Vincent J. Curtis
20 Feb 20
For more information on the Cardus application, see the entry below. This is in response to arguments offered at city council for and against acceptance of the Cardus application. On 28 Feb 20 the application was accepted by city council.
Some
members of city council skipped philosophy at school, and so are helpless when
it comes to critical thinking. They resort to quasi-intellectual
questions without merit or even meaning.
Just as
Hamilton is Hamilton and not Toronto, so Cardus is a Christian organization and
not an LGBTQ+ fifth column. Hence when Mayor Fred asks the Cardus
representative if Cardus is an equitable employer, whether it has diversity
among its ranks, and is inclusive of any group, what is the representative
supposed to say? A critical thinker would respond with an impolitic,
“What do you mean by ‘equitable’, ‘diversity’, and ‘any’?”
Councilor
Nrinder Nann asked if Cardus would deliver the Balfour Estate as “a place of
belonging for all?” A critical thinker would skewer the question by
asking what is meant by the expression ‘a place of belonging for all.’
Considering that the use of the place by ten to twelve people is considered a
significant intensification by the province, there is no chance that the estate
could become a place of belonging for all, or even many.
The
questions posed contained coded expressions anti-Christian and pro-LGBTQ+ bias,
but I doubt the questioners understood the significance of their terms and the
vagueness of their meanings. By the very definition of its terms, LGBTQ+
excludes 97 percent of the population, which also highly limits its
diversity. They wouldn’t tolerate a real Christian in their midst, whom
they would treat inequitably on the grounds of retributive justice.
All’s well
that ends well, and Cardus got the approval. But some members of council
did not distinguish themselves for critical thinking.
-30-
Vincent J. Curtis
18 Feb 20
On this date, the Saltpork & Rind ran an op-ed piece by the two authors betow. They are activists with the LGBTQ+ community, and wrote a hate-filled piece opposing an application by Cardus to rent and restore the Balfour Estate in Hamilton, ON. Cardus is a Christian think-tank, and have tradition views on homosexuality and abortion. The Balfour Estate, created in the 1830s, needs a savior, and Cardus offered to use its financial power to restore and maintain the place in return for use of office space in the mansion. This required the support of Hamilton City Council as well as that of the Ontario Heretage Trust, the trustee of the property. This piece below was written in response the the SP&R op-ed. It is notable that members of city council argued in support of the Cardus application along lines like those below. As of 28 Feb 20, city council voted to support the Cardus application.
Community
activists Cameron Kroetsch and Graham Crawford are entirely lacking in
self-awareness. They demand the city not do business with the Cardus
group in preserving the Balfour estate on the grounds that Cardus, being
fundamentalist Christians, stands contrary to the city’s policy on equity,
diversity, and inclusion.
Kroetsch
and Crawford find intolerable Cardus’ intolerance and want Cardus excluded on
the grounds that Cardus is exclusionary.
Kroetsch
and Crawford decry Cardus for saying, “Homosexuals are working towards a
radical redefinition of public mores regarding sexuality, marriage, and the
family.” But save for the indelicate use of the word homosexual for
LGBTQ+, aren’t they? Under different circumstances, wouldn’t Kroetsch and
Crawford stand up and plead guilty?
Continuing
with the boogie-man argument, Cardus must be bad because they are associated
with the Fraser Institute, and an outfit with the ominous-sounding name of
“Focus on the Family.” I’m already shaking.
What K
& C don’t get is that within the city’s policy of diversity and inclusion
stands the requirement to include Christians. An LGBTQ+ approved
monoculture is the opposite of diversity. It is the city’s job to be
accommodative, not the diverse individual groups that may be polar opposites on
policy.
The
opposition to the Cardus proposal has had its say and failed miserably.
Time for the city to take advantage of Cardus’ financial strength to the
benefit of both.
-30-
Vincent J. Curtis
28 Feb 20
The Saltpork & Rind ran an op-ed today slugged, "Slash and burn policies fuelling climate crisis in Ontario. It was written by two authors, each from a different environmentalist-wacko organization. The purpose of the article was to bash Ontario premier Doug Ford for changes in forestry policy. What was notable about the article was the employment of mass extinction along side climate change as a reason why a conservative was not just wrong, he was evil.
Once again,
the Saltpork & Rind publishes a tedious recital of environmentalist nonsense,
presented on the authority of junk science, and that amounts to nothing but an
offering to Baal, the god of environmentalism. From the David Suzuki
Foundation and Environmental Defense we expect no less.
This
article is interesting for its emphasis on the latest faux-scientific fad, the
mass extinction of species. Based on fossil records, paleontologists
infer that there have been several mass die-offs of species over the last 500
million years. All of these previous die-offs are attributed to unknown
but nevertheless natural causes. The current die-off, if it is actually
occurring however, is unquestionably attributable to mankind, and particularly
to the evils of western civilization. Man’s use of fossil fuels must be
the cause of the current die-off, there is little doubt (and even less
evidence) of that.
The purpose
of this is to observe a change in tactics. Global warming lost its cache
in view of the lack of warming since 1998, and was replaced by climate
change. That expression too is losing its power as people notice than
climate always seems to be changing, in a cyclical way. Now we’re
threatened with mass species extinction, something so unobservable by the
average person that they will have to accept the authority of
scientifically-sounding claims.
I expect
mass extinction to take a greater share of the Marxist-Anarchist-Nihilist
propaganda against the success of western civilization.
-30-
Vincent J. Curtis
27 Feb 20
Working
without a copy editor is like walking the high-wire without a net. One
slip, and you’re derbris.
It’s the
conversion of high potential energy into high kinetic energy that creates the
problem. In Canada, we have high potential energy for protests. The
cause doesn’t matter. A powerful undercurrent of
Marxism-Anarchism-Nihilism courses through the Canadian body politic as a
consequence of the current love affair with progressivism. MAN activists
live empty lives with little to do, and MAN combined with some cause or other
gives them purpose and kinetic activity. The expression “the usual
suspects” applies particularly well to this collection of sad people.
Yesterday,
Justin Trudeau accused Andrew Scheer of likening the minority of Wetsuwet’en
hereditary chiefs to radical activists, as if radical activism were a bad thing
- to Liberals, and to Justin personally. Consistency forms no part of
Justin’s argument. Ironically, the next day the Slatpork & Rind ran an opinion
piece slugged, “Conservatives will be judged by the company they keep.”
What’s sauce for the goose is not sauce for the gander in humorless
progressive-land.
Another
laughable piece was one slugged, “We don’t need net zero we need real
zero.” The author obviously has no idea how food gets to his supermarket,
how homes get heated in winter, nor the potential for hydro-electric generation
in the flatlands of Saskatchewan.
Meanwhile,
the Mohawks are going to continue stirring up trouble for fun and profit.
A stop won’t be put to the disruption until the fun and profit are taken
away. The LNG pipeline is going to be built through Wetsuwet’en land to the Pacific coast by
2025 no matter how disrupted CN Rail traffic gets three thousand miles away near Belleville, Ontario.
The Mohawks are protesting the emptiness of their lives, and this or that
Aboriginal cause is only their cover story that hides the real reason from
themselves.
The
restlessness of the MAN undercurrent needs to be better controlled. This
is why order needs to be restored quickly, before average people start adopting
the tactics themselves against the activists who are victimizing them.
Cracking down on activism is hard for Justin because activists are his
people. No enemies on the Left, remember? That’s how MAN eats up
progressivism.
By failing
to maintain public order first and quickly, and failing to discipline his
natural followers, Justin is teaching Canada the wrong lessons.
-30-
Vincent J. Curtis
26 Feb 2020
Heather
Scofield must have been enjoying a lot of that legal stuff of late, for through
the haze she discerns that Canadians have this consensus - that we’re
clamoring for a clear and planned transition to a low-carbon economy.
Written like an authentic member of the chattering class that knows no world
outside of Toronto and Ottawa.
There is no
such consensus. Look at the electoral map. It’s almost solidly blue (i.e. Conservative) west of the Ontario-Manitoba border, and east of the border it doesn’t look
particularly red (i.e. Liberal) outside of the major cities. Even Liberals understand
that conservatives have an allergy to government planned transitions.
Transitions that are driven by market forces are one thing, government coercion
is another, especially when the coercion is towards some suspect, progressivist
utopia.
What is the
“low-carbon” economy she speaks of? Does she mean, low-energy? If
all our fossil fueled powered things were converted to battery, where would we
get the energy to recharge them? There is only one source large enough,
and that’s nuclear power. Is there a consensus to a massive construction of
new CANDU reactors understood in this consensus to a low carbon economy?
I suspect Heather hasn’t thought that far ahead.
Heather,
good typist that she is, has no clue how food gets to her local
supermarket. She should stick to reviewing books of poetry and leave the
hard thinking to those who understand how the world actually works.
-30-
Vincent J. Curtis
26 Feb 2020
It was hard
to imagine pipeline protesters getting any more brain-dead, but some clan
mommas, Bare Clan, Cayuga and Mohawk Nations managed it.
They claim
to be blockading traffic in solidarity with the Wetsuwet’en people who are
opposed to running the GasLink pipeline through allegedly “unceded”
territory. Except that they’re not. Wetsuwet’en lands, ceded or
unceded, belong to the Wesuwet’en people; they are not the personal property of
hereditary chiefs. The will of the people is expressed through the elected
band council, which happens to support the pipeline project. A majority
of the hereditary chiefs, eight of thirteen, also support the project.
So, in what sense can a protest against the pipeline be said to be in
solidarity with the Wetsuwet’en people? By any measure, the Wetsuwet’en
people are demanding that the pipeline be built. So, what’s with
the “we’ll maintain the blockade until the Wetsuwet’en demands are met?”
When these
facts were put to the clan mommas, one of them said that elected band councils
are colonial imposed systems of government not reflecting the traditional
system of hereditary chiefs and clan mothers. In short, it’s
wrong because she doesn’t have power. She goes on, saying that the
Wetsuwet’en band council doesn’t have jurisdiction over unceded lands.
So, who does? The majority of hereditary chiefs support the pipeline.
There is no
answer to this brain-dead insurrection. Blowing up the system is the
characteristic Marxist-Anarchist-Nihilist answer when they don’t get their
way. Sweet reason doesn’t matter.
The clan
mommas, despite total intellectual defeat, say they are going to resist;
they’re going to stand their ground.” They may yet see reason, but reason
may be helped along with the appearance of Mr. Billy Club.
-30-
Vincent J. Curtis
25 Feb 2020
The
blockades were an example of what happens when Marxism-Anarchism-Nihilism takes
hold of a cause. The cause is “reconciliation” but that is just a
particularized form of the general cause of progressivism. The protest
leaders knew their mark, and exploited the Prime Minister’s vanity and other
weaknesses brilliantly. Justin will never recover from the humiliation he
suffered at the hands of his favorite identity group.
The media
did the country no favors by acting as stenographers and rapt audiences for the
protesters, challenging none of their pretentions.
Hereditary
Indian chiefs have no legal authority. Indian lands are not their private
property, nor do they hold an underlying sovereignty on them. The land
belongs to the people of the band, and their will is expressed through the
elected band council. What went practically unreported was that the
Wetsuwet’en band council supported the pipeline, and eight of thirteen
hereditary chiefs also supported it. A disgruntled five did not, and were
the ones who sparked the blockades.
So, where
does reconciliation come in? By law and by democracy, the Wetsuwet’en
people were “reconciled” to the pipeline. Reconciliation and agreement
does not, and as a practical matter cannot, involve unanimity. A faction
of a minority drum up a few dozen protesters and suddenly the whole policy of
reconciliation is at stake. The Canadian National rail network is closed down –
by the company not wanting bad publicity.
Ignorance
is power. Practically no one in the media reported how thinly manned the
blockades were, and that a fair number of out of town white people were
involved in some of them, such as the one west of Edmonton that was cleared by
polite Alberta oil field workers.
By showing
weakness in the face of a challenge to the rule of law, Trudeau put the policy
of reconciliation at risk. What is the point of offering reconciliation
when nothing is ever good enough? Aboriginals everywhere are looked upon
differently today. The disappointment of some was an internal matter for
aboriginals to solve among themselves, but they stood back and did nothing, not
even condemn the protesters.
The
greatest failing of all in this episode was the collapse of order. Before
peace, and before good government, there must be order, and Trudeau failed to
enforce order, that is, the rule of law. National commerce was disrupted
because five guys, who refused reconciliation, took advantage of the MAN
undercurrent in Canada, exploited the fear of political correctness, and with a
few dozen people established cobwebs of blockades at maybe three places at one
time across all of Canada.
A sorry
tale of weakness and folly that can only be cured at the next election.
-30-
Vincent J. Curtis
22 Feb 20
A few hard
working Alberta oil patch workers took matters into their own hands on Thursday and cleared
one of the blockade sites west of Edmonton. The occupiers, of uncertain gender
identity, stood back in fear as these Albertans, wearing work gloves, work
boots, and fire-retardant coveralls, arrived with a stake truck and simply
picked up the debris blocking the track and tossed it into the back of the
truck. The occupiers tried to object, but were met with polite, excuse
me’s, as the men dismantled the heap of trash.
When the
occupiers learned that reinforcements in the form of “United We Roll” were on
the way, they fled in terror, some of them leaving their cars behind and these
were towed away.
The
Wetsuwet’en tribal council, together with eight of thirteen traditional chiefs,
favor the construction of the new gas pipeline. So when “traditional
chiefs” offer “nation to nation” talks with our girlie-man Justin, you have to
wonder whom they purport to represent – other than gangs and opportunistic
lefties?
Alberta oil
patch workers showed that strength, numbers, and resolve can break the
blockades even when tempered with Canadian politeness. Unfortunately,
Canadian leadership is composed of transgenders – people who look like men but
are lacking balls - and only know how to bully the law-abiding.
The rule of
law is at stake. The government has to ensure order. Justin is
failing on both counts, and if to restore order ordinary Canadian men have to
take matters into their own hands, then why do we have the institutions we
have?
-30-
Vincent J. Curtis
21 Feb 20
The Saltpork & Rind ran an editorial today that was strangely optimistic. It was headlined, "Climate change war can be won." It opened with what an informed person would know about climate change, but facts need to be true to be truly known. I was reminded of the "declare victory and go home" strategy recommended to Lyndon Johnson in the middle of the Vietnam War.
For all the
sound and fury signifying ignorance, the editorial bears the unmistakable sign
of withdrawal – of the declare victory and go home variety.
First, the
ignorance. Every informed person doesn’t know that humans are rapidly
overheating the planet. Global warming is a myth crated by climate
alarmists that even they can’t sustain any more. We don’t in fact know to
what extent human are heating the atmosphere at all, because climate fraudsters
in the funding agencies won’t fund studies to determine the ratio of human to
natural caused warming. In fact, we don’t know that a long term trend of
warming is occurring at all.
Informed
persons are aware of the work of UAH and RSS, which shows no warming of the
troposphere since 1998, the so-called pause in global warming. The pause,
recognized by the IPCC, is why the term climate change is now the current
buzz-word replacing global warming.
Informed
persons also know that the polar ice caps are not melting, though oft-predicted
going back into the 1920’s. Climate alarmists were predicting an ice-free
Arctic by 2018 as recently as 2005. An informed person is able to check
on line the condition of the Arctic ice cap and the amount of snow accumulation
in Greenland, which, evidently, does not include the writer of the
editorial. And the Maldives are still above the waves and doing nicely,
despite dire warnings going back more than thirty years. The oceans are
not rising. (Wasn’t Obama supposed to fix that anyway?)
An informed
person knows that as a matter of fact storms, floods, droughts, and wildfire
have become less frequent and less devastating in recent decades, and that
global warming will have no effect whatsoever on the strength of storms, the severity
of floods, or droughts. All these hardships have occurred in the past,
and they were always attributed to acts of nature, when CO2 levels were
low. Only now are such things being attributed to man.
The
editorial at least admits that under Donald Trump the United States is the only
country that is exceeding its carbon dioxide reduction requirements under the
Paris Accord. The reason is the “environmental benighted” fracking
revolution, which is producing so much natural gas that coal-fired power plants
are no longer economic or even necessary. This is “environmentally
benighted” for you: we don’t care that Trump is succeeding, we hate him so
much!
And then
there’s the carbon tax, working its alleged miracles. Funny, but these
miracles are happening before the tax has had a chance to take effect.
The Federal government admits that it doesn’t know by what, if any, carbon
dioxide emissions will be reduced by its carbon tax. It’s taking a
spaghetti against the wall approach. We do know that the carbon tax in
B.C. hasn’t reduced CO2 emissions in that province, and so B.C. is going to
raise it by another $5 a tonne.
All right,
we’ve established conclusively that the editorial’s “informed person” is in
fact quite an ignorant person who gets his news from the Daily Show. But
enough light is shining into the dim offices of the SP&R editorial department
that they can see the writing on the wall. Sooner or later, people are
going to start wondering where all the disasters are. Why have we been
subjected to all this fear-mongering for so long? Is the Saltpork & Rind just
churning out fake news for the advantage of progressivist ideology?
For the
sake of its own credibility, the best policy is to declare victory and go
home. Say the war is won by the carbon tax and you won’t be embarrassed
by all the disasters that never seem to happen. That’s the editorial in a
nutshell.
-30-
Vincent J. Curtis
19 Feb 20
The illegal rail blockade is proving that
Justin Trudeau is nothing like his father.
When faced with an “apprehended insurrection” Pierre Trudeau declared
the War Measures Act and dealt with the FLQ crisis firmly. Justin is spinelessly asking the nation for
resolve, but resolve for what? To be
patient with his irresolution?
The blockade of the CN Rail lines is not
just illegal, it is absurd. CN has
nothing to do with the GasLink project, which will transfer natural gas by
pipeline from B.C. gas fields to an LNG plant in Kitimat. From there, LNG will be sold to Asian
countries as a substitute fuel for coal.
Natural gas has a superior carbon profile to coal. What could an honest Leftie find wrong with
that?
All the relevant Aboriginal bands, through
their legal, elected leadership, have signed on to the deal, and are looking
forward to the employment that construction of the pipeline will provide. All the regulatory hurdles have been jumped. The protesters, insofar as they are authentic
aboriginals and not opportunistic white leftists, maintain that hereditary
chiefs and clan mothers were not consulted.
In short, self-appointed bosses are claiming undemocratic authority, and
a tiny number of their followers are permitted to shut down the operations of
an innocent company. The entire Canadian
political leadership are afraid to appear cracking heads and enforcing the rule
of law.
In Ontario, Mohawks are claiming that they
haven’t surrendered the land on which the CN line runs in Mississauga – which is
true inasmuch as the land was never possessed by the tribe and were never in a
position to surrender sovereignty over it.
There is a reason why Mississauga is called Mississauga, and not Mohawk.
Given that there is nothing to resolve and
no one on the Aboriginal side with whom to authoritatively resolve it, Trudeau
is faced with nothing short of an insurrection of idiots. And there is nothing to do with an unresolvable
insurrection except to put it down by force.
This crisis is exposing Justin for the womanly,
passive-aggressive bully that he is. Law
is just for the law-abiding, so far as Justin in concerned. He will beat up on law-abiding gun owners for
his political benefit, because he is confident they will, in the end, obey the
law and not resort to violence. Andrew Scheer
gets excluded from a leaders’ meeting because he wasn’t playing nice with
Justin. When Jody Wilson-Raybould wasn’t
getting his message, he shuffled her off to another portfolio. All very womanly of him.
Justin’s personal weaknesses are suddenly
placing the future of the country at risk.
He isn’t upholding the rule of law.
He wilts in the face of thuggery.
He is showing the world that there is no use in trying to invest in Canada,
because the regulatory hurdles never end and if they do more are simply
invented. He is teaching the Left that
violence works, with him at least.
There is no doubt that once the police are
unleashed, heads are made to hurt, and crippling fines are imposed, the
protests and blockade will collapse and not be quickly resumed. The question is how long Canada has to wait
before her political leaders act like men.
An irresolute ending of the crisis will only invite the next time.
If Justin doesn’t find a manly spine soon,
his political career will deservedly end at the next election.
-30-
Vincent J. Curtis
14 Feb 20
The Saltpork & Rind editorialized today that the CPC leadership canadidates should all embrace Trudeau's carbon tax as their party's answer to Climate Change. The tenor of the CPC membership is skepticism towards Climate Change and hostility towards the carbon tax. The editorial was pig-ignorant in respect of its asserverated facts and disregard for other facts.
It is
touching that the worshippers of Baal, the god of environmentalism, should be
so concerned for the future of the Conservative Party of Canada. They
suggest that the Tories can make right with Baal if they just burnt some
incense upon the altar of the carbon tax.
But there
are aspects of the argument that seem lacking in probity - and seriousness.
The first
sign of a lack of seriousness is a failure to understand the oft repeated
statistic of 1.5 percent versus 98.5 percent. Canada represents the 1.5
figure, and it means that there is nothing Canada can do about to affect the
outcome determined by the 98.5. A moral argument is sometimes floated, to
the effect that Canada should be a moral example to the 98.5.
Canada
could fall off the face of a flat earth and the effect on CO2 emissions would
be negligible, because China and India are building coal-fired power plants so
rapidly. The Chinese communists and Hindu nationalists are lifting
hundreds of millions of people out of poverty through electrification. If
the Chinese and the Indians even paid attention to Canada’s ‘moral example,’
they would point to the superior morality of poverty relief.
Consequently,
gestures of Baal worship by Canada are entirely symbolic and can have no
practical effect on the world.
Now to
probity. Baal worshippers say that Canadians realize that the planet is
rapidly overheating. This is hard to realize because the planet
isn’t. It is the worshippers of Baal who are overheated, in their
rhetoric. The poetry-readers think they understand science better than
actual scientist do. But the world isn’t going to hit a point of no
return in 2030, or even 2100. The Book of IPCC states that the earth’s
temperature will rise by 1.5℃ by 2100 if current trends continue. In the
first place, no one would notice anything over the course of their normal lives
with a temperature rise of 1.5℃; and in the second, there is no reason to
believe that present trends will continue for the next eighty years. The
1930s, when CO2 was low, were hotter and drier than the present period.
Global temperatures fell from 1940 through to 1979, and climate gurus believed
and proclaimed that an Ice Age cometh. Then, the globe warmed until about
1998. When things leveled off, the Baal worshippers became frantic to
explain the pause in global warming. Hence the coining of the expression,
“climate change” in place of “global warming.”
It may well
be that poetry-readers and guys looking for their next research grant say that
frequent and intense heat waves, storms floods, etc. are getting worse.
Except that the inconvenient historical records going back to the 1920s say
otherwise, and the claims about disasters are qualified with expressions like
“low-confidence.”
It would be
useful if the Baal worshippers actually named the conservative economists who
think that fixating on carbon taxes are just the ticket. Ross McKitrick
of U of G is highly qualified in his acceptance of a carbon tax as the
cure-all. The carbon tax in B.C. is failing, as CO2 emissions continue to
rise, and so the benighted hippies are raising the tax from $35 to $40 a tonne
in the hope that harder and faster overcomes Einstein’s observation about doing
the same thing again and expecting different results.
All in all,
the Baal worshippers seem to be hedging their bets. Sir Justin of the
Carbon Tax is clearly wounded and failing, and he may fall at the next
election. Better to have the likely successors on board with Baal than
risk losing everything. However, that is what democracy is about – the
offering of clear and distinct choices for the people to decide. If the
only difference between clown cars is color, then there is no real choice at
all, which is why America has Trump.
One cannot
blame the Baal worshippers trying to gain converts from among the pagans, but
for the health of the body politic the Conservative party ought to remain
robustly pagan, or at least conscious enough to be able to understand the
significance of the figure ‘1.5.’
-30-
Vincent J. Curtis
13 Feb 20
It was
recently reported that Harvard and Yale Universities were being investigated by
both the U.S Departments of Education and of Justice for having received some
$6 billion in donations from foreign countries and failing to disclose, as they
are required by law to do, this money. The foreign countries are China,
Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. In January, the Chair
of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Harvard was
arrested by the FBI on charges of spying for China.
Here, in
Canada, various Confucius Centers funded by the Chinese government have had to
be shut down on account of spying-like activities. Last year we
discovered that 15,000 Saudi nationals were students at Canadian
universities. Then there is the airliner shot down in Iran that was found
to have had on it an alarming number of Iranian Ph.D. students enrolled in
Canadian universities. It remains a mystery how these students were able
to visit Iran when Canada has had no diplomatic relations with that country in
over seven years. Visas would not be easy to arrange, nor stamps in
passports easily explained.
It appears
that hostile foreign powers are using their financial strength to infiltrate,
compromise, and exploit institutes of higher learning in the western world, in
order to obtain knowledge and skills they cannot develop on their own.
Iran wants a nuclear bomb, a missile to carry it, and increased cyber warfare
capability. China wants to be able to spy on the world in order to protect
the regime. The Arab countries want to suppress any hostility towards
Islam.
Lenin used
to say that a capitalist would sell you the rope that will be used to hang
him. I accuse our institutes of higher learning of having mercenary
interests, such that foreign students get preference to Canadian students -
because those institutes get triple the money for enrolling a foreign student
than they get for a Canadian student. These institutes unwittingly
advance the war-like technical capabilities of hostile foreign powers.
It is time
for the Canadian government to investigate the full extent of foreign
penetration into our institutes of higher learning, and to put a stop to the
transfer of our technical sophistication adaptable for war-like purposes to
foreign powers. It is also time for Canadian universities to understand
the Faustian bargain they are making. Universities came into existence
out of Western enlightenment, but Western enlightenment is not what many of
these foreign students are giving to their home countries. The mercenary
attitude of taking money and growing bigger for the sake of it has to
stop. At one time it made sense for Canadian universities to educate
foreign nationals from the third world, but it no longer does.
This isn’t
about racism – it’s about realising the nature of power politics in the modern
world.
-30-
Vincent J. Curtis
11 Feb 20
The Saltpork & Rind reported a story that a technical college and local school boards were going to put their student's heads together to think of ways of reducing the schools' carbon footprint.
Mohawk
College and nine local school boards provided further proof that climate change
is more a cult than a fact.
The Climate
Change Collective (which represent 270,000 area students, whether they know it
or not!) has made a non-binding agreement with itself to take steps to reduce
its carbon footprint. Since the agreement is nonbinding, no one is
holding their breath. Given the state of the world, its effectiveness
will be indistinguishable from zero, but it will make a lot of people feel
better about themselves.
What kind
of “steps” you ask? The Collective’s components are going to explore ways
of minimizing their carbon “outputs.” Not actually implement anything,
just think about them - within the limits of their funding. The students
get dragged into it by forcing them to explore “all forms of collaborative
learning and research.” Research that “focuses on creating and sustaining
a low-carbon economy.” (Hint: a hunter-gatherer economy in the tropics is
low-carbon.)
Proving
that being on a school board is no indication of intelligence, Wayne Joudrie
boldly declared, “We need to become less reliant on greenhouse gases.”
But CO2 is the greenhouse gas at issue, and we are in no way reliant upon it
for anything, though our plants are. These educators want a “greener”
future by denying plants the food they need to become green!
I’m sure
Baal, the god of environmentalism, will be pleased.
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Vincent J. Curtis
11 Feb 20
MAID stands for Medical Assistance in Dying. Medically assissted suicide was made legal in Canada by order of the Supreme Court. Now, the Quebec Superior Court wants the grounds on which medical assistance to be expanded from death foreseeable to death not foreseeable.
The entire
saga of MAIDness is based upon rank incompetence in logical reasoning.
The
disastrous and incompetent busybody Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of
Canada Beverley McLachlin discovered in the Charter right to “life…. and the right not to be deprived
thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice” a
right to a medically assisted suicide. At her instance the Court
overturned its own decision on the same subject of 1993.
Perhaps by some twist of logic, one can discover the
morally hazardous right to suicide implicit in the right to life. That
means that suicide should not be a criminal offence. But where does the
medically assisted part come in? Medical assistance is not a kind
of principle of fundamental justice. McLachlin pulled the medically
assisted part from the nether regions of her robes – to make the morally
disastrous seem palatable. A right to medically assisted suicide exists
nowhere in the Charter or in Common Law, it is a judge-made law invented out of
whole cloth that has the force of a constitutional right.
Along comes the Quebec Superior Court that says that
limiting medically assisted suicide to the terminally ill is –
unconstitutional! We have an inferior court telling the Supreme Court
that the latter’s decision is unconstitutional. But based on what logical
premise? MAID is completely arbitrary. It was invented out of whole
cloth. There simply is no logical premise for the inferior court to say
McLachlin was wrong by being insufficiently broad. What was arbitrarily
in McLachlin’s head at the time of the ruling is the full and complete
statement of the constitution – since she was deciding what it was.
Canada’s judicial system is filled with rank
incompetence. The governments of Canada need to impeach large numbers of
activist judges on the grounds of incompetence. The trouble is there is
no group in Canada like the Federalist Society in America to help staff
judicial positions with people who understand that the role of judges isn’t
law-making from the bench.
Canada is ruled by moral and legal idiots.
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Vincent J. Curtis
10 Feb 20
Professor
Geoffrey Stevens, former managing editor of Canada’s National Fishwrap,
mysteriously still gets to vent his considerable spleen regularly, having once
been told to get lost from his typing gig.
Stevens
made a rare display of his powers of bombast, describing Republicans as “his
party of bootlickers” and to “his Republican lickspittles in Congress.”
Funny, I’ve never heard this teacher of political science use such language in
reference to the followers of Kim Jong-Un of North Korea, Xi of China, Castro
of Cuba, or Maduro of Venezuela. You have to wonder what it is about
Trump in triumph that drives Stevens around the bend?
Experts in
poly sci know about the “never-Trump” movement in the Republican Party, and
that David Frum is one of the last and most discredited members of that
near-extinct sect. Yet, Professor Stevens quotes Frum for two whole
paragraphs, either out of writer’s fatigue or because he can use Frum’s
vituperation without assuming responsibility for it, and for Frum’s creative
and frequent variations on the word ‘lie.’
Stevens
inadvertently exposed himself when he referred to Rush Limbaugh, a 32 year
veteran of talk radio and who is dying of lung cancer, as “reprehensible” and
“a pre-eminent race-baiter.” Anyone who has followed Rush for any length of
time knows that Rush is a “liberal-baiter” and a “progressive-baiter”, but not
a race baiter. Steven’s evidently swallowed Rush’s bait a long time ago
and is still thrashing about on the hook.
You have to
wonder about the quality of education the poor J-students at Moo U are getting
from the benighted Stevens.
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Vincent J. Curtis
7 Feb 20
The Saltpork & Rind published an editorial which lamented the acquittal of President Trump at the impeachment trial. The editorial expressed distress at 'Trump as the new normal' - as if that were a bad thing.
The
fainting couch in the editorial department must be getting worn out as the staff comes to the realization of: Four More Years!
Here’s a
fearless forecast: Trump will increase his Electoral College majority over 2016
by at least four states, even if the most centrist Democrat candidate gets
nominated. If socialist Bernie Sanders takes the nomination then the roof
will cave in and Trump’s win will approach landslide proportions. The
Republicans will take back the House because the people are tired of
impeachment, they were lied to by the Democrats in 2018, they want the illegal
immigration problem settled, and health care will need to be fixed after the
debacle of Obamacare. (You’ve got to pass it to find what’s in it!) None
of this can be accomplished so long as Nancy Pelosi behaves like a hate-filled
ex-wife in charge of the House.
Trump’s
great sin is that he is a pragmatist and has no use whatsoever for
progressivist ideology. Not only does Trump stomp all over progressivist
sensibilities, his success makes him dangerous to that cult-like religion.
Mitt Romney
and his failures are why America has Trump. With Trump, you always know
where he stands, and he never shrinks from defending himself and his supporters
from the vile and low attacks Democrats employ to bring down their
opponents. Trump is a bigger, tougher gutter fighter than all the
Democrats and media (though I repeat myself) put together. Trump
supporters stand by him because he stands by them.
Quite
unlike Barack Obama, Trump loves America and her constitution. The only
danger Trump presents is to Democrats who don’t want to work with him and are
only intent on his political destruction.
The phony,
passive-aggressive snowflake crowd who hate Trump are going to have a tough
time of it through 2024. He doesn’t care what they think, and his
supporters are tough enough to keep him in office.
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Vincent J. Curtis
22 Jan 20
On Wednesday, January 22, 2020, the Saltpork & Rind treated its readership to a double dose of intellectualism - so it thought. In fact, one of the Ph.D.'s is a product of the tragic destruction of the Humanities at schools of so-called "higher" learning. The doctorate is in some cultural "studies" course. The other is a out-and-out perpetrator of that destruction. He's carried his sorry act from one school to another until he completed his carrier, not in the hated home of his birth, but, sadly, in the Great White North. One guesses the Opinion Page Editor was dazzled by the brilliance of the credentials because the opinion pieces were dreary, predictable, tedious, and lunatic. Truly a case of baffling with bullsh*t, as my father used to say.
On
Wednesday, the Saltpork & Rind treated its readers to a double dose of faux
intellectualism. Latham Hunter, Ph.D., expatiated upon the ‘deeper social
significance of Harry and Megan.’ Yeah.
Henry A.
Giroux, Ph.D. in his usual bile filled way, regurgitated Democrat party talking
points to blame Trump for the constitutional crisis brought on by his
impeachment. Giroux concluded with the wish for impeachment “to be a call
to battle to put on trial the capitalist system” and for reforms that will
“usher in a radical and socialist democracy.”
When Giroux
condemns the capitalist system, one wonders if he includes the capitalism
practiced by Communist China and the People’s Liberation Army. I suspect
he doesn’t think that far ahead. It must be baffling to him for a
communist country to be practicing radical capitalism and suppressing
democracy,
The
constitutional crisis of Trump’s impeachment is brought on, not by Trump, but
by the little Robespierres of the Democrat Party: Adam Schiff, Jerry Nadler,
and the imperious Nancy Pelosi. The articles of impeachment do not allege
an actual ‘high crime or misdemeanor.’ And all the sound and fury of
wrongdoing signify nothing impeachable. Yet, Trump was nevertheless impeached
- out of a need to condemn him before history as deplorable.
The
SP&R failed to see the difference between credentials and quality.
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Vincent J. Curtis
3 Feb 20
The Hamilton Saltpork & Rind dutifully reports obvious gang-land related shooting in the city in a manner that makes one feel the call for a gun ban in the editorial that inevitably follows.
Here is a
news flash that the Saltpork & Rind, in its zeal to make the world safe for
progressivism, seems to have missed. Depriving people of their means of
self-defence is not going to reduce the number of gang-land slayings. It
just won’t.
The SP&R has dutifully reported all sorts of shootings in the city over the last several
years, and an uptrend seems evident. But the stories are never about one
irate neighbour shooting another; they are always about some guy getting
plugged by an unknown hitman or hit team who then escape. Gang-land
style. Sometimes they’re about home invasions.
Sometimes
the wrong person gets hit. Not all hitmen are created equal, but
depriving the fellow down the street of his means of resisting a home invasion
gone wrong isn’t going to stop the criminal underworld from acting violently.
A police
crackdown on drug distribution can lead to an outbreak of gangland
shootings. When the flow of drugs is cut off, dealers will prey upon each
other trying to steal reserves that may have been stashed for just such
shortages. And when money gets tight, debtors pay with their lives as an
example to the others to pay in cash, now. Seizing the guns of the
law-abiding isn’t going to stop this kind of violence, and even puts the
innocent in greater danger.
It is wrong
to think gang violence can be stopped with a gun-ban.
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Vincent J. Curtis
3 Feb 20
Believers
in a free press should take no solace from the “clarifying” remarks from
Heritage Minister Steven Guillbeault. After releasing a document
suggesting the Liberal government needed to move to license news outlets, the
Minister denied it, saying “We are committed to a free and independent
press. Our focus will be and always has been to ensure that Canadians
have access to a diversity of high-quality and credible news sources.”
The use of
the active form ought to raise concerns. Why should the government be
“committed to a free and independent press?” What measures does the
government have in mind “to ensure that Canadians have access to ‘high-quality’
and ‘credible’ news sources?”
The proper
attitude of a government to regulating the press is supine indifference.
The government shouldn’t care. The moment a government takes measures to
fulfill a ‘commitment maintain a free and independent press,’ it involves the
government deciding what amounts to a free and independent press. And
when the commitment is to ‘high-quality and credible new sources,’ does that
leave the gutter press (e.g. Frank Magazine) and news outlets it regards as
less than credible (e.g. Rebel Media) open to government predation?
The
Minister opened his mouth, and changed feet. There is no reason for
believers in a free press to take comfort from the assurance that a busy-body
is going to leave well enough alone..
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Vincent J. Curtis
4 Feb 20
The Hamilton Saltpork & Rind published an op-ed by the Director of an outfit called the Ontario Clean Air Alliance. It was a screed against the use of nuclear power, with the suggestion that power purchased from Hyrdo-Quebec and the construction of "renewable" power generation could make up the difference. Ontario went all-in with nuclearn power generation in the 1960s through the 1980s based on the Canadian designed and built CANDU reactor. The oldest of these are coming to the end of their designed service lives and will have to be replaced within the decade. Ontario eliminated both of its coal-fored power plants about eight years ago, and now relies on hydro-generation, nuclear, and "renewables," which, of course, are backed up by natural gas generators.
For thirty
years I’ve been saying that environmentalists discover problems and then
declare that every practical solution is unacceptable. Angela Bischoff
did not disappoint.
You would
think that the Director of the Ontario Clean Air Alliance would be in favor of
any energy source that didn’t pollute the air. But no. Nuclear
power, which does not pollute the air, is unacceptable. Instead, Bischoff
calls for Ontario to purchase hydro-electric power from Quebec, or to build
more “renewable” generation such as wind and solar.
The trouble
with “renewables” is that they all require natural gas generation as a back-up
power supply, for when the wind isn’t blowing and the solar panels are covered
in snow and darkness. “Renewables” aren’t as pollution-free as Marxist
environmentalists would have you believe. Never mind the production of
carbon dioxide, there is pollution associated with manufacturing and disposing
of the solar panels, to say nothing of the bird-killing power of windmills.
The real
test of the seriousness of an environmentalist is their attitude toward nuclear
power. Those who are dead-set against it aren’t serious as
environmentalists, they are simply Marxists playing the environmental
game. They don’t want answers, they want chaos and economic
dislocation. They hate western economic success and are seeking to
undermine it.
High
technology Ontario should be looking to update and renew its commitment to
clean, reliable, and Canadian nuclear generation.
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Vincent J. Curtis
26 Nov 2019
Perhaps no man was better prepared by
family tradition and training for high command in the Canadian army than Guy
Simonds. Born in 1903 in England into a
military family, Guy came to Victoria, B.C. in 1911 at the age of nine. His father had been a career officer in the
Royal Regiment of Artillery, and he returned to Britain after the outbreak of
World War I.
Guy Simonds enrolled in RMC in 1921 after
coming second in nation-wide entrance exams.
He graduated in 1925 second academically in his class and ranked as best
overall cadet. He was commissioned a 2Lt
in the RCHA. Between 1932 and 1934 he
attended a Long Gunnery Staff course in England, and attended Camberley Staff
college between 1936 and 1937. Promoted
Major in 1937, he returned to RMC as an Associate Professor of Artillery and
instructor of tactics.
When World War II broke out, Simonds was
appointed GSO II (Operations) of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division,
the first formation sent by Canada to Britain.
In June 1940, with invasion imminent, Simonds was appointed CO of the 1St
Field Regiment, RCHA. In November 1940,
after the threat of invasion had passed, Simonds was appointed Commandant of
the Canadian Junior War Staff College, in which he condensed the two-year
Camberley course into 14 weeks to meet the shortage of qualified Canadian staff
officers. Subsequently, he was appointed
GSO I of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division, then commanded by
Victor Odlum.
Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union in
June, 1941, afforded Simonds the chance to move to a higher staff
position. In August of that year, he was
promoted Acting Brigadier and placed on the staff of 1st Canadian
Corps under Andrew McNaughton and George Pearkes. Later, Harry Crerar came into the picture.
Simonds caught the eye of Bernard
Montgomery for his excellent staff work in Exercise Tiger in May 1942. Simonds was tasked to the planning of
Operation Jupiter, an invasion of northern Norway, and so was not involved in
planning the disastrous raid on Dieppe.
Switching back to a command position, Simonds was appointed GOC 1st
Canadian Infantry Brigade.
January 1943 found Simonds as Chief of
Staff of the 1st Canadian Army under the command of McNaughton. Exercise Spartan of March, 1943 demonstrated
McNaughton’s incompetence as a field commander, and the boy-wonder put it to
him that he step aside as a tactical commander.
A furious McNaughton shipped Simonds to Montgomery, then in
Tunisia. There, Simonds leaned the
Montgomery method of the set-piece battle on an army scale.
Canada sent its 1st Division to
North Africa to participate in the invasion of Sicily. Its commander, Harry Salmon, was killed in a
plane crash, and Montgomery contrived to have Simonds, then just 40, promoted
to Major-General and GOC 1st Canadian Division. Simonds led the division in the Sicily
campaign with determination, and impressed Montgomery as a field commander.
Simonds led 1st Div in the
invasion of Italy in September, 1943. He
fell ill later that month, and was replaced by Chris Vokes. In November, Simonds was appointed GOC 5th
Canadian Armoured Division in Italy, again with Montgomery’s help. Monty wanted to give Simonds seasoning with
tanks.
The activation of the 1st
Canadian Corps gave the lackluster Harry Crerar, then 55, a chance for a field
command, and thus began the poisonous relations between Crerar and
Simonds. Old Crerar was jealous of the
image and publicity the dashing young Simonds was acquiring through his
battlefield successes, the first Canadian successes of the war. Crerar tried to have Simonds sacked and
returned to Canada, claiming he was too ‘high strung’ and doubting his
suitability for command despite his brains, technical knowledge, and
experience. Crerar then deprived 5th
Div of the new equipment meant for it as a means of undermining Simonds.
Montgomery was not about to let Harry
Crerar’s personal jealousies spoil the war effort, and a protégé’s career. Montgomery forbade Crerar from sending
Simonds home in disgrace from Italy.
All this was in prelude to the Normandy
campaign.
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Vincent J. Curtis
1 Feb 20
In a story headlined, "Quebec premier's Muslim support draws hateful Facebook posts" the Canadian Press reported the facts as outlined below. The taint of progressivism coloured the story.
In playing
the progressive game of identity politics and of virtue-signaling, Quebec’s
Premier Francois Legault blundered into a political crossfire. Expressing
sympathy for the Muslim community of Quebec, Legault stated that Quebec was “not
immune from hatred, but its people stand in solidarity with Muslims in the
province.”
Unsurprisingly,
these comments sparked negative reactions. In saying that Quebec was not
immune to hate, Legault implied French Quebeckers, the people who elected him, may be in sympathy with the
motives of a murderer. He also implied that Muslims in the province were
not Quebeckers - but nevertheless Quebeckers stand in solidarity with this
distinct community of people.
The air of
Gallic contempt continued in the response to the responses. Transport
Minister Francois Bonnardel said “some people…need to be better educated….There
is a problem with certain people who dare to think that.” As if to say
that sufficient time spent in a re-education camp would cure adults of their
unprogressive thoughts.
Perhaps a
lack of education is a fault of Quebec’s political class, which seems blind to
the logical implications of their own words and phrases.
People who
have been awake the last twenty years would find many reasons why a Catholic, a Jew, an athetist, and agnostic, and a few others would not stand in blanket solidarity with Muslims
– a community that stands outside Quebec society.
The notion
of racist, prejudiced Quebeckers is maintained in the news coverage, referring
to “hateful” posts. Quebeckers can’t win a contest of identity politics
refereed by progressives.
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