has some connection with using fossil fuels to create energy.

Well, it should be an important story. But it isn't.Harper has made it quite clear he has no intention of taking any action to slow down climate change. Indeed, he is the world leader in promising to do nothing. Nor will any American president do anything but talk.

That is because our lords of energy are getting very, very rich out of fossil fuels. They have no interest in cutting the flow of conventional oil or of shale gas or of coal. That's why they give millions to "think tanks" to play down the dangers of climate change.
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The editorial is about the money-making potential of the Petitcodiac river. Money-making - that's the major theme that seems to run through all the activities of all governments at every level of this province. But making money is surely not what government is all about.

Government is about identifying and serving the needs of people. Yes, money is one of those needs. But it's not the only one except, it seems, in New Brunswick.

A political party should start by identifying needs. Then it projects costs. Then it determines how to get the money. But it isn't done that way here.

When our provincial government re-organized health services, it did NOT begin with needs. It began with a determination to cut costs. In fact, it announced the proposed cuts BEFORE it even had the report on what the needs were.

Here, the emphasis is on cutting needs to save money, then lavishing money on projects that will be of benefit largely to private business (the events centre, the moving of Moncton High which seems to have been done more to satisfy a developer than to satisfy any need of education, the constant appearance of private business groups moving in on government as though it were their right to do so - such as Irving declaring himself a member of the government, and appointing his hacks to be advisors to the minister of finance,his calling of a group of his invitees to a massive conference to plan the economic future of New Brunswick in a few days,  the creation of a businessmen's committee to advise the Moncton government on an events centre.

A feature of all these meetings is cuts in what people need - but never a look at our tremendous losses due to low, low taxes for the very rich, and welfare programmes for big business.

Government in New Brusnwick is, indeed, run like a business. The trouble is that a governments is not a business. Business has only one object - to make money. If it kills a million people to do that, as in Iraq, it's okay. If it kills many, many millions as in Congo, Guatemala...so be it. Private business doesn't give a damn about health or education - unless there's a profit in it. It doesn't care about the future - at least any future beyond the next quarterly report and the bonusses that can go with it.

Government exists to meet the needs of people. We didn't get public schools from big business. We didn't get medicare from big business. We didn't get railway regulatins from big business. And we certainly don't get much in the way of taxes from big business.

When you put government and big business together - as we have in this province - you get fascism.

New Brunswickers have produced a great deal of wealth. The problem under this fascist form of government is that very little of that wealth stays here - or ever gets anywhere close to the people of this province.
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Bill Beliveau writes on the decline of Detroit, comparing it with the situation in New Brunswick. Not only is his analysis of Detroit's fall simplistic, but it has nothing to do with New Brunswick. He even admits that. So why waste half his column on Detroit?

Nor does he have anything useful to say about New Brunswick. We have, he says, high rates of illiteracy among high school graduates. Gee. Could that have anything to do with illiterate parents? Could it have to do with priorites that cut education spending? And library speanding? Could it have anything to do with newspapers that encourage illiteracy and triviality?

Mr. Belliveau says New Brunswick suffers from an absence of leadership. Nonsense. It is smothered under leadership. The trouble is that the leadership is not to be found in government. It's to be found in the world of big business which tells our withering lillies in the Conservative and Liberal parties what to do.
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Norbert again publishes three rants in one. Again, there is no room for him to give substance to any of his three rants.

However, there is a lesson to be learned from reading this column.Check out paragraph four of the section "Really rich". Usually, 's signals possession, as in "this is John's hat." Originally, the term would have been "This is John his hat." But it became condensed; so the apostrophe was inserted to indicate the missing hi.

However, it's difference for the word "it".  In "it's", the apostrophe is used to indicate a missing "i" for "it is". But the possessive for "it" is "its" (no apostrophe.)
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Brent Mazerolle writes a flimsy and largely pointless column about the recent arrests of prostitutes in Moncton. As usual, most of it is make up of personal anecdotes that offer us no light on the subject. Then, when at last he does get to the arrests, he has nothing coherent to say.

He ends with several paragraphs which remind me of a dyinig fish flopping in the bottom of a boat. Then he delivers this nugget of wisdom, "Prostitution is a complex issue...." Since that is not enough to leave you completely in the dark, he adds that maybe the police were right and maybe they were wrong (way to lay it out, baby). Whatever the case, though, the police have nothing to apologize for.

Huh?

If they were wrong, they have nothing to apologize for?

I don't know whether we shoud have an apology from the police. But we should certainly have one from the TantT for this column.