We were told that 20 RCMP officers have asked for transfers out of the district. The implication is that they requested transfers because three police officers were killed a year ago. If they had been concerned about being killed in this wild, wild city,, they would have resigned the force, not simply transferred to another district. Those requests for transfer don't tell us that the police are afraid. It tells us that they have no confidence whatever in the local leadership.
Why didn't the assignment editor think of that? Why don't the reporters think of that? (I suspect they do think of those things - but they know the boss doesn't want them to think.)
There is surely every sign of a lack of trust in the command structure. We also have to wonder about why it is taking the force over a year to equip and train the police with suitable weapons. We also need answers about how a disturbed Justin Bourque could get combat rifles. Where did he buy them? Why are such weapons allowed on the market? And why don't the police have records of who has such weapons. But, obviously, the Irving press has no intention of asking such questions? Why not?
Probably because they don't want to offend the arms industry - you know, the industry (and its gun nut followers) who buy off governments to let them sell anything up to machine guns and artillery to the general public. (At a gun store in Arizona, I was offered a twenty mm. anti-tank gun for $3000. They also had machine guns, from Uzis to World War Two Sten guns.. This is all from the industry for which Harper ordered the destruction of the gun registry so he could get votes from gun nuts, and, probably, campaign donations from the industry.
New Brunswickers should be demonstrating to demand answers. But they won't. This is a see no evil, hear no evil province.
Speaking of willful ignorance, read today's front page headline. Moncton planning neighbourhood of the future. Then, in a long story, it tells us nothing. What is the future going to be like 50 years from now, or even 20? Will it be a future of fossil fuel powered cars? If so,we could build some pretty flimsy homes because there won't be all that many people left alive for very long.
Will it be designed for public transportaion? What sort? And will it have enough population density to make public transportation feasible? We are told it will have a "proper mix of housing". Well, I wasn't expecting an improper mix. But what does "proper mix" mean?
All the news in section A is like that - either uninformative, or samples of small-town boosterism as in "Moncton lauded as friendly city." "The city will add extra busses for soccer fans". Wow! Extra. extra. read all about it.
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The editorial is the usual, wimpy stuff. It says we have to cut some teachers because we have a higher ratio of teachers than we did 15 years ago. Brilliant. Has it never occurred to the editorial writer that our school were badly understaffed 15 years ago? Anybody who knows anything about education knows about that.
And how can a province with the illiteracy rate of this one consider cutting teachers?
And how can a province with the illiteracy rate of this one consider cutting teachers?
Then the editorialist says the government and the union should work together on deciding how many to cut. Brilliant - except that the role of the union is to represent the teachers, not to work out deals for the government and its financial backers. Hey, maybe the Irving press could suggest that Mr. Irving pay some taxes. That would help.
Norbert has another good column, this one on our sleazy Senate.
For commentary, Cole Hobson has nothing in particular to say, but fills his space anyway.
Alec Bruce is superb on the gross overpayment of CEOs and upper management in big business. The second to last paragraph is a gem. ":These boys who wrecked the world own all the toys. They simply got out of the sandbox when the getting was good.. That's not 'dysfunctional' per se; selfish, yes; evil indisputably"
This is the best description I've seen of the greed and moral rot that infects so much of our world.
And it has profoundly affected our universities - probably as a result of their boards of governors being loaded with grossly overpaid executives. Twenty years ago, when I was offered a presidency, I was astonished at the insanely high salary and perks. And we've seen quite a rise in the number of deans - many of them useless, and all of them wildly overpaid.
______________________________________________________________________________
Then, with great reluctance, I have to criticize a column about how, "A century ago, our 26th batalion (a battalion is that part of a regiment which has been sent to war..) left New Brunswick for World War One. The column is well written; and I quite agree those men went through horror But..............
We have sentimentalized and idealized their suffering. And that does them no honour. We see and hear this sort of thing every November 11. And we recreate the enemy as villains when, as a rule, the villains are not the soldiers of either side. World War 1 was not caused by evil Germans or Austrians or Turks - or by evil British or evil French people.
It was caused by the very rich on both sides who, on both sides, were greedy and who wanted control of world markets. In other words, it was fought for exactly the same reasons as Vietnam, Iraq, Guatemala, the so-called "war on terror" and, in fact, the same reasons as just about every war in history. And it's the same reason that the wealthy of the US want war on Russia and China.
But, of course, the eager volunteers aren't told that. Like the crowd that saw the 26th off to war, "So good to see the lads doing their bit for God, King and Country "
The clergy, of course, have always been big on getting God in there. And their God wants us to kill. (The soldiers, by the way, despite the romanticization of dying, don't go to die. The purpose of the soldiers is to kill, not to die if it can possibly be avoided.)
I don't know where our clergy get the idea that God wants us to kill. That must be an 11th commandment that Moses dropped on the way down from the mount..
As for a King, I would be willing to kill or die for a king or Queen even less than I would want to for a Canadian senator.
And to die for country? Come off it. Nobody even knows what that term means.
Incidentally, there is no way the King of England was going to fight for us. We fought for the king in the Boer War - (another war fought purely to make the rich richer, and one that had nothing to do with Canada.) But the King had no intention of fighting for us. That was made very clear at the Alaska Boundary dispute of just a few years after the Boer War. If anything, the king wanted to get rid of Canada. That's why we were allowed to become independent after 1918. It was so Britain would never get caught up in a war to defend Canada. Stuff the king and/or queen.
Then, there's the "huns" "There's only one hun to trust, and he's a dead one." Geermans in that war and WW2 were huns, just as Vietnamese werre 'slopes' and Iraqis and Muslims in general are "terrorists" in our "war on terror"/ We, in effect, re-create the enemy as evil, depraved, hateful. We make them an inferior race - so it's okay to kill them.
And we never mention the very rich for whom these wars really were and are fought.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Respect those who went, and mourn those who suffered and those who died.
But don't romanticize the way we do. We need to understand the truth so that in future, we don't send young people to get killed so rich bastards can get richer. And, for the Irving press, tell us the names of those rich who want wars with Russia and China and the Middle East. And tell us how many of them have actually fought for God, King and country.
____________________________________________________________________________
Canada&;World is almost barren of anything that could be called news.
On B3, Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe says he's getting no respect from news media outside Quebec as he comes out of retirement to lead the separatist Bloc.. He says other people who came back to politics after retiring got respect - Pierre Trudeau, Ed Broadbent. And he deserves respect just like them. Hm. Seems like Gilles is suffering ego problems.
Incidentally, who gains from Duceppe reviving the Bloc? Let's see, who did surprisingly well in the last federal election in Quebec? That would be the NDP. Who stands to gain from the Bloc splitting that vote? Well, that would be Harper. Coincidence, I'm sure.
On B5, Harper visited Pope Francis to invite him to Canada, but not to discuss the suffering of native people in Canadian residential schools. Nope. He wants the Pope to give a political speech condemning Russian 'aggression' in Ukraine. He was granted only a very short visit - which suggests the Pope was not dazzled by his proposal.
Pope Francis, unlike Harper, is an extremely intelligent man. So he understands what the Ukraine is all about. He also, unlike Harper,, tells the truth. And he has shown a deep sympathy for the suffering of native peoples all over the world. As well, and again unlike Harper, he has not kissed up to billionaires.
No wonder their meeting was brief.
B4 has a very, very big story on New Brunswick's auditor general who has spent a total of four weeks in Africa. The story tells us almost nothing of the big problems she encountered in Africa.
What we get is the adventure of how she found a cockroach in her shower, Then we are told it sometimes gets hot in Africa. She had to speak slowly into microphones because many listeners were weak in English. Traffic is terrible in Tanzania. The countryside is beautiful. In short, this is a long postcard that says "Having a wonderful time. wish you were here."
Our Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Cleary, was also in Africa - for six months - in a country racked by dreadful disease. She worked long hours, and risked her life to save those people. But not a word in the Irving press. The CBC built a major story on her work. But I guess the intellectual dwarfs at Irving press didn't notice it.
Could that have something to do with her having issued an unfavourable report on shale gas? How come the Irving press never gave us the full story on her report? How come no editorialist or commentary writer discussed it? How come every report that favours shale gas gets a banner headline on page 1. How come every favourable comment also gets editorials and commentaries that kiss rear ends?
How come Dr. Cleary is never referred to as 'noted' or 'repected' like that nice professor Saillant?
Don't worry about this province going financially bankrupt. It doesn't matter because it long ago went intellectually and morally bankrupt.
______________________________________________________________________________
Meanwhile, millions of innocent people are starving and dying for lack of medical care in Yemen. They're being blockaded by Saudi Arabia which is also area bombing, with bombs courtesy of the US. God bless America.
US big business is quite obviously looking for an excuse for war with China and Russia. Harper, who actually doesn't give a damn about Ukraine, is playing the patsy for big business - but just to get the Ukrainian Canadian vote.
International bankers, who spread corruption in Greece in the first place, now want to drive the country into generations of poverty as they try to squeeze every drop our of the Greek people. (They're doing the same to Ukraine, but the Irving press never tells us that, either.) But the new Greek government is honest - and it's refusing to cooperate with the bankers. It actually thinks it has a responsibility to the people of Greece.
Accordingly, Greece might pull out of the European Union (which is essentially a front for bankers, anyway.) If that happens, the European Union might become history - and sooner rather than later. And, when that happens, a good deal of European big money might drift into Chinese and Russian banks. In fact, a great deal already has. Big money is realistic in its greed - the US is a falling empire. China is a growing one - as is India. Europeans also have to worry about the US doing something desperate to save its financial control before it's too late, something like - oh, say - pre-emptive nuclear attacks on Russia and China.
There are no friends between nations. And certainly not even a pretence of friends where money is involved.
None of the above is in the Irving press.
______________________________________________________________________________
By the way, while we're fighting for God and Queen and Country, how come the Irving press never tells us about it? Remember? We have six fighter-bombers bombing Iraq and Syria. Of course, I'm sure they only bomb people who are holding up signs saying "I am a terrorist." But how come the Irving press - which always speaks highly of God, Queen and Country - doesn't tell us what they're doing?
We are living in one hell of a fragile world, and one that's changing at a pace we've never seen before. It's run, in all major countries, by the sort of people we wrongly call capitalists. They are simply people whose greed and lust for power have made them insane. I would not even try to predict what the world alliances will be in as little as two years from now. We are also likely to see severe social disorder in the US as well as other countries.
And, just this week, our parliament has passed C51, a law that destroys the rights guaranteed in any free nation. We, like the US, are a police state.
But don't worry about it. Just read the Irving press - and go to sleep - while the Irvings and their friends use their stooges in the legislature rip us off.
Norbert has another good column, this one on our sleazy Senate.
For commentary, Cole Hobson has nothing in particular to say, but fills his space anyway.
Alec Bruce is superb on the gross overpayment of CEOs and upper management in big business. The second to last paragraph is a gem. ":These boys who wrecked the world own all the toys. They simply got out of the sandbox when the getting was good.. That's not 'dysfunctional' per se; selfish, yes; evil indisputably"
This is the best description I've seen of the greed and moral rot that infects so much of our world.
And it has profoundly affected our universities - probably as a result of their boards of governors being loaded with grossly overpaid executives. Twenty years ago, when I was offered a presidency, I was astonished at the insanely high salary and perks. And we've seen quite a rise in the number of deans - many of them useless, and all of them wildly overpaid.
______________________________________________________________________________
Then, with great reluctance, I have to criticize a column about how, "A century ago, our 26th batalion (a battalion is that part of a regiment which has been sent to war..) left New Brunswick for World War One. The column is well written; and I quite agree those men went through horror But..............
We have sentimentalized and idealized their suffering. And that does them no honour. We see and hear this sort of thing every November 11. And we recreate the enemy as villains when, as a rule, the villains are not the soldiers of either side. World War 1 was not caused by evil Germans or Austrians or Turks - or by evil British or evil French people.
It was caused by the very rich on both sides who, on both sides, were greedy and who wanted control of world markets. In other words, it was fought for exactly the same reasons as Vietnam, Iraq, Guatemala, the so-called "war on terror" and, in fact, the same reasons as just about every war in history. And it's the same reason that the wealthy of the US want war on Russia and China.
But, of course, the eager volunteers aren't told that. Like the crowd that saw the 26th off to war, "So good to see the lads doing their bit for God, King and Country "
The clergy, of course, have always been big on getting God in there. And their God wants us to kill. (The soldiers, by the way, despite the romanticization of dying, don't go to die. The purpose of the soldiers is to kill, not to die if it can possibly be avoided.)
I don't know where our clergy get the idea that God wants us to kill. That must be an 11th commandment that Moses dropped on the way down from the mount..
As for a King, I would be willing to kill or die for a king or Queen even less than I would want to for a Canadian senator.
And to die for country? Come off it. Nobody even knows what that term means.
Incidentally, there is no way the King of England was going to fight for us. We fought for the king in the Boer War - (another war fought purely to make the rich richer, and one that had nothing to do with Canada.) But the King had no intention of fighting for us. That was made very clear at the Alaska Boundary dispute of just a few years after the Boer War. If anything, the king wanted to get rid of Canada. That's why we were allowed to become independent after 1918. It was so Britain would never get caught up in a war to defend Canada. Stuff the king and/or queen.
Then, there's the "huns" "There's only one hun to trust, and he's a dead one." Geermans in that war and WW2 were huns, just as Vietnamese werre 'slopes' and Iraqis and Muslims in general are "terrorists" in our "war on terror"/ We, in effect, re-create the enemy as evil, depraved, hateful. We make them an inferior race - so it's okay to kill them.
And we never mention the very rich for whom these wars really were and are fought.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Respect those who went, and mourn those who suffered and those who died.
But don't romanticize the way we do. We need to understand the truth so that in future, we don't send young people to get killed so rich bastards can get richer. And, for the Irving press, tell us the names of those rich who want wars with Russia and China and the Middle East. And tell us how many of them have actually fought for God, King and country.
____________________________________________________________________________
Canada&;World is almost barren of anything that could be called news.
On B3, Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe says he's getting no respect from news media outside Quebec as he comes out of retirement to lead the separatist Bloc.. He says other people who came back to politics after retiring got respect - Pierre Trudeau, Ed Broadbent. And he deserves respect just like them. Hm. Seems like Gilles is suffering ego problems.
Incidentally, who gains from Duceppe reviving the Bloc? Let's see, who did surprisingly well in the last federal election in Quebec? That would be the NDP. Who stands to gain from the Bloc splitting that vote? Well, that would be Harper. Coincidence, I'm sure.
On B5, Harper visited Pope Francis to invite him to Canada, but not to discuss the suffering of native people in Canadian residential schools. Nope. He wants the Pope to give a political speech condemning Russian 'aggression' in Ukraine. He was granted only a very short visit - which suggests the Pope was not dazzled by his proposal.
Pope Francis, unlike Harper, is an extremely intelligent man. So he understands what the Ukraine is all about. He also, unlike Harper,, tells the truth. And he has shown a deep sympathy for the suffering of native peoples all over the world. As well, and again unlike Harper, he has not kissed up to billionaires.
No wonder their meeting was brief.
B4 has a very, very big story on New Brunswick's auditor general who has spent a total of four weeks in Africa. The story tells us almost nothing of the big problems she encountered in Africa.
What we get is the adventure of how she found a cockroach in her shower, Then we are told it sometimes gets hot in Africa. She had to speak slowly into microphones because many listeners were weak in English. Traffic is terrible in Tanzania. The countryside is beautiful. In short, this is a long postcard that says "Having a wonderful time. wish you were here."
Our Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Cleary, was also in Africa - for six months - in a country racked by dreadful disease. She worked long hours, and risked her life to save those people. But not a word in the Irving press. The CBC built a major story on her work. But I guess the intellectual dwarfs at Irving press didn't notice it.
Could that have something to do with her having issued an unfavourable report on shale gas? How come the Irving press never gave us the full story on her report? How come no editorialist or commentary writer discussed it? How come every report that favours shale gas gets a banner headline on page 1. How come every favourable comment also gets editorials and commentaries that kiss rear ends?
How come Dr. Cleary is never referred to as 'noted' or 'repected' like that nice professor Saillant?
Don't worry about this province going financially bankrupt. It doesn't matter because it long ago went intellectually and morally bankrupt.
______________________________________________________________________________
Meanwhile, millions of innocent people are starving and dying for lack of medical care in Yemen. They're being blockaded by Saudi Arabia which is also area bombing, with bombs courtesy of the US. God bless America.
US big business is quite obviously looking for an excuse for war with China and Russia. Harper, who actually doesn't give a damn about Ukraine, is playing the patsy for big business - but just to get the Ukrainian Canadian vote.
International bankers, who spread corruption in Greece in the first place, now want to drive the country into generations of poverty as they try to squeeze every drop our of the Greek people. (They're doing the same to Ukraine, but the Irving press never tells us that, either.) But the new Greek government is honest - and it's refusing to cooperate with the bankers. It actually thinks it has a responsibility to the people of Greece.
Accordingly, Greece might pull out of the European Union (which is essentially a front for bankers, anyway.) If that happens, the European Union might become history - and sooner rather than later. And, when that happens, a good deal of European big money might drift into Chinese and Russian banks. In fact, a great deal already has. Big money is realistic in its greed - the US is a falling empire. China is a growing one - as is India. Europeans also have to worry about the US doing something desperate to save its financial control before it's too late, something like - oh, say - pre-emptive nuclear attacks on Russia and China.
There are no friends between nations. And certainly not even a pretence of friends where money is involved.
None of the above is in the Irving press.
______________________________________________________________________________
By the way, while we're fighting for God and Queen and Country, how come the Irving press never tells us about it? Remember? We have six fighter-bombers bombing Iraq and Syria. Of course, I'm sure they only bomb people who are holding up signs saying "I am a terrorist." But how come the Irving press - which always speaks highly of God, Queen and Country - doesn't tell us what they're doing?
We are living in one hell of a fragile world, and one that's changing at a pace we've never seen before. It's run, in all major countries, by the sort of people we wrongly call capitalists. They are simply people whose greed and lust for power have made them insane. I would not even try to predict what the world alliances will be in as little as two years from now. We are also likely to see severe social disorder in the US as well as other countries.
And, just this week, our parliament has passed C51, a law that destroys the rights guaranteed in any free nation. We, like the US, are a police state.
But don't worry about it. Just read the Irving press - and go to sleep - while the Irvings and their friends use their stooges in the legislature rip us off.
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