September 24: No. No word.

No, there's still no word about how we're being robbed of more than forty billion dollars a year by some of our better families. In particular, there's not a word from Justin Trudeau or Dominic Leblanc or Brian Gallant. And not even a mention that our federal minister of finance is one of the better people named.
Can you imagine what would happen if one of us told the minister that we were going to hide $40 from taxation?

No, our money is essential because Dominic Leblanc and his wife need it to entertain the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge for a weeked with full military honours. 21-gun salute, raising of the royal standard, inspection of the guard, trip on a hovercraft, and the expert participation of the Duke and Duchess in a discussion of mental health issues. (Not to mention the fine foods and festive dinners.) That's going to be expensive. So make sure  you pay your full taxes.
Oh, and perhaps we could made a video of the whole affair, and show it at our food banks as an inspiration to us all.  (The food banks are charities because we don't raise enough taxes for them. And we don't raise enough taxes because.....)

The only thing worth reading in section A is an excellent column at the bottom of A15. It's a commentary on the importance or parents reading WITH their children from kindergarten on. Schools do as much as they can. But it's important for parents to be involved. I grew up in a district in which most of my friends were illiterate. They couldn't even read the balloons in comic books. But my father read. He read to me. He read with me. And every Saturday, poor as we were, he would find a second hand book for me. Reading was a part of every day and, oh, it made a difference for my whole life.

The lead story in "Canada & World" is that  premier Gallant exercises and eats wisely when he's on the road. this uses up more than a full page. This, with ads, makes up 4 and half of the eight pages the irvings call "Canada &World".
At the bottom of the page is the rather more important story that  the bombing of Syria has resumed. Unfortunately, it's a propaganda piece. It gives the impression that  this is entirely the fault of the Russians. In fact, information on this is confused. The bombing has been resumed - but all sides are doing it, and it's not at all clear who started it. (In fact, the bombing never really stopped.)

There is a similar story from The Associated Press on p. 7. It, too, is propaganda. One of its major sources is Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It doesn't mention that the observatory is run by one man who creates propaganda to favour the American side.

A2 has the most tasteless story I have ever seen outside the scandal mags at the supermarket. The story - a third of a page with photo - is that the premier of New Brunswick has a girl friend.

Again, none of the brutality of the killing in Yemen makes it into the news.
The only good page in section B is the last one. It's a page of car ads.
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Sometimes I   worry about the direction The Guardian is going in.   It's still superior to most newspapers in this world. But I have been noticing slips. Today, for example, its story on the fighting in Aleppo looks like one that could have appeared in the irving press. Like the irving press, it quotes the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights just as if it were not a propaganda agency.
It also avoids drawing any attention to the cause of this war which has so far killed at least a half million people. This was was started by the U.S. It started the war by funding terrorist  groups to rebel against the Syrian government. It still funds them. But they are never called terrorist groups in our news media. No. They are called 'rebels', or even 'moderates' - though I'm not sure exactly what a moderate terrorist is.

Yes. I know Assad is not a nice man. I don't know of any middle east country governed by a 'nice man'. Nor is there likely to be one in the near future. The west, notably Britain and the U.S. have spent a century creating such crises there that no rule by a 'nice' person is possible. And very little democracy is possible.
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It's amazing how little news about Africa ever appears in the irving press. The Guardian manages to notice most of the world.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/23/kenya-dadaab-refugee-camp-what-happens-when-it-closes-asad-hussein
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And we certainly don't ever get the truth about Ukraine.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/23/ukraine-corruption-bigotry-western-support-russia
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Nor do we hear about Congo which has being living through brutal killing, torture, starvation, exploitation for almost a hundred and fifty years. Originally colonized by Belgium, Congo was looted, made a hell by - you know - capitalists who used torture, murder on a vast scale to force the people to work in mines under starvation wages and brutal conditions. The horror of it was captured in a book "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad.

But the killing and starvation are still going on under the guidance of western capitalists - the same ones who don't pay taxes. The current government plans to ignore the constitution and run for office again in a fixed election. But you can be sure that western capitalists will not call him a 'bad man'.

And one of the most resource rich countries in the world will continue its horror of a century and a half with no relief in sight.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2016/sep/23/political-violence-in-the-democratic-republic-of-the-congo-in-pictures
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Here is a site really worth hanging onto. It is devoted to getting information out to the public about tax havens - and who's using them. So far, the who involve leading members of governments - you know, the ones who insist that we pay all our taxes.

https://www.icij.org/

Don't lose this because you certainly won't be able find it in an irving press article.
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The following is from the World Socialist Web Site. But don't panic. It is based entirely on a press statement by a leading U.S. general. So it should be taken seriously.

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/09/24/syri-s24.html
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This one is terrifying. But quite possible.

http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2016/09/24/us-turkey-lurch-world-war-syria.html
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Still believe those stories about who's bombing who in Syria? Here's a correction to  one version that the irving press used - and has never corrected.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article45556.htm
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Netanyahu rejects UN criticism of Israel, and says UN is a farce. And the U.S. has just given Israel a monster weapons package. But that's okay. The U.S. has been busily degrading the UN ever since it was founded.

http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.743788
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How soon we forget!

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/09/24/34-years-after-the-sabra-shatila-massacre/
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And how easily we never even notice.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/09/24/mendacious-war-criminal-obamas-final-speech-to-the-un-general-assembly/

Is it an overstatement to say Obama is a war criminal? No, it's not. He ordered the invasion of a country which posed no threat to the U.S. That is what "war criminal" means.
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Then there's those pesky scientists who tell us that climate change is on us. But what do they know? I'll believe this next story when I hear it from Mr. Irving who has a degree in---uh---uh....actually, at least three Irvings attended Acadia university. Two of them were there just before me. But none of those three graduated.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/09/24/earth-could-reach-critical-climate-threshold-in-decade-scientists-warn/
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And here's a truth that reads as if it should be announced in our churches. But it won't be.
http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/09/24/as-we-sow-so-shall-we-reap/
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Funny this important story has never made the irving press. It's also shocking to see how much money Canadian banks have sunk into an American pipeline.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/09/24/why-standing-rock-needs-to-be-a-two-front-war-against-big-oil-and-big-banks/
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The president of Brazil was impeached by the legislature for criminal behaviour. The new president recently announced it was a setup, and the real reason for impeachment was because she opposed plans to cut social services and, generally, run the country for the very rich. And there is evidence of a heavy U.S. hand in all this. So it didn't make the irving press.

https://theintercept.com/2016/09/23/brazils-big-media-ignores-temers-confession-except-estadao-columnist-who-falsely-claimed-video-was-altered/
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This source is pro  Russian. But it's more intelligent and honest that most of the western, pro-American sources are.

http://thesaker.is/why-the-recent-developments-in-syria-show-that-the-obama-administration-is-in-a-state-of-confused-agony/
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The war in Syria rapidly becoming a world war. It now involves Syria, the U.S., various jihadist groups financed by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, Turkey (which has invaded Syria), Israel (which has invaded Syria and lost two aircraft in the process), Russia (which is there by invitation of the Syrian government). Also involved are Britain and Canada.

And any accident could now make it a full, world war. The whole region is dissolving into chaos as a result of the attacks begun with Iraq. The latter may well prove to be the most destructive foreign policy move in history. Obama has done nothing whatever to clear this up. Indeed, he has acted consistently to make it even worse. (It's not his fault. He does what the people who own the Democrat party - and the Republican party - tell him to do.)

And Canada, like it or not, will be up to its ears in this. That's what our troops to Latvia and our 'trainers' to Syria are all about.

http://thesaker.is/why-the-recent-developments-in-syria-show-that-the-obama-administration-is-in-a-state-of-confused-agony/
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Today's Faith Page doesn't have its usual column by the wimp of the week. Instead, there's an article on the page that somebody on the prairies wants to build a biblical theme park. But don't worry. If you want a tough, independent and spiritually-based view on the world today  you can always go to the irving Chapel, the Bethlehem of New Brunswick.