May 24: The Press as Pimp

Oh, first, let me begin with an apology. Yesterday, I said that Harper would soon become chair of an international commission on environmental protection of the Arctic. I was wrong. A Canadian will become chair. (That Canadian will be chosen by Harper - so it's much the same as him being chair - but I was wrong in saying it would be him.) I am saddened by the error. I am, in fact, very angry about it. So you can be sure that, like Harper, I shall find someone to blame for it.
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Pimping - there is a story that is not in today's TandT. It may well be the only news medium in the world that is not carrying the story. This is the case of two Moslems who attacked a British soldier in London with knives and a cleaver. This has given rise to an explosion of violence against Moslems in Britain.

The press (except the TandT) generally condemns the attack by calling it savage, inhuman, brutal, murderous. And so it was. Oh, and, of course, they were Moslem "extremists".

Now, the US and Britain have indiscriminately killed Moslem men, women and children by the million. In Iraq alone, they have left hundreds of thousands of orphans in a country that is too shattered to care for them.

Britain has savagely, inhumanly, brutally, murderously been killing Moslems for over a hundred and fifty years, with the US happily joining in for the last sixty or so. They have killed with knives, swords, cluster bombs (the equivalent of millions of the bombs used in Boston), drones.....

Have you ever seen that slaughter of innocents described in our press as inhuman, brutal, murderous? Have you ever seen it called Christian extremism? Have you ever seen it called terrorism or, as Bush would say, "terra-rism".

In describing similar acts, the press deliberately uses different words to describe them, giving the impression that killing one British soldier with a knives is butchery and extremism. But killing  a million defenceless  men, women and children is - well - a sign of impressive military power.

In effect, our news media (all of them) routinely lie to us, and routinely build hatred and hysteria.

(I don't know how the TandT could have missed this story. It's obvious that whoever edits NewsToday couldn't find his own bellybutton using both hands.)
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Another sign of doziness is the failure to mention the hunger strike at Guatanamo. Most of the prisoners there want to die. It's not a political show. Most have been living in solitary, in wire cages, and suffering torture, for ten years and more. They don't want to go on living.

Almost all of them are innocent. The US military admits that. In fact, it has long ago announced there will be no charges against them because there is not the slightet evidence against them. And for that they have suffered ten years of hell. But you don't see our press calling the US "terrarist" or brutal or inhuman for what it is doing. And the TandT, almost uniquely in the world, hasn't even noticed it's happening.

In reality, of course, there is no war on terrorism, never was. It was an excuse from the start to spread American military power in to order make profits for big business. Remember Libya, the country Canada bombed to bring democracy? Well, it doesn't have democracy. In fact, it's a disaster area with no government at all. But American oil companies now control its oil fields. And that's why we bombed and killed.

A multi-sided disaster is shaping up in Syria. That war was started by the US and Britain working through their dictator friends in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The situation now is that if Assad wins, a hundred thousand and more people have been slaughtered for no reason. If the 'rebels' win, it may well become a Jihadist state  - right next to Israel.

Russia has sent a major fleet into the area because, like the US, it has no wish to see a Jihadist win. It also seems to have drawn a red line on US interference in Africa. and the Middle East. This is the most dangerous war we have seen since 1945.

That's what happens when big business takes over foreign policy. As has been the case with domestic policy  (especially here in New Brunswick) we have handed over control of foreign policy to people whose only qualifications to run it are greed, self-interest, and arrogance. They are very capable, indeed, of making money. Unfortunately, they have proven brainless at everything else.

But our news media will never say so. Think of the word "pimp".
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https://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/05/20-1

A reader sent me the opinion above. I urge you to read it. Whether you agree with the sentiments of the writer is not important. What is important is to see the degree of anger that pervades American life. That anger has consequences. And we (including you) are not immune to the fallout.
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Meanwhile, and unnoticed by the TandT, parts of Italy are actually starving. Living standards in Italy, Spain, Greece, Britain, France - and much of the US - have actually fallen below depression-era standards. The world economy gives no sign of reviving. What should we do?

I know. Let's borrow a hundred million for a civic centre. Then the whole world will come to Moncton to spend all the money it doesn't have.

And it will be charitable. The nice people who own Highfield Square will get rid of a piece of contaminated land that is constantly falling with the general economy, and that nobody wants - and they'll get top dollar. So, even if we don't build a civic centre, we'll be doing our good deed for the day for millionaires.
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The TandT also hasn't noticed recent polls on Harper's Conservatives. They're in the toilet. We have three more years of a government which has the support of, maybe, ten percent of the Canadian people. Boy! Good thing we have Richard Goguen in Moncton.

(It's actually a dangerous situation. The least popular party in Canada, led by the most dangerous PM we have ever had, has three more years of power. The leading party (with almost fifty percent support) has a leader of inadequate experience, leading a party that, decades ago, lost any sense of what it stands for.
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There is a new columnist - every Friday at the top of the op ed page.

He is boring. And he has no clue whatever about his subject. He defines himself as centre-right, and a conservative. Then he launches into laboured explanations of what the words conservative and liberal mean. Not only are the explanations self-contradictory and hopelessly tangled, but it's obvious he has no idea what the words mean.

For example, he defines conservatives as those who to maintain social and political traditions. (in fact, the more appropriate word for such people is reactionary). Then he lists George Washington as a conservative!  Washington was the man who led a revolution to destroy social and political traditions, including the monarcy, the concept of aristocracy. He advocated individual rights which, if we consult the Osford dictionary or any competent scholar, is a liberal concept.

Then he lists Ayn Rand as a conservative. In fact, Ayn Rand preached a gospel that glorified greed and self-interest. She saw rights as things which existed only for the very rich.

Brian Mulroney adhered to conservative ideals in government? What planet does this guy live on? Mulroney never had any ideals of any sort. He built his career on serving those with lots and lots of money, and who were willing to give some of it to him.

Then he says that the drift toward a "nanny" state is something conservatives oppose because it is contrary to personal liberty. that is utter, pompous, bullshit and ignorance. The "nanny" state, in fact, originated in conservative thought which saw society not as individuals but as a whole unit on its own.  And personal liberty has no connection with conservatism. It is a liberal concept.

In reality, the Conservative party is not conservative; the Liberals are not liberal: and the NDP is a mixture of liberal and conservative values.

Then he defines one type of conservatism as liberalism????

This is a man of strong opinions who has no idea what he's talking about. But it looks pompously impressive. Sorry. I can really get impatient at these people who rave on about liberal and conservative without having a clue what either word means.

For just a moment, I missed the columns of Rod Allen and Bian Cormier.

Oh - yeah - he also referred to free trade as a conservative principle. That would have surprised every conservative prime minister of Canada until Mulroney. They were all fiercely opposed to free trade. The Liberals were founded to bring about free trade; but they, too, changed their minds over a hundred years ago. This is a column which shows no understanding of the meaning of words, and not even a glimmer of knowledge of the history of this country.

He'll fit right in at the TandT.
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The last column is by Margaret McCain. She had a column yesterday that I sympathized with, but found bland. She had another one today. (I guess it helps to be named McCain.) Today's column had a stronger point - and a very good one, I thought. But it is too gentle to have the impact it deserves.

This is where an editor comes in. He or she should have helped Mrs. McCain to blend the two columns into one - and to give more force to the second half of her second column. That would have made it all much clearer and more effective.

As it is I would strongly advise a careful reading of that part of the second column in which she talks of Canada's neglect of its children - and the terrible consequences of that neglect. Mrs. McCain is obviously a gentle and caring person. But this is an argument that needs power and anger as well.

It reminded me of so many children I have known who never got the attention that would have made them valuable and productive citizens. I thought particularly of two boys I taught in grade 7. They were pretty wild kids outside and, certainly, not much interested in learning. But I liked them. We could talk together, talk seriously, and enjoy it.

Both were dead by the age of 18, killed in shoot-outs with police.
















 

May 23: All hail Robert Goguen!

Yesterday, I received in my mailbox a tabloid sized, eight page newspaper printed on rather expensive paper. It purported to come from Robert Goguen, our Conservative MP. In fact, it was obviously put together for all Conservative MPs by a PR firm, then customized for each riding.

The first page has a picture of Mr. Goguen wearing a smirky smile, obviously pleased at his looks now that he has been stuffed and mounted. The first page praises the government for Canadian prosperity, neatly overlooking our sluggish economy, high rate of unemployment, and the rapidly growing gap between rich and poor.

Inside is a treasury of eighteen pictures of Mr. Goguen who, apparently, owns only one suit, one smirk, and two neckties.

By coincidence, today's editorial in the Times and Transcript says Mr. Goguen is to be commended for announcing the spending of some 5.6 million dollars in Moncton. Commended? For announcing? Isn't that a little over the top? I would have been more impressed to have seen an announcement of how much it cost to send that political advertising to every home in Canada - and who paid for it.
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Again, apart from columns by Alec Bruce and Beth Lyons, there's not much in the TandT. So let's talk about Mr. Harper's anger at his aide for giving $90,000 to a senator so the senator could repay false claims he made for housing. Who's to blame for this situation, one which so far has put three senators in the hot seat, dumped the prime minister's chief aide, and sent the PM into a tizzy?

Well, that would be Harper who's to blame. No prime minister in the history of this country has shown the contempt for parliament and democracy - and the contempt for the law - that Mr. Harper has.

To start with an obvious point, when Harper named Duffy to the Senate, he knew the rules for senator - that the senator had to be a resident of the province he or she was to represent. It is impossible to believe that Harper did not know that Duffy had only a summer cottage in PEI. And I'm quite sure that when the PM contacted Duffy, he did not do it with a letter or phone call to PEI.
(He must also have known that in the election campaign before he was appointed, Mr. Duffy had created something of a scandal in the journalism world with a highly biased and dishonest TV interview of a  Liberal candidate.)

When it was  obvious that Brian Mulroney had accepted large sums in graft while he was prime minister, Harper allowed the enquiry to fade. There was never a full investigation of his dealings. There were no criminal charges! If you or I stole $250,000, we'd be looking at jail time. Not only did Mulroney escape criminal charges, he was even allowed to keep most of money. His only penalty was that he had to pay the back taxes on it.

Incidentally, Mulrony never reported that money as income. That's illegal, too.And Mulroney is a lawyer. And so, thanks to Harper, Mulroney goes on living in a huge, stone mansion in the priciest district of Westmount, the priciest suburb of Montreal. Harper's message to other political thieves was clear.

In our last and very close election, there seem to have been a great many irregularities - a nice word for cheating and breaking the law. By far, most of them seem to have been committed by the Conservative party. But Mr. Law and Order Harper has declined to investigate them with any seriousness, and has taken no steps to prevent this from happening in the future.

This is doubly serious because Mr. Harper won only a minority vote. It is quite possible an investigation would show that he did not win enough seats to form a government.

He routinely puts the budget into an omnibus bill - which means a large number of bills, each requiring time for study and debate, are all lumped together into one bill. That, given time limits, means that measures are passed before we know what's in them, and before mps have time to read them and discuss them.

Repect for democracy and for the law has never been so low as it is Canada's government today. And it's Harper who has set the tone that is being followed by his MPs and senators. The Duffy mess was created by Harper.
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The office of Governor-General was intended to put a check on people such as Harper. By law, for example, the Governor-General has to the power to refuse to sign an omnibus bill - and the right to refuse the appointment of a Duffy to the Senate. But that power has not been used since the 1920s.

Most scholars, I should think, accept the idea that the power has expired because its last use, in the 1920s, proved a failure, I'm not at all sure that's true. But we'll probably never find out because no Governor-General since the 1920 has had the courage or integrity to refuse to sign a bill. And the limp fish who currently holds that office is most unlikely to try it.

We pay a lot of money for an institution that has not value whatever.
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Oh, good news for Canadians that did not appear in the TandT. There is an international board that cares for the environment of the Arctic. It's important because it's a very sensitive environment, highly vulnerable to the warming that is clearly happening up there - with effects that spread all over the earth. It also has oil; and any oil pollution in that region could have disastrous effects for all of us.

A new man will soon take his turn as chair of that international commission.

He is man who has long denied that any climate change is happening at all. More recently, he has allowed in might be happening - but he's sure we'll invent something in time to fix it all. He's a man who is a world leader in refusing to take steps to control climate change, a man who did much to destroy the only worldwide effort that might have helped. He is the man who is touring the world to convince it to buy the world's dirtiest and most polluting oil. He is the man who destroyed almost all legal protection of fesh water and salt water within his country's boundaries.  He is the man pushing for pipelines to carry that dirty oil, whatever the risk.

Ladies and gentleman, welcome the man who is to be the new guardian of the north, Mr. Stephen Harper.

O! Canada.....
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May22:I'm late in starting this because....

...I read my copy of the Times and Transcript early this morning. And at the end, I thought, "what can I say?"

There are three ways to control people. One is to make them scared as hell. Once they're sufficiently scared, a government can do anything under the guise of protecting them from what it is they're scared of. So you need to invent enemies, dangerous enemies, evil enemies.  Hitler chose Jews, gays and gypsies. Using that fear, he was able to assume dictatorial control over the whole state, depriving everybody of rights, justifying torture, and killing millions of innocent people of all ages. (Yes, of course, everybody knew what was going on. They could see the mass arrests. They could see the boxcars loaded with humans. They could see the ashes settling over their streets.) It didn't matter. If we're scared enough, we don't see what we are watching.

Another is to have two political parties which are essentially the same, but to convince voters to hate either one or the other. This goes so far as to create caricatures of each side, caricatures that thrive on images of Democrats (in the US) as spendthrift and weak, and of Republicans as realistic and more patriotic. For an example of the brainless debate this leads to, watch Fox News.

That's why the US spent billions in an election to defeat Romney who stood for more war, cutting government services to the poor, tax breaks for the rich......and to elect Obama who has stood for more war, cutting government services to the poor, tax breaks for the rich....

Of course. Both sides are financed by the same people. New Brunswick is even worse because the people who finance the Liberals and the Conservatives don't even have to stay in the background. They openly interfere with government, no matter which party is in power. And people still play self -delusionary mind games that Liberals and Conservatives are different.

A third way, used by Britain and France in building their empires, was to convince people they were doing God's work in invading and colonizing "inferior" people. Read Rudyard Kipling for that. Try, for example, "The White Man's Burden".  According to Kipling, a process that murdered people, stole their lands, threw their societies into a chaos from which they have never recovered, enslaved them, exploited them..was a divinely-ordained responsibility.

The US has used all three to put government entirely at the service of big business while destroying human rights and democracy, itself. The Land of the Free is, in fact, the land of no freedom at all.  It's the land in which a whole range of domestic spy agencies keep track of the private activities of every American, where millions are on secret lists as potential enemies - not just for being suspected being terrorists or even knowing one, but for any criticism at all of the government.

It's the land of torture, of imprisonment without charge or trial, the land which has given itself the right to invade other countries, to murder, imprison them, to interfere with them - all in defiance of international law. It's the land in which the police increasingly are trained not to protect the people but to fight them and intimidate them.

Many don't notice what has happened. That's because fear, racial superiority, and ignorance, much of it created by the news media, has made all this seem necessary to them - just as Germans saw Jews, gays and gypsies as making Hitler necessary.

The Times and Transcript, like most Canadian news media, plays along with this line. But it adds another factor to make control easier. It stupefies them. After I read today's paper, I could only look at the crumpled sections lying on the floor, and think, "What can I say?"

There was almost nothing worth reading in the whole paper - well, except for a story that Brad Pitt's daughter thinks he kisses Angelina Jolie too much.

There were four, good letters to the editor. It says something when the best part of a newspaper is the letters to the editor page. On the editorial and op pages, the pages for opinion, there was only one column, Alec Bruce's, that could be called opinion of any significance; and it was bland.

And we can't compensate for our miserable print media because private radio is even worse, and private TV doesn't have the reportorial staff down here. CBC is far the best but it, too, lacks adequate staff.

No wonder most people here live in a political stupor.

We don't need fear or hysteria down here to control people. Two puppet parties and a puppet press of unsurpassed triviality and ignorance do the job quite well.
 

May 21: Is Norbert a communist?

He may not be. It may just seem that way as a result of his sloppy use of words. (In a minor example today, he used the ugly word "gotten" as the past tense for "to get".  In fact, gotten is an American slang word that has found its way into some dictionaries. The correct past tense for "to get" is "got".)

It becomes a bigger problem when Norbert does not understand the meaning of a word that is his major target for a rant. I use "rant" here because of his column's constant attacks on what he calls "bureaucracy", another word he does not understand.

Bureaucracy, meaning that part of government operated by hired rather than elected officials, has always been a source of popular annoyance and even hatred - even all the way back to ancient times when appointed bureaucrats administered governments for kings and pharaohs. It has always been a source of annoyance for the general public, and so a popular target for  columnists.

In "Das Kapital", Karl Marx's dream of the perfect, communist society would come true when people learned to cooperate willingly for the common good, and government bureacrats would cease to exist. So Norbert and Karl have something in common. They both express their hatred of government by directing that hatred at a group associated with government.

However, both are more than a little simplistic in their thinking.

In the first place, bureaucracy is not restricted to government. In modern times it began in the seventeenth century with kings like Louis XIV who realized that the counts and dukes who had been looking after the administration of the country were hopelessly incompetent. They got the jobs and power only because they were born as dukes and counts. (Does that remind you of anybody in today's world? Here in New Brunswick?)

They were so imcompetent that Louis - and other kings - turned to middle class people of education and ability to run their administrations. These were the first, modern bureaucrats.

Then - and note this well, Norbert, private business copied the government system. Yes. Though we use the word bureaucrats to refer only to government administrators, bureaucracy is also the system of administration for private business and, in fact, for armies as well as all organizations of any size.

Indeed, and though the Norberts of this world seem to forget it, the Canadian civil service was so effective in World War II that private business, for some years after the war, sent its rising executives to Ottawa to study civil service methods. But Norbert does not appear to know even that a private business bureaucracy exists.

Any large organization - private or government (or a newspaper) - needs trained people to administer it. Does Norbert have some alternative system? Or does he, like Marx, think we should all live in love and brotherhood so we would not need government at all?

The problem we face in this province is not that we have bureaucracies. The problem is that we have a non-bureaucrat of no particular training or wisdom who interferes in government like a baron of the fourteenth century, simply assuming he has the right to do so because he was born a baron.

What we  have seen lately is a model of private business bureaucracy forced on our government bureaucracy. And it won't work. Private bureaucracy is designed to benefit the company without any obligation to the people, to the society as a whole. Government bureaucracy is designed to benefit the society as a whole - without obligation to the baron.

When you try to force a private business model on a government, what you get is a health minister like Flemming who is making a hash of out health care. He has hired bureaucrats trained in the business style. His prime objective is not to serve people, but to cut costs, whatever damage that may do to people and to the health care system. The proof? He claimed to want better efficiency. Okay. If that's what you want, you begin with an examination of existing efficiency to see where it can be improved, and where savings can be made. Flemming didn't do that.

He began with a demand for cuts. That's the business model. Who gives a damn about people?

The result of imposing such a model on us is destroy essential services because, in the end, the bureaucracy of the business model has no obligation to people.
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All the letters to the editor this day are well worth reading.
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I mention only Norbert and the letters to the editor because nothing else in today's paper merits discussion.

I could wish the TandT would find a foreign news editor who knows something about foreign news. We are quite possibly facing something quite terrible in the Middle East, something that is largely our (western) doing. The war in Syria is spinning out of control, a spin that could carry it far beyond the Middle East. You would never guess that from reading the TandT.

 

May 20: Yesterday?...oh.....

....It was such a nice day. And I had to pick up my daughter after a dance and I didn't get to bed until after midnight and I sat up and read till one or so and I slept until noon. More accurately, I was semi-concious until noon. Then I had to do important things like look for an apartment, shave....  One of those days.

Anway, today's Times and Transcript has the longest story I have even seen in it. It covers most of pages A3 and A4 - and it's about the death of an former editor of the St. John Telegraph Journal. With all respect, that is a little over the top - but understandable. What is less understandable is the self-praise of the Telegraph-Journal that is much of the theme of the story.

There is reference to it  rising to national stature during his tenure as editor. Now, I was 40 years involved in journalism on a daily basis as a writer and broadcaster. I am still in daily contact with friends in journalism. Only once have I heard even a mention of the St. John Telegraph. That came from a former editor of The Gazette, and then a senator sitting on a committee investigating journalism standards in Canada. She (and the other senators as well as any journalist I have ever known) spoke in horror of the whole Irving Press in New Brunswick as a travesty of journalism.

Natonal stature? Most Canadians have never heard of any Irving newspaper. Those few who have don't speak kindly of them.
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NewsToday is close to a zero. It does have a picture of a demonstrator holding up signs demanding the closure of the prison at Guantanamo. And there are two sentences under it that mention the prisoners are on a hunger strike. But none of that will mean a whole lot to people who get their news from the TandT.
1. The TandT has never mentioned the hunger strike - so readers don't know what it's about.
2. It's primarily about the fact that
 a)the prisoners are being held illegally.
 b) There are no charges against them because there is no evidence against them - despite years of torture. Not even a military tribunal could convict them.
c) Most were cleared for release years ago. But it has not happened.
d) It is very difficult for them to see their lawyers - and the private files of their lawyers have been tapped.
e)  They want to die. They realize that they will spend the rest of their lives in solitary cages.
f) The are being forcefed by a process so brutal that the UN has defined it as torture and, therefore, illegal.
g) As a torture refinement, the hunger strikers are forced to sleep on the concrete floors of their cages. 

This information would have made the picture more understandable.
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There's a story on the resignation of Nigel Wright, a story which doesn't tell us much. The key question - Why did Harper accept the resignation? He could have refused it. When such a resignation is accepted, it commonly means that there's a lot more to the story - and accepting the resignation is a good way to kill any demand for further investigation.

And that's pretty much it for NewsToday.
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The editorial is okay, but trivial. It wants to change May 24 from Victoria Day to something more Canadian. Who cares? The fact is that the only people who know that is the official birthday of Queen Victoria are old fart editorial writers and bloggers. For most people, it's May 24, and winter is gone, and the sun is out.

The amusing part is that the writer suggests changing the holiday to celebrate the contributions of Tommy Douglas as leader of the NDP. I should be astonished if the TandT ever supported anything that Tommy Doublas stood for. Indeed, it is currently, if subtly, supporting the gradual destruction of Douglas' greatest contribution, medicare.

Norbert has an interesting column about Victoria Day - and I suspect he's right in what he says about the monarchy.
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Steve Malloy says he has nothing earth-shattering to talk about. Well, okay. It's not earth-shattering. But it's an important perception about people of Moncton. It's about their "deadness" at concerts, and their habit of spending a concert talking about last night's hockey game.

I've noticed that characteristic in much that they do. It's an emotional and intellectual deadness that's encouraged by the Irving Press - but it also seems to come from some other source. Like much of what Malloy writes, this one should make people think.
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An old friend sent me an article from Business Week (2009). It's by a distinguished professor of business administration at Harvard.

It begins with Hannah Arendt's observation about Eichmann, the man who planned much of the transportation and murder of Jews in the Holocaust. She talked about the banality of the man, how very ordinary he was, how he had no sense of doing wrong - only of his own rise in the power structure. She called this combination of thoughtlessness and evil in this terrifylngly normal man "the banality of evil."

Then the writer applies this observation to the same sort of terrifying banality that characterizes the world of big business. This was written at the time that bankers destroyed the lives of millions of people with crooked dealings - but showed no sense of remorse or even of understanding of what they had done.

Their business model is to think as Eichmann did - "..to do what's good for the organization insiders while dehumanizing and distancing everyone else."

The banality of evil, the dehumanization of us by the business model  - these go a long way to explaining Health Minister Flemming - the terrifyingly ordinary man who serves the organization with no thought for the consquences to people, but only for his own rewards. His objective? - to begin the destruction of medicare so we can have hospitals not for health, but to make the rich richer.

There is no moral leadership in Fredericton. You have some, a few, with morals but no brains, a few with brains but no morals, and a great mass with neither morals nor brains.

The first target in New Brunswick has been achieved. The government is simply an arm of big business. Mr. Irving has announced himself a member of the government, and the government has been dumb enough to accept that. But, unlike a member of government in a democracy, Mr. Irving has to answer to nobody for what he does - not to the legislature and not to the voters.

This is a system which has been tried in many forms throughout history. It always destroys us outsiders. In the end, it always destroys itself. And our lives are being ruled by a man whose only demonstrated talent is one for being born rich.

The article is a superb one that you really must read. Go to

http://businessweek.com/print/managing/content/mar2009/ca2009319_59124.htm




 

May 18: Credit where credit is due....

Today's Faith Page came as a pleasant surprise. It didn't take on the rich and powerful - as the Pope's letter did. But it did break away from the mindless and pointless bilge that usually appears in the sermonette. It's about sex. (No,  don't go ripping through the pages hoping for pictures or some mention of LGBT sex. It's a lot tamer than that.)

But it does at least go further than the usual and cutesy spiritual pablum we get (God answers knee mail. etc.).

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Newtoday, p. D3, has a story from the Associated Press that will (and is intended to) stir the indignation of us right-minded people. It reveals that the Syrian government actually has people in terrible prisons where it tortures them.

Gee. Is that the same Syria the CIA used to rent prison space from so it could carry out torture? Is it the same prison space that the CIA used when Canada handed over at least three, innocent  Canadian citizens for torture? And that our very own CSIS visited to help in the "questioning"? You know, the three Canadians that Harper has refused to compensate.

Oh, those terrible Syrians. Our side would never use torture.

Why would Associated Press run such a story without even a mention of our own record of torture, and our own history of  close association with prisons and torture in Syria? And Poland? And at Guantanamo (where over a hundred inmates, who are being held illegally, are starving themselves to death)? And in Afghanistan? And in the dozen or more other countries where the US maintains torture prisons?

It's called propaganda to stir up indignation and hatred so we can bomb the country which we have already filled with hired thugs and religious fanatics from other countries. We call these hired thugs and religious fanatics "rebels" in defiance of the meaning of the word "rebel".

A good news editor (and even a dopy one) would immediately recognize this as a propaganda story.

Whoever edits foreign news also missed kind of a big story. The Pentagon and Obama have claimed that the president can wage war anywhere in the world WITHOUT THE CONSENT OF CONGRESS.  Well, that leaves a kind of big hole in the US constitution.

(Mind you, Harper has publicly committed Canada to war if Israel goes to war - no matter who starts the war or why. In other words, if Israel starts a war, we are committed to join in on Israel's side. That wipes out a major right our soldiers won in the First World War - that parliament must first agree to any such war.)

The news editor also missed one hell of a big story. The Internal Revenue Service in the US has been making unusually deep studies of the tax records of Obama's political enemies. And the White House has been tapping the private communications of AP reporters. Those are both extremely serious in a democracy - but not serious enough to wake up anybody at the TandT.
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Bill Beliveau has an intriguing column on Senator Duffy, and at least a half serious suggestion that Harper could have planned this whole thing. Maybe. But I'm intrigued by another possibility.

Harper knows the rules for Senate. A senator represents a province and, therefore, must be a resident of that province. Is it possible that he appointed senators so casually that he didn't even bother to check where they lived? That hardly seems likely behaviour for a man so obsessed with personal control over everything.

No. I don't think he forgot. I think his behaviour is more in line with another characteristic of his thought. He has utter contempt for democracy and all the rules that go with it. He wanted Duffy in there for his big name and his uses as a campaigner. He just didn't give a damn about the rest.
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Norbert is, as usual, handicapped by his prejudices. The takes statistics about poverty, starvation, etc. from the UN - then lashes out at UN officials who say the situation is critical or disappointing. The reason he says so is because UN officials are like civil servants - and Norbert hates civil servants. He feels the whole world would be better if it were run by the Irvings of this world.

(In fact, it is run by the Irvings of this world. That's why it's such a mess.)

He rants that things are fine because there are only a few, minor wars going on. Norbert, there are wars going on you never even heard of - all over the world. The US is currently at war in Afghanistan (officially). Unofficially, it is at war Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan. Forecasts from the Pentaton are that the "war on terror" will go on for at least another ten to twenty years. That doesn't count the unofficial CIA wars in Central America and Africa (which don't get reported, anyway).

As well, Norbert, are you aware that war is not just invasion? It also includes other attacks on nations - like computer tampering, spying, embargoes, spy drones, secret aid to revolutionary groups, assassination squads. The US is, in fact, at war with over half the world - and that is expanding. And any of those wars could turn nuclear.

As well, the US is committed to world dominance. There is no other  way for its business world to survive. Think hard, Norbert, there is a commitment to dominance of a world which possesses at least several thousand nuclear missiles. Norbert, it's really not time yet to stand up and clap hands.

And only seven million children under five are dying every year? Wow! Break out the champagne. Know why they're dying Norbert? One reason is that privately owned drug companies insist that their drugs be used - and at full price. Another reason is that the west has been creating poverty and disorder in those countries for centuries.

Meanwhile, in the wealthy US, 128 people die every day for lack of medical care. And almost 3,000 file for bankruptcy every day because of the cost of medical care. Poverty-stricken Cuba has far better health statistics than the rich US does.

He ends with a disgusting quotation. "It doesn't make a lot of sense for us to borrow money from the Chinese to go give to another country for humanitarian aid. We ought to get the Chinese to take care of the people."

a) The US does not borrow money from the Chinese for humanitarian need. It borrows it to finance a corrupt war industry.
b)Much of poverty in the world is actually caused by the US and other western countries which have looted other countries for centuries - and are still doing it.
c) Save that final sentence, though. It would look good on a a plaque in the Irving Chapel.
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The student columns in Whatever section are always interesting - but particularly so this week. I hate to name any in particular because that suggests the others were weak - and they weren't weak at all. However.....

I was particularly struck by a column by Sabrina Stace of Harrison Trimble because she hits on a characteristic of high schools and universities - the excessive attention to sports. It suggests a certain immaturity on the part of us adults who seem to want it that way. This is the province that can afford a very expensive artifical field for football, but can't afford books for its libraries.

Mike Elliott, also of Harrison Trimble contributes a poem - with some considerable maturity and intelligence in its insights.
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For news on fracking that you won't find in the Irving Press, a reader sent in the list below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a14hcdaqTpo
Fracking vs. Health forum, 2 hors, 37 minutes
Recorded April 27, 2013, Elmira, New York
Bringing together workers, physician, attorney from Penn re gagging doctors

Intro - 2 minutes - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9J8_IvWGZnw

Part 2 - Rick "Mac" Sawyer  19 minutes - worker 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSvMhmF4Myw

part 3 Joe Giovanni 12 minutes - Environmental Refugee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjDKQwFy-xI

part 4 Robert Lee McCaslin 7 minutes Worker, master driller
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYVt6no_osc

Part 5 Dr. Larysa Dyrszka 38 minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chQgiieNwOo

Part 6 Laren Williams Esq 20 minutes Attorney re Act 13 gagging medical doctors, 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUan4riU-Zs

Part 7 Jonathon Deal, Karoo Action Group,  South Africa, winner of major environmental award,  12 minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goN7pAFv29c

Part 8 Q and A 40 minutes 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1Db2LI90rg

 

May 17: editorial and op ed pages are for OPINION - dammit

On the op ed page of today's Times and Transcript, there is a note from the President of Crandall University, apologizing (sort of) for having offended lesbians, gays, bisexuals and the transgendered. Below it is a response from the President of the LGBT community organization.

That's nice. I'm glad they're talking to each other. But both of their statements already appear in the lead (and long) news story on p.1. So why on earth repeat them on the op ed page?

The news pages are for news. The op ed page is for opinion about the news. We need informed opinion to undestand what's going on. A news story just tells us that something happened. An opinion column takes us beyond that to think about the meaning of what has happened. (Please note - I do not suggest we must agree with the opinion. What it does is to give us a starting point to develop our own opinions.)

A news story that the US wants to get rid of President Assad of Syria tells us nothing. We need opinion - preferably several opinions - on why the US wants to get rid of him. Is it to bring freedom and democracy to Syria and to help little girls go to school? Or could there be another reason?

Norbert begins well with a story of the destruction of an ancient temple, smoothly shifts the scene to Moncton for what looks to be a useful thought piece about historic preservation. Then he abruptly changes the subject to rant about the civil service and what he calls bureaucracy.

I call it "rant", by the way, not just as a sort of swear word. I use it to mean he gives no evidence of knowing what he is  talking about - or even what words like "bureaucracy" mean. This is just a stream of prejudice and name-calling - something he would never dare to do to big business though it has its own bureaucracies and its own, stunningly wasteful procedures. (Hidden in there is an implied attack on medicare.)

The editorial is boring and, sometimes, unintelligible because it's badly written in a dense and laborious style. Doesn't the editorial writer know what the reading levels are in this province?

Alec Bruce writes a readable column, and one that certainly implies an opinion on the Duffy case. I could wish, on this one, that he had looked at more serious issues in this - but this is still a real opinion column, and one well designed for its audience.
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What do we need opinion (and, often) news on? Well...
1. Despite official announcements to the contrary, the US is NOT pulling out of Afghanistan at any time in the foreseeable future. In fact, it is building at least five major bases in that country. It also has been supplying President Karzai and sundry warlords with annual bribes of hundreds of millions of dollars for their personal use- and that will continue. As well, there is no semblance of democracy or of rebuilding anywhere in that country.

The official Afghanistan army is badly trained, badly led, nowhere near ready for combat, is corrupt from top to bottom, and has been selling its weapons to the Taliban.

So what is that war all about? What is the purpose of it? Why is the US building premanent bases in it?

On a guess, the purpose of the war has been from the start to plunder Afghanistan resources, and to give the US military a base to attack other countries in the region. But that's a guess. I'd like to see opinions better informed than mine.

News stories won't give us the answer to why we sent Canadians to die in that country. An informed opinion piece would help.

2.The news stories on Duffy make a joke of something that is not funny at all. There are elements in this that need discussion and opinion.
a) It was almost certainly illegal for Harper's Chief of Staff to give money to Duffy.
b) It was illegal for that to be done with making an official report it had been done.
c) The Chief of Staff and Duffy have both been in this game for many years. It's impossible to believe they don't know the rules.
d) The Chief of Staff says he didn't tell Harper about it. Oh?Really? Did he assume that the most controlling PM in Canadian history wouldn't be interested? Is it possible that he told Harper? and that both he and Harper are now lying about it?
e) Duffy broke the law in claiming election expenses for trips he took to campaign for the Conservatives in the election. Again, it is not believable he would not know he was breaking the law.
f)This is only one of a great many "Irregularities" reported in the last federal election - almost all of them attributed to the Conservatives. Harper has blocked any full investigation of any of them. All of this raises at least a possibility that Harper did not really win that election.

3. Harper just made a rediculous speech in New York. He said they should allow pipelines carrying Alberta oil to Texas because the only solution to global warming is to discover some new energy technology that will save us.
a) If any man on this earth has blocked the development of technology to replace fossil fuels, that man is surely Harper. Indeed, he played a major role in destroying the only serious global agreement we had on it. In doing so, he also threw controls out the window.
b) Harper has repeatedly and publicly said there is no global warming. But now he says there is. Did nobody notice a contradiction there?
c)To say that we shouldn't worry because something will come along to fix it all is inane by any standard - but particularly so when you consider  that the change will soon, possibly very soon,
 become irreversible even if a miracle cure is found. In that short time, we have to discover this wonderful technology - and install it for energy use all over the world. Good luck.

That was a remarkably stupid and irresponsible speech even for Harper, and even for a business audience. But we don't get that sense of stupidity and irresponsibility from a news report. Only an opinion column can do that.

4. I have seen few news pieces and no opinion columns on the frightening growth of poverty in the US, the cuts to essential services (like food) in the face of that poverty to devote even more money to the very rich and their corrupt and corrupting contracts for more weapons than any world needs, and for phony "aid" programmes.

The US is on the brink of severe social disorder. The government knows it. That's why it has massive levels of spying. massive spending on police weaponry (including armoured vehicles), and the destruction of constitutional freedoms. The US is preparing for war against the American people. (And forget the gun lobby. It will be on the government side.)

No news story can convey a sense of that danger. We need opinion columns to encourage us to think it through for ourselves. And we better, because it's coming our way.

These are just a few samples of what we need. It's not hard. Anybody with a basic understandinig of current events and access to google could easily research any of the above topics in minutes. There must be somebody among the staff writers at the TandT who has the wit to write real opinion pieces, and not just tell stories about the trivia of their own lives. And there must be somebody who can write an editorial that is clear and intelligible.
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And here is an addendum.

You have to understand that I'm a Protestant, raised in the most severe Calvinist traditions. When I was a kid, the street I lived on was all French and Catholic. On religious days, it was decked in Papal flags flying from every balcony. Except ours. My father defiantly flew the biggest flag of them all, a Union Jack.

I've mellowed somewhat, and am now prepared to recognize Catholics as Christians - if sadly misguided ones. One should love them, anyway. But I've never come to be enthusasitic about popes. However - I came across this statement made only days ago by the pope. It's at
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1302173.htm

I apologize to my parents and to my Scottish highlands Calvinist ancestors. And I don't want them to think I've slipped over to the dark side - even if I have a French ancestor who is now a candidate for sainthood.

In fact, the message I am referring you to is not ABOUT the pope. So don't waste time sending me notes about how you don't approve of him. The message is a brief statement he made on the subject of Christianity (which could equally be made about Islam, Hinduism, Confucianism....)

I think he's dead right in what he says. And I think he's dead right about the consequences he sees in our behaviour.

And I think what he says is in absolute contradiction to everything the Liberals and Conservatives of this province, the newspapers, and the corporation bosses stand for. I think they are short-sighted,  greedy, amoral - and leading us into disaster. (The news story on the views of Liberal leader Gallant is a prime example of how one can support greed, amorality, shortsightedness -and still be boring. He's another Alward.)

I include this statement by the pope because I want to feel protected from the nausea that always overcomes me when I read the wimpy Faith page sermonettes in the Saturday editions of the Irving Press.