International Women’s Day

Vincent J. Curtis

8 Mar 21

RE: various articles in the Hamilton Spectator of 8 Mar 21.

Male domination of the world is safe for another year.  From the coverage of International Women’s Day, feminists are completely missing the boat.  They carp about old issues that were answered decades ago and say nothing about the issue of today that are eating the advances made for women since the 1970s.

That “the average woman is paid less than the average man” is a canard that was explained fifty years ago by American economist Thomas Sowell, which I independently confirmed for the Hamilton Mountain riding 1980 Federal election.  The croakers about “pay equity” aren’t interested in answers; they just want the issue to croak about.

Then, there’s “Given the chance, women can lead African economic recovery.”  Why do they need to be “given a chance?”  Why don’t they just seize the opportunity like a man would?

The croakers get warmer in the article “Gender-based violence is a human rights issue.”  Maybe it is unfair that men are physically bigger and stronger than women, and more prone to violence.  That’s the human condition.  But what about the inhuman condition revealed in the word ‘gender’?  Women’s sports are soon to be dominated by biological males that “identify” as women.

This is the issue of the day in American college and high school sports.  Biological males are taking away sports scholarships from biological women.  Feminists completely ignore this issue, but they’d get plenty of help from dads who want their daughters to compete on a level playing field.

As a branch of progressivism, feminism has to be careful about what it carps about.  How wonderful transgenderism is is the cause de jure, and if feminists complain about the problem transgenderism causes women, they’d get cancelled out of the movement. 

The famous female tennis star Martina Navratilova and the famous female author J.K. Rowling are cases in point.

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School Board proves racist after all: Anti-Semitic.

Vincent J. Curtis

6 Mar 21 

RE: Trustee Paikin Miller asked to resign.  Hamilton Spectator 6 Mar 21.

It turns out the HWDSB is rife with racism – anti-Semitic racism.  The vote to demand Paikin Miller to resign reminds me of UN Resolution 3379, passed in 1975, that declared “Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination.” 

The decision against Paikin Miller was fore-ordained by the relative placement of the two antagonists on the hierarchy of victimhood.  An old Jewish woman grew bored with the complaining of a young Muslim girl about the plight of her co-religionist and other matters, and in the cat-fight that ensued, the Anglos sided with the Muslim over the Jew.  All because they feared what might befall them if they chose wrongly.

And you wonder at the mismanagement at the HWDSB.  This is what the trustees spend their time on.  Your tax dollars at work!

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Broken Dreams, Broken Lives: An Analysis

Vincent J. Curtis

23 Nov 20

Ordinarily, I don’t write about RCMP matters.  However, the melodramatically titled “Broken Dreams, Broken Lives” subjects the RCMP to the same progressivist assault meted out to the CAF, and it may be useful to examine this report to gain some perspective.

Simply put, “Broken Dreams, Broken Lives” is a work of naiveté if you take it at face value.  It has a more sinister purpose if you don’t.  The undeclared ethic of the report is relentless progressivism, which makes its intellectual integrity questionable in my view.

The conclusion it reaches is that there is a toxic culture in the RCMP.  The carriers of the culture go unnamed, but they aren’t women, Indigenous, Racialized minorities, or LGBTQ2S+, which is the report’s way of spelling ‘Lesbian.’  Another hint: the carriers of this culture are misogynist and homophobic.  It seems that the toxic culture of the RCMP can only be “eradicated” if all the cis-gender hetero white males were removed from the force and replaced with pajama boys, women, and minorities.

Let’s keep in mind that one of the functions of the RCMP is busting drunks in northern Manitoba.

The Commissioner of the RCMP, Brenda Lucki, was shocked at the report.  She had no idea this culture existed.  Lucki is a career Mountie, having served for decades, and reached the top of the heap.  If she had no idea it existed, in my books this amounts to contra-indicating evidence.

The report admits, inadvertently, of more contra-indicating evidence.  “RCMP employees appear to blame the ‘the bad apples’ without recognizing the systemic and internal origin of this conduct.” [i.e. misogyny and homophobia]  From the perspective of RCMP employees, which must include some of the victims, the blame for bad conduct goes on the people doing it, not on some ephemeral rotten system of which the apples are but helpless agents.  Insiders don’t see a ‘toxic culture’ either.

The report is shockingly vague.  “Toxic culture,” “a change in the culture,” “comprehensive cultural change,” “fundamental, structural change,” “sexualized environment,” “toxic work environment,” “safe work workplace,” “inclusive and respectful workplace,” “incalculable damage to female members,” (since 2,604 were financially compensated, someone calculated!), “systemic barriers,” “transparency.” Continuous references to misogyny, homophobia, and racism.

‘Toxic culture’ and ‘damaged’ persons are metaphors; culture means whatever you want; systemic barriers and respectful workplaces are without explanation; and misogyny, homophobia, and racism are pejoratives.  A culture that is toxic because of misogyny and homophobia indicates nothing but subjective perceptions.

One example of a ‘systemic barrier’ is that some trainers don’t want to train female recruits.  A way of insuring that you’re never accused of sexual misconduct is never to be alone with a woman.  Self-protection is interpreted as a ‘systemic barrier’ and misogyny.

Equality doesn’t mean equal treatment.  One recommendation is for women not to be sent to detachments with inadequate housing and social support.

The naiveté of the report must arise from the authors’ never having worked in a large, hierarchical organization.  The RCMP has 19,000 sworn and 11,000 unsworn members, and the report covers thirty years.  Of course people in authority can abuse their power, sometimes actually and sometimes just perceived.  Being police gives you power over people, and some are attracted to policing for that reason.  Careerists are selfish and undermine rivals.  Perhaps a third of the force shouldn’t be in policing.  Welcome to the real world!

The enduring struggle of leadership is to maximize performance while coping with personnel problems.

The criticism, even of merit, never takes account of the fact that the purpose of the RCMP is to bust drunks in northern Manitoba (among other things).  The report takes policing as a given, like manna from heaven.  Policing just happens - without reference to the type of individual who will do the hard work. 

With its references to breaking up the force and fundamental transformation of culture, I see the aim of the report is to capture the RCMP for progressivism, as the media, academia, and politics have been.

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'Asinine' Spec editors deny the science on lockdowns

Vincent J. Curtis

4 Mar 21

RE: Lockdowns work.  Spectator editorial of 04 Mar 21

Whenever Arts majors spout off their alleged knowledge of science, the results are never good.  And for sheer 27 year old know-nothing arrogance, the editorial claiming that lockdowns work cum hit-piece on Conservative MP David Sweet is a glowing example.  The editors were reduced to marshalling their own inexpert observations to support their conclusions.  You’d think by now there’d be a scientific study or two proving not just that lockdowns work, but which measures are the most effective.

Alas!  Real scientific analysis concludes that lockdowns don’t work.  For example, the paper entitled, “Assessing Mandatory Stay-at-Home and Business Closure Effects on the Spread of COVID-19” whose lead authors are Dr. Eran Bendavid and Prof John Ioannidis of Stanford University - released in January - concluded “While same benefits cannot be excluded, we do not find significant benefits on case growth of more restrictive NPIs [i.e. Non-pharmaceutical Interventions = lockdown measures.].  Similar reductions in case growth may be achievable with less restrictive interventions.”

The respectable scientific analysis is that lockdowns don’t work.  So, if it is “flat out untrue and insulting to argue that they do not work,” it must be because it is embarrassing to have one’s ignorance of science exposed.   The argument: “It took a long time, but eventually the spread began to slow” is an obvious case of the post hoc, ergo, propter hoc fallacy.

If it is asinine to maintain that lockdowns don’t work, how much more asinine is it to maintain that they do in the face of the science?

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Stoking Fear though Ignorance

Vincent J. Curtis

3 Mar 21

Today’s Spectator contains two applications of the technique of developing fear and loathing through ignorance.  One is the story on “Study finds emissions rising steadily in GTHA,” (Greater Toronto Hamilton Ara) and the other is “Another outbreak tied to new variants.”  The technique is to provide enough information to raise alarm, but not enough explanation to quieten the alarm.

The TAF study found alleged increases of carbon dioxide emissions, that the rate of increase was “alarming”, and concluded that if “emissions aren’t lowered soon they could further affect daily life.”  The article offered no cause for the increase.  The increase had to happen somehow, so what caused it so that we can address it?   No explanation, and none is offered as to why this increase is “alarming.”  No explanation is offered as to what these “further affects on daily life” amount to, exactly.

I dismiss the TAF report on the grounds that they can’t measure carbon dioxide emissions in the GTHA, and by measure I don’t mean “guesstimate” - which is what they actually did.  I dispute that anything they’re talking about is objectively “alarming,” since in the world picture, the increase in carbon dioxide emission in the GTHA is insignificant.

The COVID variant story is straight-up fearmongering.  Blacks, East Indians, Chinese, Germans and French are variants of the human species.  Insofar as human potential goes, are there any real differences?  No.  So, whether a person is infected with this variant or that, it is still of Chicom-19.  Left-handed or right-handed, it’s the same.

Stop worrying! And stop fearmongering!

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And in the middle is Saab

Vincent J. Curtis

16 Feb 21

Sweden and Finland are deeply alarmed by Russia.  At a press briefing on February 16^th, Swedish Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist  outlined causes for concern: the pressure Russia is exerting on the Baltic states, in the Ukraine, in Syria, and especially by the seizure of Crimea.  Swedish and Finnish air patrols interdict Russian aircraft on a weekly basis, and note similar encounters near British, Canadian, and U.S. air spaces.  Russia has poisoned dissidents abroad, and conducts disinformation campaigns against neighboring states, which, in the view of Sweden, are actions of a hostility, and in violation of the Helsinki Final Act of 1975.  Sweden will be expanding its defense budget by forty percent between 2021 and 2025 to raise the level of deterrence, and will expand defense cooperation arrangements.

The Swedish government representatives did not regard war with Russia as some distant, theoretical possibility, but as a distinct reality that demands a high level of vigilance.

 The relationship between Sweden and Russia goes back a long way.  Sweden became a great European power in the early 17^th century under the rule of the great warrior-king Gustavus Adolphus in the Thirty Years War.  Gustavus is considered by some to be the first modern general and the inventor of combined arms tactics.  The Thirty Years War produced the Treaty of Westphalia, which introduced the idea of the nation-state and International Law.

Sweden’s decline from great power status began, ironically, under another great warrior-king, Charles XII, at the beginning of the 18^th century.  A brilliant tactician, Charles XII routed Russian armies two and three times the size of his, but his downfall was in strategy.  He exhausted his army and his country in the wars against Russia.  By the beginning of the 19^th century, Sweden lost that portion of its territory known as Finland to Russia after its defeat in the Great Northern War of 1808-09.  Czar Alexander I took Finland as his personal duchy, separate and distinct from the Russian Empire as a whole.

Finland was then sparsely populated.  A Finnish national identity took root among the educated classes in the last quarter of the 18^th century, and burst into full flower in the middle of the 19^th century.  Hence, in 1917, a Republic of Finland declared its independence after the Bolshevists overthrew the Czar of Russia, and their Grand Duke.  Finland fought a civil war between Reds and Whites, the Whites won, and Finland remained independent of the new Soviet Union.

The Soviet Union, under Stalin, invaded Finland in 1939, forcing Finland’s surrender in 1940.  After Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, Finland fought the Continuation War against the Soviets until her fortunes declined with that of Germany.  Finland again surrendered in 1944 and, in addition to losing about one third of her national territory, had to pay war reparations to Russia.  Ironically, this forced Finland to modernize her economy, and made her a wealthy country by the 1970s.

Sweden has been a neutral country since 1814.  Sweden stayed out of World War I and II, and remains non-aligned to this day.  Finland adopted a non-aligned but pro-Soviet foreign policy after World War II to protect her independence.

Culturally, Finland is descended from Sweden.  Street signs in the capital Helsinki are in both Finnish and Swedish.  Beyond a few relics from the czarist era, there is almost no Russian cultural influence in Finland.  Finland has national service, and is able upon mobilization to put 350,000 troops into the field, and they aren’t expected to be used against neighbour Sweden.

Sweden and Finland form a natural alliance of the non-aligned against Russia.  Sweden is separated from Russia both by the territory of Finland and the Baltic Sea.  Finland is Sweden’s first line of defense, and forms Finland’s strategic rear.  Joint operational planning with Finland, interoperability, and the advantages of the two countries being so close and of sharing the same equipment were emphasized by deputy commander of the Swedish Air Force, Brig-Gen Anders Persson.

Which brings us to Saab, Sweden’s leading defense supplier.  Persson emphasized the need for Sweden and Finland to be technically and tactically superior to Russian forces.  Finland is looking to replace its aging fleet of Hornet fighter aircraft, and Saab wants to sell its Gripen E/F fighter, combined with something new – Globaleye - an Airborne Early Warning and Control system along with it as a force multiplier.

More of the qualities of the Gripen came to light during the press briefing.  Persson called the Gripen “the iPhone of the fighter community”, in reference to its capability and ease of use.  Gripen really is designed to be flown off two-lane highways in the north of both countries.  It has a refuel and rearm turnaround time of fifteen minutes.  Routine maintenance is intended to be done by conscript mechanics.  More major overhauls can be done in hours.  The Gripen was designed to defeat the Su-30/35 and the Su-57 in air-to-air combat, and is expected to remain tactically relevant into the 2060s.  Economy and availability – meaning lots of sorties - are prominent advantages of the Gripen over other fighter types, according to Saab.

Saab’s Globaleye was intriguing.   It is designed to work closely with the Gripen E/F.  It is an AWACS system that is mounted on an ultra-long range Global 6000 aircraft from Bombardier.  The system has a detection range of 550 km of aircraft at normal altitudes and 450 km for low flying aircraft.  It has a mission time of over eleven hours. Saab president Micael Johannson said that Globaleye can defeat stealth.

Though the Gripen is already working in tandem with NATO AWAC systems, Globaleye was designed from the ground up to complement the capabilities of the the Gripen in the Nordic theatre against a Superpower.  A tactical vision seems to have guided the design of the Gripen-Globaleye arrangement.

Like Saab’s proposal to Canada, the proposal to Finland offered to expand that company’s current research relationship with Finnish universities and its research center in Finland.  Saab’s capabilities should not be underestimated; it began as an aircraft company in 1937 and has delivered over 5,500 aircraft over the years to customers around the world.

Besides making clearer the advantages of a purchase of Gripens, the Globaleye adds an interesting wrinkle to the Saab portfolio, and the RCAF may want to look at Globaleye as a possible complement to a Gripen purchase.

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Woke Unprofessionalism

Vincent J. Curtis

1 Mar 21

RE: Trump calls for GOP unity; repeats lies about election defeat.  Hamilton Spectator 1 Mar 21.

What’s wrong with this headline, “Trump calls for GOP unity; repeats lies about election defeat?”  This is a news article written by the Associated Press, and the Spectator thoughtlessly dropped it into Canada and the World page.  What’s wrong is the blatant editorializing in the headline.

The word lie isn’t used to describe propaganda coming out of North Korea, or China.  Baghdad Bob never had the word lie associated with his assertions about the state of the Iraq War of 2003 that overthrew Saddam Hussein.  The AP (or the Spectator editors) could have substituted an objective “claims” for “lies”, but no; the thumb of the MSM has to be pressed on the political scale.  And the MSM wonders why half the population have written them off.  Add an editorial cartoon like that of today, “Vaccine against Conservative Party crackpots,” and it becomes clear how deep the rot goes in MSM employed journalists.  What could be more crackpot than Marxism, with all we know about its consequences, yet Marxism is the dominant “lens” of analysis these days in woke-progressivism?

Nearly 75 million Americans certifiably voted for Donald Trump in 2020. 12 million more than in 2016.  The oldest, whitest, most establishment, least cool, the least likely and least inspiring champion of woke-progressivism, a cognitively impaired Joe Biden, alleged got 81 million votes, 15 million more than the first woman, Hillary Clinton, in 2016 and 18 million more than the first Black, Barack Obama, in 2012.  Washington, D.C. was deserted for Biden’s inaugural, 2,000 people versus Trump hundreds of thousands in 2016.  And rational people are supposed to calmly accept that Biden won fair and square without even campaigning?

Half the American population enthusiastically voted for Trump, and a third of Canadians support the Conservative Party.  Why would a sensible business needlessly antagonize with unnecessary editorializing half of its potential audience?  Unprofessional journalism costs journalists their jobs.

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