Simplistic analysis of a sophisticate

Vincent J. Curtis

24 June 21

RE: What will it take to root out hatred and violence? Subtitled: The real problem is that our society and world are rooted in outdated and toxic tribalism.  By Alexander T. Polgar, Ph.D.  Dr. Polgar is an author who has written about the theme below for decades, most recently in a four book series on addiction.  Hamilton Spectator op-ed of 24 June 21.

Once again, Spec readers are blessed with a simplistic vision of the anointed, - those credentialed experts to whom we must defer our governance.  But since even a cat can look at a king, let’s look at the analysis.

“The underlying problem, and root cause of violence, hate, and intolerance, is that most of the world is developmentally stuck at the tribal stage perspective.  Consequently, the global population is not divided or polarized,” writes Dr. Polgar.  If I take the latter sentence first, he seems to be saying that the problem lies not with us cosmopolitan elites of the world, but with those cramped rubes who don’t share the elites’ broad vision.  The second sentence is otherwise a non-sequitur from the first.  The first sentence, in turn, is betrayed by its reductionism.

In the first place, the sentence, and the analysis in general, fails to distinguish the tribe from the individual.  The difference amounts to the difference between war and crime.  The crime of a madman is not an act of the tribe.  Anger and hatred differ in their causes and in their effects, as Aristotle observed.  One can become angry without hating, and hate without being angry.  Between the two, violence is much more likely to arise from anger than from hatred.  Following Aristotle again, hatred merely wishes ill upon the object of  hatred, whereas anger wishes to see ill done to the object of anger.

Tribalism theory fails to account for “white supremacism,” since white is not a tribe, for many tribes are white.  In Europe, there are, or were, tribes of Frenchmen, Germans, Swedes, English, Scots, Welsh, Irish, Poles, and Russians – all of which were are war with one another in the past; so white, is not a tribe, and white supremacism is therefore inexplicable within the theory offered.

Tribalism also fails to account for prolonged peace, such as that which exists among the six tribes of the Iroquois confederacy, or among the nations of Europe for the last nearly eighty years.

Islam creates precisely the tribalism Dr. Polgar condemns, yet the purpose of de-tribalizing the rest of us is to end Islamophobia, which can be defined as a fear of the tribal characteristics of the Islamic tribe.

End of observations.

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The unreality of “real choices”

Vincent J. Curtis

23 June 21

RE: The real choices facing Hamiltonians.  Op-ed article by don McLean Hamilton Spectator 23 June 21.

The critics of urban boundary expansion in Hamilton are allergic to data and actual experience.  That is why McLean’s article resorts to Malthusian theory, long discredited, to establish his case.  What happens when urban expansion is stopped by policy was thoroughly investigated by, among others, economist Thomas Sowell.  The genesis of the economic collapse of 2008 was when new development was banned starting in the 1970s in California.  The ban produced skyrocketing housing prices because of rising demand and no new supply.  Policy responses to unaffordable housing forced the issuance of mortgages to people who couldn’t afford the payments, and the farce collapsed in 2006.

Data that is significant to McLean’s case, but goes unmentioned, is: what is the total value of the crops grown on the land presently?  What is the value of the property as farmland?  What will it become after it is developed for housing? What will the tax revenues of the land fully developed as residential to the city versus what it is presently?

My guess is that the value of the crops is insignificant, and that the land will be much more valuable as residential property than as farmland, and contribute much more to city coffers than the farmland does presently.

In addition, housing prices will remain reasonable as new construction rises to meet growing demand.  All round smarter economics and a happier life for Hamiltonians in the future.

The problem with McLean and his ilk is that they want to force their vision of housing onto others.  He wants smaller houses, smaller lots, and living closer together, but people actually want the kind of housing that the builders will provide and that they can afford.

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Bill C-15: Set up for disappointment

Vincent J. Curtis

22 June 21

RE: Indigenous peoples need a new deal.  Hamilton Spectator editorial 22 June 21

The starry-eye fools who write editorials for the Spectator are no believers in democracy, or individual rights for that matter.  In the editorial it is wistfully said, “Eventually, Canada’s laws should be consistent with UNDRIP’s requirements.”  Really?  What if Canadians democratically choose otherwise?

What about the democratic rights of Canadians?  How did their free will on domestic policy become encumbered by a pretend World Government?

“Indigenous peoples have a right to self-determination.”  Of course they do, but if they’re going to do it on the Canadian taxpayers dime, then not so much.

Continuing, “Indigenous peoples should be able to “freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social, and cultural development.”  This doesn’t occur in a vacuum.  Canada may have something to say about it, and so the word “freely” is divisively aspirational.

Lastly, “it requires the prior informed consent of Indigenous groups on any government decision that affects their land or rights, including approval of development projects.”  Using the Foxgate Property dispute in Caledonia as the example, explain how this is supposed to work on a national scale.

This passage of Bill C-15 is an exercise in moral preening by Justin Trudeau that will only disappoint, and is quite unnecessary given the recognition of aboriginal rights in the Charter.

The democratic and national rights of Canadians are treated as toilet-tissue by UNDRIP.  We are all indigenous to the planet earth.

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Pathetic journalism

Vincent J. Curtis

21 June 21

RE: City’s indigenous community wants Macdonald statue removed.  Hamilton Spectator 21 June 21.

One of the most pathetic tropes of journalism is to begin a story with a pathetic anecdote and then segue into an equally pathetic generalization.  That’s how the story at reference proceeds.

An Indian who travels into downtown Hamilton is triggered by the statue of Sir John A. Macdonald.  Sometime in the 1950s or maybe 60’s, this person’s mother was forced to go to a residential school, and was alleged raped by an Indian agent.  The faults for these are laid at the foot of Macdonald, who died seventy years earlier.  It is as if no one in the intervening decades was responsible for their own actions; it’s all Macdonald’s fault.

We are further invited to believe on the basis of the opinions of two other people that it is the settled opinion of the entire aboriginal community of Hamilton that Macdonald’s statue be removed.  I’ll bet if you polled the entire city, the majority of people would want it to remain.  It’s not just the opinions of aboriginals living in Hamilton who have a say in this.

Moreover, aboriginals have no standing in this matter.  They are First Nations, not Canadian.  Macdonald is Canada’s hero, not theirs, though grudgingly he should be considering what he saved them from.  

Trying to please aboriginals is a mug’s game.  They aren’t sincerely interested in reconciliation because under no circumstances will they join mainstream Canadian society.  They are only interested in the white man’s money, and any humiliation along the way they can inflict is a bonus.

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When Jews became Caucasian

 

Racial profiling

Vincent J. Curtis

21 June 21

RE: Making Supreme Court reflect today’s Canada

The announcement that Mahmud Jamal was being nominated for the Supreme Court of Canada sent progressive media into a frenzy of racial profiling.  Jamal is allegedly the first Person of Colour to be appointed to the Supreme Court.

He will be replacing Rosalie Abella on the bench, and retired Justice Marshall Rothstein was quoted in the editorial enthusiastically supporting the nomination.  Both Abella and Rothstein are Jewish, so if Jamal is the first person of colour, then Abella and Rothstein are not persons of color despite being Semites.  Does that make Semites Caucasian?  And if Semites are “white,” does that make Arabs white also?  And what about the Aryans of Iran?

If we’re going to celebrate race, and profile by race, then let’s make sure of our facts.  By Big Canadian Media’s present reckoning (subject to change, and doubtless taking their cue from a press release of the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau), Semites are Caucasian, and their appointment to the Supreme Court didn’t constitute the appointment of persons of colour, or, in the case of Rosalie Abella, a woman of colour, to the bench.  And I guess that makes Jews capable of white supremacism and all the other crimes whites are guilty of.

Glad that’s now clear.

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Canada is a racist hell-hole

Vincent J. Curtis

19 June 21

RE: 500 refugees to be settled.  New article in the Hamilton Spectator 189 June 21.

The number 500 doesn’t begin to tell the whole story; according to the CBC, 45,000 refugees will be settled in Canada in this year of COVID 2021.  You have to wonder why so many people would want to come to this racist hell-hole, Canada?

Don’t they know Canada is rife with systemic racism? White supremacism? And then there’s Quebec’s Bill C-21.  No less a personage than the Prime Minister himself declared on the floor of the House of Commons that Canada was responsible for the deaths of untold thousands of aboriginal children, and $40 million has been allocated just to find all the bodies!

For the love of God and the sake of humanity, refugees should be turned away from Canada!  They’d be jumping from the frying pan into the fire.  Never mind the happy talk from the Minister of Immigration, Marco Mendicino about “flipping the stereotype of refugee as victims.”  If they aren’t victims now, they will be after settling in this racist hell-hole.  In fact, if they aren’t victims, what the hell are they doing as refugees in the first place?

Canada is a racist hell-hole.  Everybody knows it.  It is an act of sadism to bring more refugees here.

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WWJD?

Vincent J. Curtis

6 Mar 21

HMS Dreadnaught was the first modern battleship.  Laid down on October 2^nd, 1905, Dreadnaught was launched on February 10^th, 1906, and commissioned on December 2^nd, 1906.  She had a length of 527 feet, a beam of 82 feet, and a draught of 30 feet.  Driven by 23,000 shaft horsepower, Dreadnaught had a top speed of 21 kt and a range of 6620 nautical miles.  She cost £1.8 Million.  She was the first all big gun battleship, bearing ten 12” guns in five double turrets.  Dreadnaught made all previous battleship obsolete.

Dreadnaught was the brain-child of First Sea Lord Admiral “Jacky” Fisher.  He ordered her construction to demonstrate to the Germans that Britain could build anything bigger and faster than they could.

Canada doesn’t have a Jacky Fisher.  Canada’s new surface combatant ship, the Type 26 frigate, was conceived in 2011, with acquisition to begin in 2017.  Of course, that never happened.  The outgoing president of Irving Shipbuilding Kevin McCoy, said that the production timeline of a Type 26 is seven and a half years, two years longer than had been originally planned.  Program costs ballooned from an original estimate of $26 billion in 2008 to $82 Billion presently. The current plan is for construction of the first ship to begin in 2023-24, first delivery in 2031, and for the fifteenth ship to be delivered in 2044-45.  But if construction begins in 2027-28, then the final ship will be delivered in 2048-49.

Ever desirous of gilding a lily, Canada’s version of the Type 26 is going to be loaded with “pretty much every single weapon that you can think of for a modern, high-end combatant” said Timothy Choi, a researcher and observer of the RCN.  The ship has packed on 900 tons over the original projected displacement.  Canada’s Type 26 would be 495 feet long, 68 feet across the beam, a draught of 26 feet, displace 9400 tons, have a top speed of 26 kt, and a range of 7000 nautical miles.  The Parliamentary Budget Office presently estimates the cost of a single unit to be $5.46 Billion.

I have long advocated for an off the shelf purchase of an Arleigh Burke class destroyer as Canada’s primary surface combatant.  An Arleigh Burke also displaces 9400 tons, is 14 feet longer, and two feet narrower than a Canadian 26, a draught of 31 feet, a top speed of over 30 kt,, a range of 4400 nautical miles, and a unit cost of US$1.85 Billion.  The U.S. is still constructing this class of vessel, with, at present 6 under construction, 3 more on order, and a further 12 to complete the construction program.

Dimensionally, there’s not much difference between a Type 26 and an Arleigh Burke, but the difference in unit cost is enormous.  The cost versus capability question hasn’t escaped the attention of outside naval experts.  Bryan Clark, a retired U.S. submarine officer and a senior fellow of the Hudson Institute, observed “…a reasonable way forward is to go with a ship with a proven design and cost associated with it….If you’re Canada do you need to be on the leading, bleeding edge of technology development?  Or do you go with something that is proven – modern, but proven and modern but maybe isn’t the next generation of ship?...I’d say you’re better off maybe going with a proven hull design, but ensure it’s got sufficient modularity that you can upgrade it over time.”

The SCS program is part of a larger strategy to create a stable shipbuilding industry that avoids boom and bust cycles.  If the ships are built quickly, as the Halifax class of frigates were, there’s nothing left for the shipyards to do for twenty years, and they lose capability.  But build them slowly, and inflation ruins the budget.

So, what then is the purpose of the CSC program – to provide Canada with fighting ships or provide a corporate welfare program for Irving Shipbuilding?

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Big Ho needs to make a choice

Vincent J. Curtis

17 June 21

RE: Committee calls on city to fund safe space for LGBTQ community.  Hamilton Spectator new article of 17 June 21.

Big Ho, the LGBTQWERTY lobby, is one of several high-maintenance, special needs communities in Hamilton.  Recently, they practically accused the Catholic School Board of hate crimes for not flying the gay pride flag over Catholic schools during Gay Pride festivities, and retaliated by placing small flags of theirs onto School Board property.

Members of the gay community will give one of two mutually exclusive reasons for why they are gay.  One is that they made a life-style choice – the gay lifestyle.  The other is that they are the helpless victims of nature’s lottery – they can’t help being what they are, and therefore are deserving of sympathy, support, even pity.  Clearly, both can’t be true at the same time.

The explanation that gay is a lifestyle choice leads to the gay pride phenomenon.  They’re proud of their choice, want to express that pride, and want to encourage others in choices like theirs.  There are no Down’s Syndrome pride events, by contrast, or any other pride in suffering a birth defect.  Strangely, gays don’t want to live with the consequences of their choices.

The call by Hamilton’s LGBTQ advisory committee for the city to fund a “safe space” for members of their community is not predicated on gay being a lifestyle choice.  The underlying implication of need for support, of sympathy, of victimhood squarely places the request on the ground that gayness is a stroke of bad luck.  The LGBTQ advisory committee wants the city to believe that gayness is both a free choice and a stroke of bad luck in nature’s lottery – when it suits them, and not at the same time.

The leadership of the Big Ho lobby will take whatever they can get away with, so it is up to council to say, “Make your choice.”

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She was flabbergasted

Vincent J. Curtis

16 June 21

RE: COVID infections continue to fall in Hamilton.  Hamilton Spectator 16 June 21,

There, next to the story, is a picture of Dr. Elizabeth Richardson looking her most perplexed.  Baffled.  Confused.  Thunderstruck.  Uncomprehending!  “Movement in the city” has increased sharply to near pre-pandemic levels – residents are dropping their guards! – and yet COVID infections continue to fall in Hamilton!!

If you had bet your reputation on control of movement to control the pandemic, and then found that pandemic cases continued drop even after movement approached pre-pandemic levels, you’d be looking concerned too.  Here it is, in black and white, that restricting movement and controlling the spread of the pandemic had nothing to do with each other!  That would mean the lockdown measures were completely – completely! – ineffective.  In fact, keeping people bottled up in their apartments might have enhanced the spread!  Oops!

Stanford University Medical Center, back in January, released a paper on the effectiveness of lockdown measures around the world, and found them to be ineffective.  All of them.  In April, the M.I.T. modelling of the spread came out showing that spreading occurred almost exclusively indoors, when the virus was allowed to build up in room and people were kept in the room long enough to overcome their susceptibility.  Movement was irrelevant.  Exposure time to contaminated air was the crucial factor.  (When has the Spec heard that before? I want to say August, 2020.)

The cases curve is the standard shape of the progress of a pandemic.  Restricting movement controlled nothing!

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Arson a form of self-expression

Vincent J. Curtis

15 June 21

RE: Arson causes major damage to Six Nations church. Hamilton Spectator 15 June 21

And you wonder why residential schools were residential and not on reserves?

Arson must be a form of self-expression on Six Nations.  A few months ago the home of the chief of Six Nations’ elected band council was torched, apparently for insufficient enthusiasm for the illegal occupation of the Foxgate properties.  Now, a historic Anglican church gets torched, after careful plotting and a 3:30 a.m. break-in.

Can you wonder at the safety of lonely missionaries trying to teach a few Indian children the wonders of math and Shakespeare while living on a reserve?  Not very effective, or safe, obviously.

The residential style of schooling comported with the best educational institutions in Britain and Canada of those days, with examples such as Eton, Harrow, Hillfield, Upper Canada College, and Ridley College.  Robert Land Academy is a residential school.

If the goal was to educate the Indian, residential schools were the obvious choice for the better likelihood of success, to accumulate sufficient numbers to create a school environment, and for the safety of the instructors.

It was a mistake to try to educate Indian children.  The churches should never have agreed to work as agents of the Federal government.

No good deed goes unpunished.

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Reconciliation: A Fool's Errand

Another cash grab

Vincent J. Curtis

14 June 21

RE: Six Nations seek funds for residential school search. Hamilton Spectator 14 June 21

Near the end of the article, it was finally revealed that Six Nations was asking for $10 million of the $27 million committed for all of Canada to search for buried children.  Who knew that renting a ground-penetrating radar unit could be so expensive?

There are a couple of games being played by Six Nations.  The most obvious is the cash-grab.  That request for funds did not come with a budget, and $10 million is an awfully round number.  This aspect of the game is taking the “white man’s money.”  Engrossing themselves at the expense of other Indian tribes is another part of the game.

Among Indians, the Mohawks rank near the top of the social hierarchy on account of the tribe’s history of lethal violence, which we all learned about in school.  Asking for such a disproportionate share of the $27 million is way of demonstrating Six Nations dominance among First Nations.  It’s not like the problem is that big and the costs that high.

Reconciliation is a game to the Indians.  It puts the white man on a treadmill of guilt and financial support – the “white man’s money.”  First Nations are not about to become Canadians after reconciliation; they’ll remain First Nations as they have since the beginning.  Except for relief of guilt, what’s in ‘reconciliation’ for Canadians?

Reconciliation is a fool’s errand.

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Is Jagmeet Singh a Caucasiaphobe?

Vincent J. Curtis

12 June 21

RE: “MPs push for Islamophobia summit” by Christopher Reynolds of The Canadian Press.

A summit on Islamophobia would be welcome if it serious, and wasn’t simply an opportunity for moral posturing and Canada bashing.  Among the first things that need to be resolved is what exactly constitutes “Islamophobia?”

Here are some questions which ought to be addressed for clarification of the issue:

Are Hindus Islamophobic?

Mr. Adeel Ahmed, a in his letter to the Spectator published on June 11, said he fled Pakistan after his father was killed by Sunni radicals and due to the rising Sunni fundamentalism in that country.  Does that make him an Islamophobe?  If so is he morally wrong for being so?

Afghanistan is ninety-nine percent Muslim.  The Taliban continue with their campaign of terror bombings and recently killed school girls in Kabul.  Are the Taliban Islamophobic?

Since the Taliban are Muslims also, is the fear of the people of Kabul of the Taliban Islamophobia?  Is it justified Islamophobia?

Are Burmese Buddhists Islamophobic, having driven the Rohingya, a group of racial Bangladeshis who are Muslims, out of their country, Burma?

Are the communist Chinese Islamphobic, having sent millions of Uyghurs into re-education camps?

Is Jagmeet Singh a Caucasiaphobe having declared his fear of white supremacism and radicalization among the white population of Canada?  If such fear of radicalization among Muslims is Islamophobia, by symmetry, Singh must not be expressing Caucasianphobia?

If Canadian society can be smeared due to the actions of a single mad-man, isn’t it permissible to smear Muslims with the crimes of ISIS and al-Qaeda?

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Politicization of tragedy: the shaming continues

Vincent J. Curtis

11 June 21

based on op-ed pieces in the Hamilton Spectator of today's date.

The politicization of tragedy in Canada continues to rage. Never let a good crisis go to waste! The shaming of majority Canadian culture proceeds shamelessly.  Enough of them, let’s talk about me!!

Look at these headlines: “It’s not up to Canada’s indigenous peoples to do the work of achieving reconciliation” by Fred Youngs.  I don’t think Mr. Youngs knows what the word 'reconciliation' means, but it is something aboriginals are demanding from Whites.  Reconciliation is not something aboriginals can do themselves at all, except getting over it and moving on.

“We need a national summit on Islamophobia” cries Raza Khan, a big wheel in Big Mo in Hamilton.  “I no longer feel safe in Canada” cries Adeel Ahmed, who came to Canada from Pakistan - out of fear of persecution from Sunni fundamentalists! (From the frying pan into the fire, Ahmed!)

Khan wouldn’t be satisfied even if all Whites were bowing in the direction of Mecca five times a day.  There is no satisfying a fanatic.

As for Mr. Ahmed, the best thing to do is either find another country or disguise yourself as a Canadian, your women too; especially your women.  Dress like Canadians.  Talk like Canadians, about Canadian things.  Talk about baseball, hockey, the weather, what a lousy job the government is doing, etc.  Stop talking incessantly about the Quran.  Become Canadian and you’ll escape notice.

The politicization of tragedy is going to redound eventually.  Sooner or later people get sick of shaming and self-loathing.

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Up yours

Vincent J. Curtis

10 June 21

RE: “The attack on a Muslim family in London could have happened anywhere” Page 1 editorial written by niqab wearing Spec reporter Maria Iqbal.  June 10, 2021.

The page 1 editorial insisting that the murder-by-vehicle could have happened anywhere else besides London, ON, has all the insights of a bumper-sticker.  And all of the perspective of a Day Zero, born yesterday fanatic.  There is a massive media campaign going on to stampede public opinion, and this article is just another twig in the fire.

We don’t even know that the motivation was hatred of Muslims.  Before Islam was prominent in Canada, the 1960s and early 1970, there was notable prejudice against immigrants from Pakistan, “Pakis” as they were derisively called.  Those people were non-Muslims who were driven out of Pakistan by rising Islamic fundamentalism.

The family mown down in London were Pakistani, and the women alleged were wearing full traditional garb.  For all we know the trigger of the fatal attack could be anti-Pakistani immigrant prejudice, not anti-Islamic prejudice.  But no matter, anti-Islamic prejudice is the flavor of the month, and if you’re going to smear Canadian society with the feces of racism, that’s the one that stinks the most.

Smearing Canadian society as a whole is what this article, and the campaign of which it is a part, is all about.  It is the mirror image of what motivated the London killer: all of this kind is contemptible - except white society substitutes for the immigrant.

This polarizing stuff sharpens division, is unhelpful, and uninformed.

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Look in the mirror

Vincent J. Curtis

8 June 21

RE: It time to be honest about racism in Hamilton.  Hamilton Spectator op-ed of June 8, 2021.

The movie Throne of Blood is a thinly-disguised adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth.  Set in medieval Japan, the role of Macbeth is played by Japan’s greatest actor, Toshiro Mifune.  The fact that Shakespeare’s immortal characters can resonate in Japanese culture is a sign that race is incidental to one’s character, not essential to it.

Race is an artifact of the individual, like eye colour or height.  Race may be associated accidentally with culture, but that is an artifact of time and place.  To hold that race is essential to one’s character is philosophical racism.

Which brings us to Ameil J. Joseph and Kojo Damptey.  They want us to be honest about racism.  Okay, let’s be honest.  Both of them directly or indirectly make their living off racism.  They live, breathe, and talk racism 24/7.  They affirm that race is essential to one’s character.

Jesse Jackson admitted to engaging in the kind of racial profiling they complain about.

The great American economist Thomas Sowell wrote a book about racism and racial profiling entitled, “Discrimination and Disparities.” which explained why Jackson instinctively profiled as he did.   It is clear neither Joseph nor Damptey has read the book.  Oh, Thomas Sowell is Black, by the way.

It is clear that both men are engaged in race hustling, not race healing, though even that term I find racist and offensive.

I don’t expect either man to slink away; there’s too much money in the business.  But if they want honesty in racism, they need to look in the mirror.

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Macdonald's our hero, not theirs

Vincent J. Curtis

5 June 21

RE: Indigenous residents want Macdonald gone. Hamilton Specttor, June 5, 2021.

“He’s a mass murderer.  He had an agenda, which was not a good agenda.” said Audrey Davis, Executive Director of Hamilton Regional Indian Centre.  Obviously, the beatings she received at residential school weren’t severe enough, because Audrey knows next to nothing.  At least her sentences were in grammatical English and not some Indian dialect, which is a sign of progress.

Macdonald’s agenda was to form Canada and develop it as a dominion.  He succeeded.  That’s makes him Canada’s hero.  Though holding status, Indians do not regard themselves as Canadian.  They’re First Nations, remember?  Their opinion of whom Canadians wish to honour is of no moment.  Suggestions that Indians should be consulted concerning the removal of Macdonald’s statue are completely off base.

If the Mohawks erected a memorial to Chief Wackthemhurons, our opinions of the matter wouldn’t and shouldn’t count.

If there’s anyone who fits the description of colonizer, it’s Nrinder Nann.  Her moral posturing on aboriginal issues in Canada are for personal benefit, for she has no understanding or interest in the issues beyond her little self.

Macdonald’s statue has graced the downtown of Hamilton for nearly one hundred and thirty years.  Except for those Day Zero, born yesterday types, we learned nothing new about Macdonald recently.  (He drank, did you know?)  Removal of his statue would be a sign of brain-wasting disease in those running Hamilton.  It isn’t worth the price of “reconciliation” because we are who we are, and the Indians aren’t about to become Canadian if we disgrace our founding hero.

Macdonald is Canada’s hero.  His statue should stay.

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Big Ho’s laughable moral posturing

Vincent J. Curtis

4 June 21

RE: Catholic Board’s Pride decision a ‘shame.’  Hamilton Spectator news article of 4 June 21

Hamilton’s chapter of “Big Ho” feels so full of its moral certitude that it believes it has the right to trespass and to vandalize property of the Catholic School Board.  Funny, but I’ve never heard an intellectual justification for their beliefs or actions.

The Catholic Church has been theologically hostile to homosexuality since the days of St. Paul.  Catholic philosophy closely follows the Scholasticism of St Thomas Aquinas, and Aquinas held that being was metaphysically good.  Being acting in accordance with its nature was good.  Being not acting in accordance with its nature was lacking in goodness.

This is where the “intrinsically disordered” description of homosexuality comes into Catholic teaching.  Homosexuality is disordered because it is in the nature of human beings (their “order”) to reproduce, and human reproduction, which causes a new being – something good – is impossible by homosexual acts.  Aquinas provides metaphysical justification for St. Paul’s theology.

Notice that the teaching condemns homosexuality, not the homosexual, who, as a being, is metaphysically good. (“The sin, not the sinner.”)

It ought to be embarrassing to Catholic school boards to need lessons on basic Catholic teaching.  It would be greatly disordered of a Catholic Board to show support for sinning - homosexuality – keeping in mind the distinction between being and act.

But since Big Ho understands none of this, we might get our point across by burning their flag on their lawns.

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The Church Must Apologize!

Vincent J. Curtis

3 June 21

RE: Give us the full truth on residential school deaths.  Hamilton Spectator editorial of 3 June 21.

As the editorial sagely observed, Prime Minister Trudeau in this episode, as well as others, has been long on symbolism and short on substance.  One reason why the Catholic Church has no need to apologize for at the Kamloops residential school is that Prime Minister Trudeau blamed Canada for it.  “Canada is responsible!” he said on the floor of the House of Commons.

Well, if Canada is responsible, then the Catholic Church is not.  And I’m not going to apologize for insisting that Logic 101 be respected.

Intellectually, today’s generation was born yesterday.  Today’s public would not think to conceive of what life must have been like on Indian reserves in lonely western Canada between 1890 and 1950.  Were children and adults of that era immune to such diseases as polio, scarlet fever, typhoid, cholera, whooping cough, tuberculosis, and influenza?  How did the Indians do during the Spanish flu epidemic: did any of them die of it?  We don’t know.  There are few, if any, records; but one is inclined to believe that some young Indians died of disease during that sixty year period.

Lacking records, we have nothing to compare and put into perspective the findings at Kamloops.  That children died at the school was known at the time, forgotten, and re-discovered as some kind of revelation.

In this day of trigger warnings and safe spaces, the purpose of residential schools was to civilize wild Indians in teeth of resistance that exists to this day.  The reason for the civilizing mission was that the leading thinkers of the day believed that North American Indians could not survive European settlement otherwise.  A western education and western acculturation, they believed, gave the Indian races of North America their best chance of survival.  And they seem to have been right.

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215 bodies found at site of residential school

"Didn't the parents notice?"

Vincent J. Curtis

1 June 21

When the media and politicians are trying to stampede public opinion, and when the usual talking heads are saying the usual things like, “Give us more money“ and “shame on the white man,“ older and wiser heads are inclined wait until more evidence is in.

I spoke today with a woman who was born and raised in Kamloops, and still has family and vacation property there.  She said there were five major reserves in the area.  She was incensed by the statement that “nobody knew.”  She said it was “common knowledge” that some aboriginal children had died at the school, of things like polio and influenza.  “How else would they know where to look?”

It is plainly insulting to say that “nobody knew.”  Did the parents of these children not notice when their child didn’t come home from school at the end of the term?  Were they that neglectful?

According to my interlocutor, the school was a refuge for many children – from abuse they would have received at home in the way of beatings from drunken parents.  Protection from abuse that children were receiving at home was the reason for the ‘60’s Scoop in Ontario, so the abuse theory superficially holds water.

People need to shed their romantic illusions of what life is like on Indian reserves.  Until a full enquiry is completed, people should withhold judgement about what happened, and how these children came to receive a Christian burial on the site of their school.

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Alberta’s problem is Ontario

Vincent J. Curtis

31 May 21

RE: Carbon capture tech little more than a fairy tale.  By Dave Carson.  Hamilton Spectator op-ed of 31 May 21.

In respect of Dave Carson’s remarks about “Alberta’s problem” with CO2 emissions, he has the problem backwards.  Alberta has an Ontario problem.  But Mr. Carson is correct in respect of carbon capture technology being fairy tales.

Thermodynamics and chemistry teach that there are only a few ways of capturing CO2 from the atmosphere.  One is to have large deposits of naturally occurring lime, that is, CaO.  Carbon dioxide will react with lime to form calcium carbonate – limestone - readily.  But lime deposits don’t exist anymore, they’re all used up.  The other methods are to plant trees and to encourage, somehow, the rapid growth of coral reefs.  Otherwise, any carbon capture method must produce more CO2 than it can capture.  So, beware of smooth-sounding snake oil salesmen.

The method by which oil sands are converted into useable petroleum products was developed in the 1950s and 60s, and it is only in recent days - long after the plants have been built - has this method been raised as a problem.  Using nuclear power instead of burning fossil fuel generated by the refining process itself is less economically efficient, and was never adopted.  Neither Alberta nor Saskatchewan have the water or the topography to generate hydro-electric power the way Ontario and especially Quebec can.  But they are sitting on some of the world’s largest deposits of fossil fuels, so why not use them?

We deny Iran the development of nuclear power on the grounds that it floats on an ocean of oil and has no need of it; well, Alberta is the same way.

As for Alberta’s problem.  Alberta wouldn’t generate so much CO2 except that Ontario buys so much of Alberta’s oil and gas.  If Ontario disappeared, and Canada’s contribution to world CO2 emissions dropped from 1.5 to 1.0 percent, it would be the equivalent of reducing atmospheric CO2 content from 408 to 406 ppm.  In addition, China alone is adding the equivalent of Ontario’s entire electrical power output each year to its coal generated power portfolio.  Not to mention India and South Korea.  John Kerry admitted that if the United States stopped producing CO2 altogether, it would achieve nothing; how much more so Canada?

The solution to atmospheric CO2 is out of Canada’s hands.  If a person wants to do something personally about CO2 emissions, they can begin by stopping huffing and puffing about things we can’t fix!

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Stunted Growth

Vincent J. Curtis

31 May 21

RE: Five ways for smarter growth in Hamilton.  Hamilton Spectator 29 May 21.

Mr. Shaker and Mr. Premi have once again blessed the Spectator readers with concepts that are neither new nor smart.  The “smart” growth of which they speak was first tried out in the 1970s in California.

Oh, smart planning and green spacing was wildly supported by the existing home owners back then.  As Thomas Sowell documented, it led to skyrocketing home prices because the price of land is the primary cost of new development.  Having stifled new developments, the price of existing home stock skyrocketed due to rising demand and no new supply.  The idea spread throughout the United States, and the policy response to skyrocketing home prices ultimately led to the financial crisis of 2008.

So, we’ve seen this movie before, and it doesn’t end well.  The second obvious failing is the emphasis on central planning.  Private home builders have a better idea of what will sell in the market than remote central planners do, who have no stake in the outcome of the planning process.  (In fact, the planners who have no stake in success or failure could have private motivations for their choice of policy.)  If homebuilders want a plan of such and so, their insights ought to weigh heavily with the planners.  The theories and ideas of ideologues never turn out well because they lack crucial knowledge, and probably would reject evidence contrary to their pet theory.

If polling is to be done, the opinion of the developers ought to be decisive in the final outcome.

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