Canadas first First Soldier

Vincent J. Curtis

3 July 24

General Sir William Otter (December 3, 1843 – May 6, 1929) was the first Canadian born Chief of the General Staff, making him Canada’s first “First Soldier.”  His career is a monument to the Administration principle of war, and of showing up for work every day.

Otter was born in near Clinton, which lies in Southwestern Ontario, then Canada West.  Many young men his age in Canada West signed up for the Union Army during the depression of 1863, but Otter instead joined the colonial Non-Permanent Active Militia, a force under British command, in Toronto in 1864

Enrolling as a private in the Victoria Rifle Company of the Queen’s Own Rifles, Otter was appointed Staff-Sergeant on October 21, 1864, then Lieutenant in the 2^nd Administrative Battalion at Niagara 1864-65. On his return he was appointed Lieutenant in No. 1 Coy QOR May 19, 1865; Adjutant, August 19, 1865; Captain, March 8, 1866; and Major, June 4, 1869.  Otter was CO of the QOR from 1875 to 1883.

Otter’s first action was at the Battle of Ridgway, a Fenian Raid near Niagara Falls, which saw the inexperienced Canadian troops routed in confusion.  He received a service bar on his Canadian General Service Medal for that and 1870, the year of the first Riel Rebellion, but also a year of another Fenian raid.

In 1883, Canada created its own army, styled the Permanent Active Militia, or Permanent Force, and Otter secured an appointment as the Commanding Officer of Canada’s Infantry School in Toronto.  Sent west under the command of General Frederick Middleton to deal with the second Riel Rebellion, Otter commanded the Battleford Column (April – July 1885); and, at the Battle of Cut Knife (May 2, 1885), Canada’s first professional was worsted by a couple of Indian amateurs, Poundmaker and Fine-Day. Poundmaker, invoking a mercy rule, spared Otter’s whupped and retreating column further casualties, their having suffered 8 KIA and 14WIA.  After Batoche and the end of the rebellion, Otter was unable to nab an elusive rascal named Big Bear, who (all’s well that end’s well), eventually surrendered.

Withal, Otter was appointed Commander of No 2 Military District effective July 1, 1886; and in 1893, was appointed the first Commanding Officer of an outfit called the “Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry” (or some such).  Otter was known to be something of an austere professional, or martinet, and that proclivity for extreme attention to military detail and discipline seems to have passed on, generation after generation, in 1RCR.  This sort of attitude can arise in men who have seen action, experienced failure, and they employ it against those who haven’t.  Otter was appointed Inspector of Infantry on May 16, 1896.

When the Secord Boer War rolled around (1899-1902), Canada sent a large contingent of troops to aid the British effort. For this service, Canada created a Special Service force, and Lieutenant Colonel Otter commanded the 2^nd (Special Service) Battalion of the RCRI, which was dispatched to South Africa, and saw action at the Battle of Paardeberg.  In South Africa, he could have encountered Sam Hughes and Charles Ross. Otter was gazetted Colonel on July 19, 1900.

Returning to Canada, Otter was appointed OC Military District No 2, and in 1908 he was promoted BGen and appointed CGS (1908-1910), becoming the first Canadian born head of the Canadian Militia, which, until then, had ben commanded by a British officer. (The RCN didn’t come into existence until 1910.).  He retired, aged 67, in 1910 in the rank of MGen, and was knighted in 1913.  During World War I, he came out of retirement to command detention operations of enemy nationals in Canada.  In 1922, he, along with Sir Arthur Currie, was promoted to full General.

In 1914, Otter published The Guide: A Manual for the Canadian Militia (Infantry) perhaps a Canadian first attempt at a comprehensive training manual. He also headed the Otter Commission which established the perpetuation of Canadian Expeditionary Force units in Canadian militia units.

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TRACTABLE Plus 80

Vincent J. Curtis

23 Apr 24

TOTALIZE, despite Simonds’ best efforts, ended in failure; and he launched Op TRACTABLE on August 14.  It opened with eight hundred Lancasters bombing targets along the road from Hill 195 to Falaise.  Then, the 3^rd Infantry and 4^th Canadian Armoured Divisions struck southwards cross-country two miles east of the road.  They crossed the Laison River, and bore down on Points 184, 115, and 159 north-east of Falaise.  Simonds added a heavy smoke screen to impair the effectiveness of long range German anti-tank and machine gun fire.

TRACTABLE was another heavy slog; the Germans had been tipped off by captured documents; and it wasn’t until the 18^th that Falaise was cleared.  But taking Falaise was not enough to close the gap.

The places of real tactical significance were two small villages seven miles south east of Falaise: Trun and Chambois.  These were to be taken by 4^th Div and the 1^st Polish Armoured.  These two armoured divisions thrust south on August 16^th. The Poles swung east and outflanked German defenses; they then split into three battle groups, sending one in rear of Trun, one to Hill 262 (Mount Ormel), and one to Chambois, all in the German rear; meanwhile, 4^th Div captured Trun on the 18^th.

The final drama was to occur at St. Lambert-sur-Dives and Hill 262, where the Canadians and the Poles would choke the gap closed.

The gap was spanned by the Dives River, which formed an impassable barrier to vehicular traffic except at two points, Moissy and St. Lambert-sur-Dives. Moissy had a ford, reached by a single lane dirt track; and next to it was a narrow foot bridge.

St. Lambert had a two-lane bridge that was strong enough to support a Panther tank.  The terrain was flat, wide-open, and easily observed from the heights around Trun, ideal killing ground for artillery and Typhoons.

4^th Div sent forward a battle group, comprised of B and C Coys of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders (about 50 men each) and C squadron of the South Alberta Regiment, to seize St. Lambert.  In overall command was Major David Currie of the SAR.  The task of Currie Force was to stop the passage of 100,000 Germans.

Backstopping the Dives position were two Polish battlegroups on Hill 262.  They had with them Capt Pierre Sevigny, an artillery FOO for the 58^th Bty, 4^th Medium Regiment.  After crossing the Dives, escaping Germans had to pass around Hill 262..  Over the 36 hours from the 20^th to 21^st August, Capt Sevigny was to win Poland’s highest military decoration, the Virtuti Militari.  His work inflicted thousands of casualties on the Germans, and enabled the Poles to hold out against German attacks.  Four depleted SS Panzer divisions east of the Dives repeatedly attacked the Poles, who fought them until they ran out of ammunition - and then fought them hand-to-hand. 

Currie Force approached St. Lambert at dusk on the 19^th, and was repulsed with the loss of two of its fifteen Shermans.  Pulling back 1,000 yards, Currie used the night to personally recce the defenses.  Attacking again at dawn, Currie Force gained half the village by noon, forming another gauntlet escaping Germans had to pass.  Currie Force repulsed repeated counterattacks, and near dusk surged ahead to capture the rest of the village.

Columns of death sprouted from the choke points. The corpses of men, of horses, wrecked vehicles, artillery pieces, trucks and tanks piled up along the roads. Prisoners were being taken first by the dozen, then fifty and then a hundred at a time.  The famous picture of David Currie winning his VC shows a German officer surrendering to Argyll George Mitchell, CSM of C Coy, with Pte John Evans to the right.

Over 50,000 were trapped, and the German 7^th Army surrendered.

For several feats of personal military prowess, his skillful and determined attacks and defense, and for demonstrating an epic coolness under fire for 36 hours, Major David Vivian Currie was awarded the Victoria Cross.

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Lesson Learned?

Vincent J. Curtis

12 Oct 24

RE: Councillors resign from Red Hill board amid rising tensions. News Itme The Hamilton Spectator 11 Oct 24.

I suppose it had to be created and entertained for a while, in the interests of “reconciliation” and all, but this Red Hill valley “board” was a farce from the beginning, and now it should be obvious, even to Council.

The City of Hamilton did not sign a treaty with any band of Indians, and is not responsible for upholding or enforcing the terms of any such treaty.  The so-called representative of the so-called Haudensosaunee call themselves the “hereditary chiefs’, meaning they are not democratically elected, and represent no one but themselves and whoever chooses to support them. Their word is not binding on anyone. (And we have no proof of their alleged hereditary status as “chiefs” by tradition.)

No doubt they rely for their land claim on the fraudulent 1702 “Nanfan Treaty”, in which the Mohawks surrendered title to land they did not possess to the Acting Governor of the Province of New York in exchange for the British to muscle the Mississaugas out of present-day Niagara Peninsula and south-western Ontario. (This was after the Dish with One Spoon Wampum Treaty with the Mississaguas of 1701!). Red Hill Valley and the environs of Hamilton – the Land Between the Lakes - was purchased from the Mississaugas in 1792.  The Mississaugas have no land claim over the Red Hill Valley, so why should the Mohawks?

This committee is merely an effort by a few Mohawks to mess with the white man, and are playing upon his conscience to gain the necessary leverage. Why else would studies and input from experts be vetoed except to mess with something? Why is Aaron Deltor pretending like he has veto power over the white man’s actions except to mess with him?

Wake up and smell the coffee, white man. The Mohawks have been playing duplicitous games like this for over three hundred years.

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Could owe trillions?

Vincent J. Curtis

30 Sept 24

RE: We’re not asking to break Canada. News item The Hamilton Spectator 28 Sept 24

Those who, over the years, have followed closely the land disputes raised by members of the Six Nations, the attacks in bad faith on two different property developments in Caledonia, and have researched deeply the so-called Nanfan Treaty know that there is no merit whatsoever in the land claim now before the courts and reported on in the Spectator article.

But this is not the place to discuss why. At no cost to themselves, Six Nations can throw this lawsuit and then another at Canada, for this reason or that, and Canada cannot afford to lose even once. Any court judge, for reasons having nothing to do with the law, can decide that he, in his superior virtue, thinks that Canada ought to give the Indians even more money.

For all the spaghetti Six Nations is throwing at the wall, they might well be Italian.

Canada has to figure out a way of dealing with bad faith litigation by Indians who have nothing to lose and trillions to gain. A price needs to be paid by the Indians if they lose.

Canada’s national debt stands are $1.2 trillion; the decision as to whether the Indian litigants are owed multiple trillions surely cannot be left in the hands of any old Ontario judge.

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The Rise and Fall of Hurricane Helene

Vincent J. Curtis

27 Sept 24

RE: Florida braces for hurricane. AP story. The Hamilton Spectator 27 Sept 24

In view of the undoubted cries of “climate change”! it is worthwhile to review the progress of Hurricane Helene.

Hurricane Helene began as a tropical storm on the south side of the Gulf of Mexico.  As it headed northward towards Florida, it intensified into a Category 4 hurricane, but dropped to a Category 3 when it landed.  It will lose intensity and finally peter out as it heads northward across the landmass of southern United States.

Helene intensified not because of the injection of carbon dioxide into the storm, but by the absorption of warm water as it crossed the Gulf.  It lost intensity not because its supply of carbon dioxide was cut off, but as its supply of warm Gulf water was cut off.  Carbon dioxide plays no role in the intensity of storms.

Likewise, hurricanes form over the Atlantic ocean not because of the massive supply of carbon dioxide over the ocean, but because warm water is able to be absorbed by wind patterns off the Sahara desert that together get organized into a self-perpetuating cyclonic pattern. Carbon dioxide plays no role in the organization of tropical storms.

The climate-change mafia forecasted 33 named storms this year over the Atlantic, but we’ll actually get less than half that many.  Helene demonstrates that CO2 plays no role in the formation or intensification of storms, and failure of the climate-change mafia’s forecast demonstrates that their theories are incorrect.

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It dares not

Vincent J. Curtis

24 Sept 24

RE: What will replace the carbon tax? Hamilton Spectator editorial 24 September 2024

The question the benighted Spectator dare not allow to be asked on its pages is: why bother?  The fact that the Spectator dare not allow to be stated on its pages is: that Canada accounts for only 1.5 percent of world CO2 emissions.

Asia, which includes India and China, are responsible for over 60 percent of global CO2 emissions, and India and China aren’t playing the CO2 reduction game. Canada’s contribution is insignificant; we’re not the problem and aren’t the solution.

America, China, India, Germany, and Australia are a few trading partners that have no carbon tax.  By having one, we disadvantage our producers and exporters.  Canada’s carbon tax represents nothing but a stage for moral posturing; it has no effect whatsoever on weather, climate, or the growth of CO2 in the atmosphere.

Canada’s carbon tax can, with the safety of world in mind, be scrapped without replacement.

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Beware the use of rhetoric

Vincent J. Curtis

19 Sept 24

RE: Beware the power of rhetoric. Op-ed by Ronald Evans. The Hamilton Spectator 19 Sept 24

Aristotle wrote the book on rhetoric; he called it, oddly enough, the Art of Rhetoric.  Nowadays, we would call rhetoric “persuasive speech”, or more bluntly, “selling.” Ronald Evans defines rhetoric as “an emotional tool that can inspire audiences to right wrongs and to strive for a better world.”

One would hope that a retired school teacher could do a better job with his definitions, and would be solicitous of philosophical accuracy if he was going to hang an article on one.

As a work of rhetoric, his article, cautioning us of the power of rhetoric, was a failure. It was unpersuasive, and not, in fact, about rhetoric at all.  After its prefatory remarks, it slid into another tiresome, and tedious, “I hate Trump” diatribe.

Speaking of the power of rhetoric, the extreme rhetoric used against Trump, that he’s a racist, sexist, fascist, lying threat to democracy; by the Left might be in part responsible for the two attempts on his life, and perhaps the Left ought to tone it down.

Trump’s going to be the next President of the United States, and the Left can feel it coming.

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Critics are failing the science test.

Vincent J. Curtis

17 Sept 24

RE: Government are failing the climate test. Guest editorial by Robert Evans. The Hamilton Spectator 17 Sept 24

The problem with activist editorial writers is that all they know about “the science” is what they read in the funny papers. And they have developed a facility for ignoring inconvenient political facts.

Robert Hicks writes that heat pumps are a “renewable energy solution.” No, they’re not; they run off electricity, however generated. They’re very poor for heating homes in Canadian winters, especially the winter cold that is experienced in Canada’s prairie provinces.

The claim that rising CO2 will cause global temperature to rise by 1.5C is also false. Global temperature may well rise above 1.5, but it won’t be due to CO2. This is the physics: if CO2 is doubled from 400 to 800 ppm, it will increase “greenhouse forcing” by 3.7 W/m2, which results in a temperature increase of 0.7C. These are IPCC’s own figures. To get to 1.5C, greenhouse forcing has to rise by 9 W/m2, which is impossible by CO2.

Lastly, politics. Asia accounts for 60 percent of global CO2 emissions; Canada, only 1.5 percent. Canada isn’t the problem, and can’t be the solution.  Asian countries aren’t playing the CO2 reduction game, so if you think rising CO2 will bring about global doom, prepare yourself accordingly: there is, apparently, no place to hide.

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Warmed over Malthus, again

Vincent J. Curtis

16 Sept 24

RE: Has earth’s carrying capacity been reached? Spectator editorial by Wayne Poole. 16 Sept 24.

The thesis that Wayne Poole offers is called Malthusianism, after economist Thomas Malthus who, in 1798, said that the earth’s carrying capacity was within sight.  Even Poole, inter alia, admits the falsity of his claim when he says that the earth’s population is expected to increase by 36 percent, from 7.6 billion to 10.4 billion.  How can such a staggering increase be possible if carrying capacity has been reached?

There is also something profoundly racist in Poole’s thesis. Where the earth’s population is growing is in Africa, India, and China. If you’re going to cut out human population, logically, those are the places to start. But if Poole’s future must tolerate those numbers, those population must at least remain poor, for by electrification and industrialization, the world emissions of CO2 will increase.

I have noted that people who talk about “sustainability” have only the vaguest idea of what they mean. No part of the life-cycle of an insect is “sustainable”, yet insects have been around for over 100 million years!

The more extreme holders of Poole’s view maintain that the human population must drop by 75%, to 2 billion, by the end of the century for the planet to survive. A genocide of humanity is where Poole’s logic takes you.

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Dumb bomb, dumb writer?

Vincent J. Curtis

11 Sept 24

RE: War is part of our climate change problem. Op-ed by Tricia Clarkson, co-chair of the Peterborough Alliance for Climate Action. The Hamilton Spectator 11 Sept 24.

Arguing for peace on the grounds that war is bad for the climate is certainly novel, and may say something about the values of the writer. However, the writer claims that the use of “dumb bombs” dropped in Gaza by Israel undercuts Israel’s claim that they try to minimize civilian harm.

I don’t expect most people to know this, but “dumb bomb” is a military term of art, meaning that the bomb has no internal guidance system: when dropped it is a mere projectile falling in accordance with Newton’s Laws of Motion.  The bomb may be dumb, but the aircraft carrying it isn’t; and the F-16 aircraft which drop these as ordinance have quite remarkable guidance systems built into their electronic suite.

The computers on board the Israeli F-16s can plot and project continuously on the pilot’s display where the bomb would land if dropped at the aircraft’s altitude, speed, and direction.  Since a 2,000 lb aerodynamically-shaped bomb isn’t much affected by winds, the pilot is able to put the (comparatively) inexpensive dumb ordinance on the target practically with the accuracy of a guided weapon.

I don’t expect a climate activist to be up on the very latest military technology, but her error shows the hazards of drawing vicious conclusions from impressions that one doesn’t fully understand.

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The US DOJ head fake

Vincent J. Curtis

10 Sept 24

RE: Canada is an exporter of far-right influencers. Op-ed by Luke LeBrun. The Hamilton Spectator 10 Sept 24

If he wasn’t a willing dupe, Luke LeBrun certainly was taken in by the latest fake indictment by the United States Department of Justice, Get Trump Division.

There are a couple of central things lacking in LeBrun’s contentions: exporting and influence. Other than mentioning that one woman of Canadian citizenship, Lauren Chen, worked in the United States for several US media outlets, there’s no indication that Canada is “exporting” anything, such as “far-right” “influencing.” The allegations don’t live up to the drama.

The second is ‘influence.’ Let’s stipulate that Putin indeed funded several “influencers”: to do what, exactly? To keep saying what they were saying without his money! After Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim bought into the New York Times, or Torstar Corp’s acquisition of the Hamilton Spectator, was the editorial content of these newspapers decisively altered? Keep in mind the “influencers” were admittedly deceived as to where the windfall cash was flowing from.

The net effect of the DOJ indictments is to discredit certain “influencers” (said to be “far-right”) during the US presidential election. This trick was pulled before - by the Mueller investigation. The Mueller probe charged several Russian residents, who were never arrested and prosecuted, so that the theory of the case was publicized but never tested in court.  The Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation, remember? But now, tested in court, its contents are authentic.  Trump-Russian collusion was real, until, called to account and bitterly disappointed, the Mueller investigation had to admit they found nothing. Hunter Biden still hasn’t been charged under FARA, the Foreign Agent Registration Act, by this DOJ, but two Russians have?

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AP disgraces itself, again

Vincent J. Curtis

30 Aug 24

RE: Millions of fish wash ashore after climate-related die-off. AP story by Vaggelis Kousioras and Derek Gatopoulos. The Hamilton Spectator 30 Aug 24.

Where’s the “, officials say” after the claim of a climate-related die-off of fish? By neglecting to add that little caveat at the end, as journalists “allegedly” know, it means AP is putting its stamp of approval on the claim.  The story neglects to mention who the “authorities” are who make the claim that AP agrees with.  They might well be activists capitalizing on, or officials hiding their negligence or malfeasance behind, the assertion that the death of the fish was “climate-related.”

The claim is this: that the lake, re-created in 2018, was swollen with rainwater last fall, then the water level dropped due to a months long period of no rainfall.  Thus, the fish died, and climate was responsible.  Post hoc, ergo, propter hoc? An appeal to prejudice?

A critical mind finds deficiencies in the rationale and the attribution of cause, that being climate funny business. Certainly, enough abounds in the story that AP ought to be hedging, as a responsible news organization would.

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The microplastics fraud: It’s already invented

Vincent J. Curtis

28 Aug 24

RE: Microplastic is in your coffee? Device for that. News item.  The Hamilton Spectator 28 Aug 24.

The story describes something close to a fraud.  It is said that a UBC professor invented a device that detects the amount of microplastics in drinks and “other liquids.” A device like that already exists; it’s called a turbidimeter.  This device measures the extinction of light due to particles floating in the liquid.  It requires calibration, however, for its results to be quantitative and reproducible.  No mention is made of how this new invention is calibrated.

There are many problems with the microplastics-in-your-drinks story. The first is that the most common of plastics, polyethylene, is less dense than water; and since polyethylene is also insoluble in water, the microscopic particles of plastic, given a little time, will float to the surface,A where their presence would be noticeable.  Has anyone noticed a white scum on a glass of water?

Another problem is how microscopic particles of plastic could get into Hamilton’s drinking water.  Hamilton’s water supply is drawn from deep in Lake Ontario, and the water is filtered and treated before it gets piped into the potable water supply.  How can literally tonnage quantities of plastic particles get into Hamilton’s water supply in the first place, and escape the removal process?

The microplastics story is the next scare-mongering narrative.

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Show me the money

Vincent J. Curtis

27 Aug 24

RE: The cost of stalling is adding up. Op ed by Wayne Poole. The Hamilton Spectator 27 Aug 24

Sooner or later, a Spectator editor should demand of Wayne Poole the equivalent of “show me the money.”

For over a decade now, Mr. Poole has preached the cause of climate catastrophism.  Carbon dioxide is the cause of much evil; in particular, of bad weather.  In this piece, CO2 is the cause of more frequent and more intense storms, that is when it’s not responsible for drought, such as gripped Canada last summer.

Saying CO2 causes more intense and more frequent storms is saying that CO2 plays a role in the formation of rain and in the volume of rain that falls per unit of time. Even non-chemists should be able to see the absurdity in these contentions.

The upshot of most of Mr. Poole’s writings is that we Canadians have to don sackcloth and ashes in atonement for our sins against nature and the earth, and that the government needs the power to enforce that penance.  Never mind that what China, India, and our own forests do vitiate any reductions in CO2 emissions we might achieve; the suffering is good for you however unavailing it is at the end of the day.

There have been catastrophes throughout human history, and there’s no reason to believe that suffering as Mr. Poole would have us would prevent the next one.

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Gun Control: The big distraction

Vincent J. Curtis

26 Aug 24

RE: Five injured in two shootings, loaded gun seized to prevent third. News item. The Hamilton Spectator 26 Aug 24

Bill C-21, passed into law earlier this year, was the Trudeau government’s answer to rising gun violence.  Strangely, gun violence has gotten decidedly worse since the bill became law, as the story at reference illustrates.

Bill C-21 deprives lawful gun owners of rights they once possessed, and will eventually deprive some of them of their lawfully acquired property also.  These actions aren’t going to reduce gun violence because lawful gun owners and lawful gun ownership plainly aren’t the problem. The problem is that transnational gangs can get guns and use guns as they go about their businesses of stealing cars, selling drugs, etc.  The gun shown in the photograph accompanying the story was a Glock model converted to fire in full automatic mode, which isn’t generally legal even in the United States, from which the gun undoubtedly originated. But the law and law enforcement aren’t directed against powerful gangs with guns, but, let’s face it, against unorganized white guys who registered their guns with the government as the law required.

The Trudeau government’s gun control legislation, whacking as it does the unpopular, was strictly for political show, and not directed at the real problem at all.  Gun violence will continue to rot civilization because the government poses for imagery instead of tackling a tough problem.  Voters ought to notice.

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Microplastics: Didn’t get the memo

Vincent J. Curtis

18 Aug 24

RE: Microplastics in our water continue to be a huge issue. Op-ed by Susan Koswan. The Hamilton Spectator 17 Aug 24.

I would have thought that the microplastics fear-mongering would have died out on account of its patent ridiculousness. Apparently, Susan Koswan didn’t get the memo.

She writes that microplastics have been found in human breast milk, placentas, testicles, hearts, livers, and kidneys.  Ask yourself, why would anyone even look for microscopic sized pieces of plastic in testicles?  Why would a pathologist look for them in testicles as a cause of death?  And the other places, like placentas. Why look for microscopic sized plastic particles there?

Then she claims the way to get microscopic sized pieces of plastic out of water is to boil the water, and they will precipitate out with the water hardness.  Ridiculous.  Plastic is not soluble in water.  If microscopic sized particles were present to any degree, the water would look hazy, not clear. Does Hamilton’s drinking water look hazy?

Never mind the problem of how chemically inert plastic particles, if ingested, get absorbed into the bloodstream instead of passing out of the digestive tract with the rest of the waste; then, if absorbed, do not cause strokes by the blockage of capillaries?

The microplastic scare ought to have died out by now.  The claims of the fear-mongers are simply ridiculous.

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Fix the Pacific Ocean?

Poole's problems with physics

Vincent J. Curtis

14 Aug 24

RE: We need to take care of our oceans. Op-ed by Wayne Poole. The Hamilton Spectator 14 Aug 24.

Wayne Poole has a problem with physics. According to Poole, when an ice cube is pulled from the freezer, the ice cube gets colder and warms the air around it.  Sound strange? It is.

From experience, we know that heat flows from the warmer to colder, not the reverse, as the in the ice cube example above.  Hence, Poole errs in basic physics when he says “we have relied on our oceans to absorb 90 per cent of excess heat from global warming…” The average sea surface temperature, at around 21ºC is warmer than the average atmospheric temperature of about 15ºC. On balance, oceans don’t absorb “excess” atmospheric heat, they warm the air above them.

And Poole seems to grasp this when he says that warming oceans have altered weather patterns, “driving more intense rainfall events, storms, and hurricanes.” That’s only possible if the ocean is warming the air above it to a greater degree than in the past; oh, and it demolishes the theory that more CO2 in the atmosphere is the cause of more intense rainfall and more frequent hurricanes.  But never mind.

The rest of Poole’s claims are half-truths when they’re not outright false. It’s all pointless fear-mongering, for what can we do to fix the Pacific Ocean?

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Of cattle flatulence and witches

Do you still want a country?

Vincent J. Curtis

11 Aug 24

RE: What will it take for us to stop exporting coal? Op-ed by Jennifer Cole. The Hamilton Spectator 10 Aug 24. Cole is a free-lance writer from Vancouver.

In the course of her musings, author Jennifer Cole expresses the belief that the mining of Alberta coal is somehow responsible for the Jasper wild fire.  The generation of carbon dioxide by humans is responsible for bad weather and for natural disasters around the globe, she claims. “…the ferocity and frequency of wildfires is exacerbated by the effects of human caused climate change and the burning of the above mentioned fossil fuels,” she writes.

That carbon dioxide causes bad weather and natural disasters, like floods and wildfires, need only be stated to be dismissed as absurd.  Everybody knows it’s cattle flatulence and witchcraft that causes bad weather and natural disasters, and the latter has been known for centuries.  This points to eating more Alberta beef, for the surest way to stop a cow from flatulating is to eat it; and to the burning Ontario’s witches.

On a somewhat more serious note, progressives are full of ideas for destroying Alberta’s economy: ending oil & gas, and coal mining; crippling agriculture through limiting the use of fertilizers; and ending Alberta ranching, which raises those tasty, but flatulating cattle.

Climate change may indeed raise tough questions as Cole says, and one of those questions is: do you still want a country? If Central Canadians still want a country, instead of trying save the world by destroy Alberta’s economy, they ought to amuse themselves by the burning of Ontario’s witches.

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TOTALIZE Plus 80

Vincent J. Curtis

1 Apr 24

August 7^th to 11^th, 2024, mark the Eightieth Anniversary of Operation TOTALIZE.  This operation was intended to be Lt-Gen Guy Simmonds’, the 2^nd Canadian Corps’, and the 21^st Army Group’s punch and pincer arm that would force the closure of the Falaise Gap, entrapping the German 7^th Army of some 150,000 troops.  Totalize was timed to co-ordinate with Gen Omar Bradley’s Operation COBRA in the far west of France, and was intended, secondarily, to hold the German heavy armour in front of the 21^st Army Group.

Of all the forces landed on D-Day, the Canadians advanced the farthest. No.2 Troop, C Squadron, 1^st Hussars, commanded by Lt. William F. McCormick, found an unopposed route from Camilly on Phase Line Elm all the way to Phase Line Oak, the Caen-Bayeux rail line.  Turing east, McCormick’s troop exploited as far as Carpiquet airfield. Seeing Caen essentially undefended, McCormick tried, but failed, to reach higher command by radio; and, inexplicably, higher command wasn’t wondering where No. 2 Troop was.  D-Day ended with the 3^rd Canadian Division digging in on Phase Line Elm, three miles north of Caen, with four hours of daylight remaining.  The Germans occupied Caen in strength that night.

There followed: Op WINDSOR to capture Carpiquet village; Op CHARNWOOD to capture Carpiquet airfield and Caen north of the Orne; Op ATLANTIC to capture Caen south of the Orne, and to create a bridgehead for an attack on Verrières Ridge (Op SPRING).

Lt-Gen Guy Simmonds was at his wits end with the incompetence at divisional and brigade levels; and quality even at the battalion level was uneven.  Hence, Totalize was structured to minimize command decisions.  Simmonds invented the APC, by the “defrocking” of “Priests,” i.e. Sherman tanks that had their turrets replaced with 25 pdr guns; “artificial moonlight,” and he used heavy, strategic bombers in a tactical role.

As I wrote for the 75^th anniversary, “Totalize was a familiar set-piece battle, but using bigger hammers, closer timing between blows, and other techniques of ancient renown.  Tactically, Totalize was a case of hi-diddle-diddle- straight up the middle, the middle being the Caen-Falaise road.  Heavy strategic bombers were to carpet bomb both sides of the highway south of the start-line.  Immediately upon completion of the air mission, artillery would open up and the first wave of tanks and APCs would drive south in a night attack, bypassing pockets of resistance along the way.  Tracers from Bofors 40 mm guns and target marking artillery shells were guides to direction.

Great innovations from Simonds, but then gremlins crept in to undermine the plan.  There was no radio comms with air.  Some bombs dropped on 3^rd Canadian Division HQ and wounded Maj-Gen Rod Keller.  Bombing the route of advance created a tank obstacle course which was run en mass at night by inexperienced APC drivers.  Simonds ordered a halt at noon on the 8^th to bring up the artillery after the first objectives were taken.  Given a respite, the Germans regrouped and a second dose of heavy bombing failed to destroy German counterattacking panzer groups.  Totalize stalled.

Trying to restore momentum, Simonds ordered Worthington Force to capture Hill 195.  The result was the most infamous event of Totalize.  An inexcusable navigation error had Worthington Force, a battlegroup consisting of the British Columbia Regiment and the Algonquins, seize Hill 140, seven kilometers from the assigned objective.  Unsupported by Canadian artillery or Typhoons, it was annihilated by a counterattack force of German Panther tanks.”

In a near postscript to the combat, Totalize culminated with the capture of Hill 195 on the 11th by a lone infantry regiment that infiltrated at night into the position.  The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada, under the command of Lt-Col Dave Stewart, who, with Scout platoon ahead, and his battalion following in single file; occupied Hill 195, eliminated what opposition there was, established a defense, which included a couple 17 pdr anti-tank guns; and repulsed German attacks that day.

Their line pierced, the Germans withdrew to Falaise.

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Mystery and Menace

Vincent J. Curtis

8 Aug 24

RE: Reef waters were hottest in 400 years over past decade. AP article by Suman Naishadham. The Hamilton Spectator 8 Aug 24

This AP article is loaded with mystery and menace.  The menace lies in the claim that the waters around the Great Barrier Reef were the “hottest in 400 years!” and in the implication is that man is somehow responsible, and will be responsible for the death of the reef if it dies.

The mystery is what these temperatures are. The story doesn’t say. All it says its that ocean temperatures were the hottest in 400 years, “warn scientists” who say the reef “likely won’t survive if planetary warming isn’t stopped.”  (One detects a whiff of climate alarmism.) They also claim to have reconstructed sea surface temperatures from 1618 to 1995. (Shades of the hockey stick!)

The lack of numbers calls into question these alarming claims. For comparison, the average temperature of the human body is 37ºC. The optimum temperatures for sea-coral ranges from 23ºC to 29ºC, and some species can thrive in waters as warm as 40ºC. The average sea surface temperature today is around 21ºC.  Coral metabolism doesn’t seem to be the issue.

What these scalding, hot temperatures - said to be lethal to the coral - actually are appears nowhere.  Is ‘hot’ or merely ‘warm’ justified?  The reader cannot judge for himself the validity of the ‘hot’ and ‘hottest ever’ claims made by the scientists.

Sea surface temperatures vary considerably from the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, and ‘planetary warming’ has many meanings. Ocean currents, bringing warmer or cooler water, are more significant to sea coral than the temperature of the atmosphere above the water.  The reconstructed sea surface temperatures, like air temperatures reconstructed from tree rings, are of dubious scientific validity, fraught with assumptions of constancy, and burdened by claims of absurd precision.  There is no theory connecting the growth of sea-coral to average sea surface temperature. The tree-ring theories determining global atmospheric temperatures were debunked by Ross McKittrick and Steve McIntyre in 2003, and undoubtedly the same faulty mathematical methods they demolished were employed by the sea-coral scientists to ‘reconstruct’ sea-surface temperature.  

I’m certain the study ended with the statement, “more research is warranted.”

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Misplaced hate

Vincent J. Curtis

30 July 24

RE: Jasper fire is just the beginning. Letter by Wayne Poole. The Hamilton Spectator 30 July 24

I’ve been the victim of hate-mongering by Wayne Poole; this time he misdirects his hate-mongering towards Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and the United Conservative Party of Alberta.  The town of Jasper lies entirely within Jasper National Park, which is subject to the jurisdiction of Parks Canada, a Federal agency. Nevertheless, Poole accuses Smith and the Conservative Party of being responsible for the disastrous wild fire that consumed a third of the town.

“Were [Smith’s] tears of regret, of contrition?” he asks. Apparently, Premier Smith is not allowed normal human emotion.

Poole goes on, blaming carbon dioxide for the disastrous fire! “It’s time for the irresponsible Smith and the UCP to stop playing politics and get real, for Alberta’s fossil fuel industry to wake up to the reality of climate change…Jasper is just the beginning.”

Climate change causes another climate to come into existence from a previous one; and neither climate nor its change causes forest fires.  Nor does carbon dioxide, one of the products of the combustion of fossil fuel, cause natural disasters.

Mr. Poole may sincerely believe the arrant nonsense spelled out above, but that gives him no right to propose that Premier Smith was not sincerely moved by the tragedy, or to ignore the fact that a Federal agency, not the province of Alberta, was responsible for fire fighting in Jasper.

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Climate change causes natural disasters?

 

Natural Disaster Nonsense

Vincent J. Curtis

29 July 24

RE: Canada’s premiers face escalating climate change-related disasters. CP story by Lyndsay Armstrong

“”…many of them remained consumed by climate-related disasters that have only escalated since they returned home,” claims the story.  Actually, climate-related disasters can’t possibly escalate since natural disasters aren’t due to climate. Or to climate “change” for that matter.

What is climate “change,” after all? Change is a process: the actualization of a potential.  In climate change, you start with one climate and end with another climate; and all the intermediates are climates also. So, climate change affects only climate; and climate does not cause weather events: even places with desert climate experience torrential rainstorms from time to time.

It is positing a false cause to say that climate or climate change causes weather events, period, or natural disasters. However many disastrous hurricanes pass over Florida, hurricanes are not the climate of Florida, nor is the climate of Florida the cause of Atlantic hurricanes.

Claiming helplessness on the basis of “climate change” or of it “escalating natural disasters” should not fool people.  The premiers, and the rest of us, have to dig in and deal with what nature has in store for us, and enough of the blaming and the deflecting of blame.

Climate change is a false narrative to justify political control and actions that harm the economy.

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Running out of food?

Vincent J. Curtis

24 July 24, 2024

RE: Vanishing farmland should set off alarm bells. Op-ed by Tim O’Hare. The Hamilton Spectator. (O’Hare is a municipal councillor for the city of Thorold)

No one nowadays grows all his own food. Even farmers specialize.  A farmer who grows corn, or apples, doesn’t raise and butcher his own beef cattle, get his butter and milk from his own cows.  Everyone gets their food the same way, with money at a market.  So, what, then, does it mean for Ontario to run out of farmland?

The fear of running out of food harkens back to Malthusianism, the old fear that humans were overpopulating the earth.  That fear of running out of farmland has been used to halt “urban sprawl”. Great Britain did outgrow its capacity to feed itself, but even through the blockades of two world wars, the combination of markets and money kept Britons fed.

Where is the food to feed Ontario’s burgeoning population to come from?  Author Tim O’Hare thinks it will have to come from the U.S., or Mexico, or China.  Neglect that Ontario already does get food from the U.S. and Mexico, but much comes from the rest of Canada, which includes Alberta, Quebec, PEI, and British Columbia. Special foods and wines come from France and Italy.

The magic of markets and money will ensure Ontario never runs short of food. Just don’t run short of money by screwing up Ontario’s economy with irrational fears, like the fears of urban sprawl and “climate change” and development.

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The gravy train is over

Vincent J. Curtis

21 July 24

RE: Funding cuts threaten investigations into missing children from former Mohawk Institute. Story by Kate McCullough. The Hamilton Spectator 20 July 24.

The complaints that the Federal government gravy train is grinding to a halt reek of cynicism.  How much does it cost, and how long does it take, to run ground penetrating radar over 750 acres?

When the story of murdered Indian children exploded in 2021, the Federal government allocated $30 million to aid in the searches.  The Mohawks demanded, and apparently received, $10 million of that allotment.  That offer expired after three years, in March 2024. What happened to it?  If you paid 15 researchers $100,000 a year for three years, that would account for less than half the money.

So far, nothing tangible has been found, anywhere. The Mohawk Institute was a day school; kids went home at might; and over 150 years, 15,000 thousand kids attended the school.  Only 56 are unaccounted for.  Surely, stories and the names of kids who died or disappeared mysteriously would persist among their classmates; and their parents would certainly know something was amiss. These alleged crimes went undetected, and unsuspected, for decades?  And there’s no recollection of a place on the grounds where kids were allegedly buried? And there’s no obvious place where they might have been?

To date, no bodies have been found anywhere, not even in Kamloops. This whole murdered kids story was invented; and it has been used to milk the white man of his money, and to impute the guilt of genocide, first cultural and then actual.

The funding is being cut because even official Ottawa is catching on. You can’t fool all of the people all of the time.

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How can you be ready for a flood?

Vincent J. Curtis

18 July 24

RE: Is Toronto prepared for the next flood? CP story. The Hamilton Spectator 18 July 24.

Nonsense abounds in this CP story which follows up on the historic flooding that occurred in Toronto on Tuesday, July 16^th.  The first bit of nonsense is in ‘being prepared for a flood.’  One can be prepared for the next torrential downpour of the magnitude of Tuesday, but flooding means, quite plainly, that one was not prepared, for preparation would have prevented flooding.

The more subtle and commonplace nonsense was uttered by Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, who said that more extreme weather events will occur due to climate change.  Climate does not cause weather, for if it did then climate would be as changeable as the weather.  But we maintain that climate is something stable, and that if it changes, it does so over a protracted period of time.  We say of a place that it has a certain climate on account of the characteristic weather of the place.  But even deserts experience torrential rainstorms from time to time, which is why they have washes and wadis.

The last storms of this magnitude that occurred in Toronto were Hurricane Hazel of 1954, and other storms in 2005 and 2013.  Freak storms do not foretell a new climate, which is what climate change produces: a new climate.  To conclude that Toronto’s has a new climate, it would require over a decade of experience.

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But they were refugees!

Vincent J. Curtis

16 July 24

RE: Canada apologizes after labelling Lakota and Dakota as refugees. CP story. The Hamilton Spectator 16 July 24.

Since history is no longer taught in school, the arrant nonsense of Canada apologizing for “labelling” the Sioux Indians and followers of Sitting Bull as refugees escapes notice.  They were indeed refugees, from the United States military, as the story does admit.

After the Battle of the Little Big Horn, Sitting Bull and his followers sought refuge in Canada, and the protection of the North West Mounted Police, from the wrath of the United States military.  Sitting Bull remained in Canada from 1877 to 1881; he and his followers receiving some supplies from the government of Canada, which was faced with the prickly diplomatic problem created by their presence in Canada’s sparsely populated west, and the “Manifest Destiny” of the United States.

Ultimately, Sitting Bull and some of his followers were persuaded to return to American territory, but many stayed. Strictly speaking, the remainder weren’t in fact aboriginal to the territory they occupied, which is in modern-day Saskatchewan.  They simply found space in Canada’s ample North-West. Being refugees from America is why these Sioux were treated as refugees by the Dominion government; and their returning to the U.S. was Canada’s preferred option.  The U.S. had ceased its war on their plains Indians.

Many Sioux (or Lakota, Dakota) didn’t return, but by the terms of the Royal Proclamation of 1763, not being found “in possession,” they weren’t entitled to treatment as aboriginals in Canada by Canada.  Nevertheless, Canadian policy, though ad hoc, was generous to the Sioux refugees from America; but they weren’t entitled to a treaty, since it was they who moved into and occupied space in Canada, not Europeans who moved into territory they were in possession of; nor were they entitled to a reserve, for the same reason and by the policy that they return to the U.S.

The apology is racism writ large.

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Big Oil, Big Government

Vincent J. Curtis

10 July 24

RE: Climate Change aids record heat waves. CP story by Jordan Omstead. The Hamilton Spectator 10 July 24.

It is commonplace to dismiss climate skeptics as being in the pay of Big Oil. But what if one’s career, and even employment, depended upon the whimsy of a climate-nutter like Minister of Climate Change Steven Guilbeault?  Do you think the scientist who said that the attribution of particular weather events to anthropogenic climate change needed to be weighed carefully, or that the available evidence did not support such a conclusion, would find continued employment under this Minister? You’d be a fool to believe so, and Guilbeault’s employees aren’t so foolish as to cross the boss on his favor prejudice.  That prejudice being that carbon dioxide causes bad weather.

Hence, it comes as no surprise that Climate Change Canada issues a “first-of-its-kind” analysis which concludes (surprise!) that the recent Eastern heat wave was made more intense by human induced climate change. Now, the west of North America was far cooler than average, and in the overall, North America was actually 0.5ºC cooler than average, but you don’t hear that inconvenient fact reported.  Students of Aristotle will observe that even if one can say that weather was caused by a new climate that the old one changed into, that the new climate is the product of human action is a separate problem altogether.

There’s no science in the conclusion that Canadians are probably to blame for the recent heat wave in Eastern Canada, but that’s what Minister Guilbeault wants put out as the message.

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Naked and Afraid: The defence policy update

Vincent J. Curtis

24 May 24

Naked and Afraid, Canada’s defense policy update, is a catalogue of irresolute, empty promises for a future government to fulfill, and is fraught with pollyannish conviction.  Naked and Afraid is the 2024 update to the 2017 Defense Policy paper, Weak, Anxious, and Distracted; and, despite being the successor to a seven-year-old document, N&A projects a vision of spending over a twenty-year period. It boldly declares timidity: its forecasted expenditures will bring Canada’s defense spending to a colossal 1.79 percent of GDP by 2029-30, short of the 2023 commitment to 2.0 percent.

Prime Minister Trudeau received an extraordinary letter, dated May 23^rd, signed by 23 United States Senators, calling attention to that shortfall, and asking for a more ambitious program from him at the NATO conference in July.

Canada will be relying upon polar bears to do much of the CAF’s dirty work.  The expenditures are remarkably deficient in fighting teeth: $18.4 billion over 20 years is allocated to acquire new “tactical helicopters”.  Problem is, the detailed wording doesn’t distinguish between an AH-64E Apache tactical helicopter and a CH-147F tactical lift helicopter. There’s $2.7 Billion over 20 years allocated to acquire long-range missile capability, which could mean a Lockheed-Martin HIMARS rocket artillery battery (passim). There’s mention of, but no money associated with, acquiring a ground-based air defense system for critical infrastructure; and one reads Saab’s MSHORAD missile system between the lines. There is only mention of “exploring options” to acquire long-range air- and sea-launched missiles, Tomahawk cruise missiles fitting this description.

Otherwise, there’s $9.0 Billion over 20 years for updates to existing equipment to preserve deployability.  There’s mention of, but no monetary commitment towards, upgrading or replacing the “main battle tanks” and the LAVs.  After 20 years, one would think replacement was unavoidable, but the hesitancy to make a commitment is palpable.

All this is rather strange when the main threat to Canada, supposed by the paper, is in the far North.  To move a battle group around the High Arctic would require about 100 tac lift helos, but that’s not foreseen in the paper.

To deal with threats to the far North, there’s money for surveillance and infrastructure, and a mention of, but no money allocated to, some mythical conventionally powered sub with under-ice capability. There’s $1.4 Billion over 20 years to acquire maritime sensors to monitor the maritime approaches to the Arctic and North. There’s $222 million over 20 years (where do they get these precise numbers?) for a new satellite ground station in the Arctic. There $307 million over 20 years for airborne early warning aircraft, which could mean either a Boeing P-8 Poseidon or a couple of Saab’s GlobalEyes (passim).  There’s $5.5 Billion over 20 years to acquire satellite communications capability. And there’s reference to “exploring options” to acquire a suite of surveillance and strike drones.

There’s stuff in Naked and Afraid that should be routine defence expenditures: replenishing ammunition stocks that were given to Ukraine. manufacturing our own artillery shells, training, housing, health- and child-care, and upgrading domestic infrastructure.

Significantly, there’s no specific mention of the Type 26 frigate; there’s only money set aside to refit the existing fleet of Halifax class frigates.

In EdC Vol 30-12 and 31-2, I sketched what threats to Canada’s sovereignty in the far North would look like, and what’s required to meet them. Meeting them requires an all of government approach, including skeptical reviews of foreign investment. The RCN and the RCAF have to be able to put platoon-plus sized units at threatened locations in Canada’s Arctic Archipelago, and be able to support them both logistically and tactically.  A Gripen E operating off an austere runway in Resolute Bay will be better than a daintier F-35 out of Bagotville, but that’s water under the bridge.

Naked and Afraid seems to be a grab-bag of pet and harmless expenditures without a strategic vision.  Just like the Indo-Pacific Strategy.

-30-

Don’t worry: be happy!

Vincent J. Curtis

28 June 24

RE: Canada’s wildfires caused four times more emissions than planes in 2023. AP story. The Hamilton Spectator 28 June 24.

At 2,980 MT of CO2 emitted by Canada’s burning forests in 2023, a more relevant comparison is that this is four times Canada’s annual emission of CO2 from all sources.  Despite Canada’s best efforts at reducing the country’s CO2 footprint, our forests betrayed us!

Luckily, none of this matters. While CO2 is, indeed, a “heat-trapping” gas, its effectiveness in trapping heat is exhausted by about 100 ppm concentration. Those familiar with the Beer-Lambert law will understand the logarithmic rise in absorption with linear rise in concentration. Above 100 ppm, the surplus CO2 is essentially serving as nothing but plant food.  A doubling of CO2 from 400 to 800 ppm will result in a 0.72ºC in global temperature, which presently averages about 14.5ºC.

What isn’t in the news are fires in Western Canada.  That’s because, unlike last year, this year has been cool, and rain has been plentiful. Those cries last year of “climate change” proved to be nothing but exercises in the fallacy of affirming the consequent. The climate must have changed back, which vitiates the fear-mongering of climate change.

Despite all the fear-mongering, the planet is not headed for a “tipping-point,” and all these efforts by Canada to reduce the country’s carbon footprint are wastes of time and of limited financial resources.

-30-

He speak with forked tongue

Vincent J. Curtis

14 June 24

RE: I spoke our language for those who could not. Op-ed by Sol Mamakwa the Hamilton Spectator 14 June 24.

Further proof that no good deed goes unpunished can be found in the article written by NDP MLA Sol Mamakwa. After being granted the privilege of speaking neither in English nor French in the Ontario legislature, he pens this article of extreme ingratitude laced with racism and falsehoods.

He calls Ontarians “settlers” who unjustly and unlawfully claimed “our lands” as theirs. In fact, Treaty 3, signed at Lake of the Woods in 1873, was made with the Saulteaux Anishinaabe by the Crown and covers the very area he represents. He wouldn’t be sitting in the Ontario legislature but for Treaty 3.  His terra nullius claim is rubbish: it was never applied to British North America, as both the Royal Proclamation of 1763 and the success of the Hudson’s Bay Company (founded 1670) prove.  That theory may have been argued in Australia, but never here.

The rest of his piece is but a hash of aboriginal racism, grievance mongering, and victim fantasies, which still strangely resonates in Canada.

He spoiled his effort at reconciliation with an unwonted and gratuitous attack on those who were born here.  Oh, and – a little lesson in civics – he spoke in the Ontario legislature, not “in the settler government,” as he wrote.

-30-

Parent your children

Vincent J. Curtis

12 June 24

RE: One-quarter of public schools are without food programs. The Hamilton Spectator new item. 12 June 24.

With breathless astonishment Kate McCullough reports that a quarter of Hamilton schools are without a nutrition program! (What’s a “nutrition program”?  Is that a faux-sophisticated way of saying a ‘lunch’ program?)

Twenty years ago, these were unheard-of.  It was simply expected that parents would feed their own children.  About fifteen years ago, school lunches came to be provided out of the charity of volunteers, after their own children began asking for extra food to give to classmates who came regularly to school without lunch.  And so it spread; and became official.  It became okay for parents to send their kids to school expecting the charity (or the taxes) of other people to fulfill a requirement of parenting that they neglected.

Now, we’re at the stage where it’s expected that schools take over a basic requirement of parenting, and it’s considered shocking and neglectful when schools don’t.  The Federal government is jumping in with both feet in this matter, albeit for political gain, but people ought to worry that the government is now taking over the parenting of your children.

Before 1984 truly comes to Canada, we’ve got to get the government out of the parenting business.  If “nutrition” programs are still needed here and there, let it revert to private volunteers; and maybe the neglectful parents should be privately reminded of their responsibilities.

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Learning tactics

Vincent J. Curtis

9 June 24

RE: Muslims shouldn’t have to fear cars. Op-ed by Steven Zhou. The Hamilton Spectator 8 June 24

It is both appalling and insulting that the Spectator should run an op-ed by an Islamic apologist complaining about how Muslims in Canada shouldn’t have to fear being run over by a car.  From whom do you think this tactic was learned?

The tactic of Islamic extremists running down and killing people in Western countries was practiced particularly in the period from 2016 to 2019, and led to the bollardization of many major Western cities. A quick trip down memory lane discovered the following, in no particular order:

New Yor City, Oct 31, 2017: 8 people killed and 11 injured after an Islamic extremist ran them down in a rented truck.

Nice, Italy, Jan 5, 2016: Islamic State claims responsibility for truck attack

Barcelona, Spain, Aug 17, 2017:13 killed as van rams crowds in Las Rambles

London: March 2017: 4 killed on Westminster Bridge after Islamic extremist runs them down, then jumps out and kills police officer with a knife.

The tactic of killing with a vehicle became a standard method of expressing one’s extremist views, thanks to the Islamic State.  For that reason, it ill behooves a Muslim apologist to complain in such a self-pitying way of the tactic being used against Muslims and their sympathizers.

The insulting aspect to the op-ed is the assumption that no one would remember how this all started.  What goes around, comes around.

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Fighting Swords

Vincent J. Curtis

29 Sept 23

Our esteemed Federal government has been giving away the stores to Ukraine to help them fight their war with Russia.  Could this mean that, with all of the old inventory being gone, newly manufactured and modern replacements are coming soon?  Not on your life, fella!  The Federal government chopped a billion from the defense budget, and slowed defense purchases.  I’ll bet Justin has even given away the last of our 78 year old, packed-in-original-grease Inglis High Powers. With our artillery given away, tanks, anti-tank weapons, what’s left to acquire that’s war-like, yet inexpensive?

The answer is new fighting swords.  Yes, the side-arm of centuries: that’s what the army is down to, and the designs we have haven’t been updated since 1897; when Victoria was queen.  They’ve had excuses for not updating sword design for over a century, what with machine guns, tanks, and sniper scopes and all, but it’s high time the Canadian army got an update and re-supply of fighting swords!

The dawn of modern era of sword design may be said to be in the 9^th century AD, during the migration period.  The big development of that time was the making of crucible steel.  This was a qualitative leap in blade metallurgy from pattern-welded wrought iron, and one of the first, and most famous, makers of crucible steel swords was Ulfberht, who inlaid his name into his blades as a brand of quality.  Ulfberht sold to everyone: Vikings, Franks, Thuringians, Goths, Saxons, you name it.  Ulfberht swords have been found all over Europe.

After the development of real steel, blade design became the dominant concern.  Soldiers were protected with shields, bucklers, chainmail, and improving body armour.  By the time of Agincourt, knights were well protected with articulated steel armour, and were rather hard to kill.  Blades became more sharply pointed to get into the vulnerable chinks in the knight’s armour.  Everett Oakshott developed a classification scheme of blades showing their gradual evolution from the 8^th to 15^th centuries as responses to changing battle conditions.

The dramatic improvement in sword design, quality, and manufacturing was from the latter part of the 18^th century to the beginning of the 20^th, following the development of steam powered forging hammers and industrial revolution scale, and -quality, steel manufacturing.  By then, sword makers had a lot of experience with blade design and hilt development; and design of swords for specialized purposes became common: falchions, rapiers, and spadroons being examples.  There was a lot of competition.  Besides Britain, there was France, the Austrian Empire, Italy, and Prussia in Europe.  Europe had only concluded the Seven Years War in 1763, and was about to enter the period of the Napoleonic Wars.

The modern era of British sword design I’m going to date from 1788, with the development of the 1788 Heavy Cavalry sword.  It has a well-designed basket hilt that protected the hand as well as a Highland basket hilt does, but without restricting hand movement.  In addition, it has probably the best-ever blade design.  The blade is long, at 38”; it is a backsword blade for half its length, and finishes as a narrowing broadsword (i.e. doubled edged) with a spear point.  (A backsword is a blade with only one edge.)

A Highland broadsword is double-edged from the end of the ricasso to the tip, ending in a spear point, with a characteristic Highland basket hilt, excellent for hand protection, but notorious for restricting hand movement.  (A ricasso is the unsharpened blade that enters the hilt.)

The 1788 was replaced with two of the most famous British sword designs ever: the 1796 Pattern Light Cavalry Sabre, and the 1796 pattern Heavy Cavalry Sword.  (A sabre, in British parlance, is a single-edged sword with a curved blade.)  The 1796 Light Cavalry sabre is famous to this day as the best “cutter” ever. It was designed for one purpose: hacking, which it does it exceptionally well; and the blade remained in British service in India until the end of the 19^th century.

 

The 1796 British Light Cavalry sabre was designed on the theory that British trooper-recruits had never ridden a horse before, and it would take years to develop fencing skills on horseback; hence, the weapon they would be given had to be easy to master, congenial to their habits, and excellent at what it did; and that was hacking at the enemy in close combat.

The 1796 pattern Heavy Cavalry sword, a pallasch, is copy of the very fashionable Austrian heavy cavalry sword of 1769. The 1796 Heavy is a long, 35” backsword blade with a hatchet tip, which made it poor at thrusting, or “giving point.”  It had good hand protection; so much so that it was a common field expedient modification to remove part of the hand guard for easier wearing.  At Waterloo, orders were issued to grind the top of the blade back of the tip, changing the hatchet point into a spear point; and Sgt Charles Ewart of the Scots Greys used one of these to capture an Eagle standard.  Hacking and stabbing, he killed three in seizing the standard.

“One made a thrust at my groin, I parried him off and cut him down through the head. A lancer came at me - I threw the lance off by my right side and cut him through the chin and upwards through the teeth. Next, a foot soldier fired at me and then charged me with his bayonet which I also had the good luck to parry, and then I cut him down through the head.”

The remainder of the 19^th century saw blade design follow fashions, and hilt design improve to combine hand protection with comfort for wear and use.  The 1796 Light Cavalry Sabre was officially replaced with the 1822 Pattern, which reduced the curvature, and reformed the tip so that it was better at thrusting.  The heavy cavalry was redesigned for better thrusting, and with a different hilt.  Infantry officers were given a new blade design in 1845, followed, in 1892, by the current blade design.  Changes were made also in hilt design, and the current hilt was settled upon in 1897; putting the 1897 hilt on the 1892 blade made the 1897 pattern Infantry officer’s sword.

The summit of British sword design was reached in the 1890s.  The infantry officer’s sword of 1897 remains the standard design of Britain and Canada today.  It is a simple blade, designed to give point only, and nothing else.  The cavalry swords became little more than short lances: used for giving point at the speed of horse, and nothing else.  Beginning in the Mexican-American War of 1846-48, revolvers became a standard battle weapon in the cavalry; Winston Churchill used his Mauser 1896 “Broom handle”, in place of a lance, during the charge of the 21^st Lancers at the Battle of Omdurman in 1898.

So, what’s there to improve? The improvement is to get infantry officers’ swords away from the ceremonial and back to a fighting weapon.  A real sword aficionado hit upon what could be the all-time best fighting blade design: the Wilkinson CJM Pattern.

The CJM, whose initials could be those of Charles J. Mitchell, decided that the 1788 Pattern sword was the best design; but at 38” it was too long for fencing on foot, which officers sometimes had to do in the days of the bayonetted rifle. CJM had the blade scaled to a nimble 33”, but kept the original 1788 basket hilt, as offering the best hand protection.  He had Wilkinson Sword custom make several of these “CJM” pattern swords.  A surviving example has a 1897 pattern steel scroll hilt on a CJM blade, which is one of the two preferred designs.  The other possible hilt is the cavalry three-bar hilt.

There it is: the best fighting sword for infantry officers and dragoons fighting on foot is the CJM pattern blade with a 1897 scroll hilt or an 1912 three bar cavalry hilt.

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A test of gullibility

Vincent J. Curtis

15 May 24

RE: Last summer was the warmest in 2,000 years, records show. AP story by Seth Borenstein. The Hamilton Spectator 15 May 24.

The headline and story were actually tests of gullibility: if you believed them, you’re gullible.  They can’t possibly know what they claim to know.

First, there are no temperature records that go back 2,000 years; and there are no trees scattered around the world that are 2,000 years old.

Second, there is no theory that connects tree-ring thickness to average annual temperature. What kind of tree these “researchers” relied on goes unstated.  Anyone who’s actually seen a tree-ring, knows that they can vary considerably in thickness as you trace it around the trunk.

Third, before the hockey stick graph, a theory was proposed (DA Graybill & SB Idso 1993) that CO2 fertilization could thicken tree rings: and the very same tree ring data were used in 1998 to make the famous hockey-stick graph, which is based on temperature!

Lastly, what was going on 2,000 years ago that made it hotter than last summer?

These alleged studies are all faked to wipe from memory the Roman and Medieval Warm periods, the Dark Ages cold period and the Little Ice Age to protect the hockey stick graph, which doesn’t show them.

So, how gullible were you?

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They still hate Harris

Vincent J. Curtis

13 May 24

RE: ‘Common sense’ was anything but. Editorial written by John Cartwright, Chair of the Council of Canadians. The Hamilton Spectator 13 May 24

When the Left fixes its hate on someone, that hate is undying.  The Left fixed its hate on former Ontario Premier Mike Harris, and to this day it can’t let it go, as the article written by the Chair of the pretentiously named “Council of Canadians” amply demonstrates.

Harris became hated by the Left because he proved that taxes could be lowered, government could be made smaller, and budgets could be balanced; and to the Left that demonstration is an unforgivable crime, for it explodes all their myths of government.  That Cartwright still goes out of his way to slime Mike Harris only proves that Harris and his “Common Sense Revolution” are consequential to this day.

Although they are different men, in different times, and in different levels of government, Pierre Poilievre and Mike Harris are confounded together from their common phraseology of common sense government; and the alleged evils of one are smeared on the other by the Chair of the Council of Canadians, out of fear that treasured myths may get busted again.

The hatred of the Left endures forever; just as their errors never get admitted.

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The psychological sadism of climate nuttery

The psychological cruelty of climate nuttery

Vincent J. Curtis

13 May 24

RE: Climate anxiety is more common than you think. Op-ed by Maliha Ibrahim, Trevor Lehmann, and Natalie Thomas.  Ibrahim is a professor of counselling psychology at Yorkville University and member of the Climate Psychology Alliance – North America, Canada Chapter.  Lehmann is a career counsellor and founding chair of the Climate -Informed Counselling and Psychotherapy Association. Thomas is a professor in the college of arts at the university of Guelph-Humber, and Conestoga College. The Hamilton Spectator 13 May 24.

(To summarize the above credentialled pretentiousness: they’re activists, and therefore untrustworthy.)

Nobody suffers from “climate anxiety” while taking a trip to Florida.  Many sane people from northern climes move to Florida.  People go to Florida from colder climates for the warmer climate offered by Florida.  So, how could “climate anxiety” arise in people as a result of a warmer climate?

It turns out, if you read the article, that it’s the fearmongering over climate change that causes “climate anxiety.”  “The impacts of climate change are profound, affecting everything from extreme weather events to changing ecosystems, to volatility on farms (what?) and in food production” they say.  None of this is true, of course, but such claims can alarm the uninformed, and I can imagine a constant diet of this fearmongering nonsense could cause anxiety in the young.

To the extent that, since 1979, there’s any warming at all, it is found in milder winters and in the high latitudes.

It’s not climate change per se that’s causing anxiety because, for practical purposes, it’s not detectible by people; it’s the fearmongering by the psychological sadists of the climate-nutter movement that’s responsible.  And if you go deeper, the anxiety is found among people who are pre-disposed to say they have it in the first place.

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Microplastic dust: the cause du jour

Vincent J. Curtis

6 May 24

RE: Microplastics: a mega problem. Op ed by Tricia Clarkson, who is co-chair of the Peterborough Alliance for Climate Action.

That a story on microplastic dust would be written by the head of a “climate action” committee merely proves that “microplastics!” is replacing climate as the woke-progressive cause du jour.  She can claim that “scientists are finding these harmful fragments in every part of our bodies” all she likes, but it’s still bunkum. She can claim that some “study” found heart disease patients with microplastics in the blood vessels on either side of their necks” (which would be in the carotid arteries) and this too is bunkum. And all the rest about microplastic dust particles raining down on us and in our drinking water.

If microplastic dust particles existed, they would refract light. We could see them, just as we see ordinary dust; we could see white particles in water, floating on top, on the bottom of the container, or turning the clear water murky, depending upon the density of the plastic in question.  Our bodies do not absorb indigestible solid particles like dust: they pass out the digestive tract unabsorbed. If somehow microplastic particles were floating around the bloodstream like tiny blood clots, they would immediately induce strokes and thrombosis whenever they blocked a capillary.  Yet, none of this is observed.  And never mind that the mechanism by which microplastics are created in such enormous volumes remains a mystery.

Microplastics is just the latest in a long line of scares in the attempt to force modern society to stop using wonderful, healthy, and inexpensive modern materials.

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