Daily Derp: DD's All-Time Hit By Pitch Leader

Why, Paul Krugman! He just passed Ernie 'Coach' Pantuso for that honor.

Paul Krugman. The conscience of an illiberal:

"I suppose a free market purist might question why we need government policies to help deal with this new reality. But we are, after all, talking about the fate of children, who are to some extent a common responsibility. Furthermore, child care economics is in some ways like health economics: for a variety of reasons, mostly coming down to the fact that we’re dealing with people, not things, we can’t trust unregulated markets to deliver a decent outcome."

Paul supposes. 

Sigh.

Obamacare is a frightful disaster passed on a bed of lies and deceit. It's no surprise it's not accomplishing what it claimed to do and you can expect the same from 'child care economics' whatever that means.

Oh, if he means subsidized daycare. Just study Quebec's case. Inside 20 years it became unfeasible. I can just imagine what a gargantuan mess in the hands of the U.S. government, which can't even run SS properly, it would quickly become. Particularly if introduced by Democrats.

No. No they're not a common responsibility. They're the responsibility of the family and only the family. Anything beyond that is government force imposing itself on the family.

The rest of that is just more typical Krooogmanian scare-mongering under the guise of 'rational thought'. Yeh, yeh. We get it. Before the arrival of the mega-welfare state we were all morally destitute.

It's all eugenics in the end. 

This thing that liberals are offering 'big ideas' is nonsense. All they propose are failed progressive retreads with more government passing off as 'for the greater good'.

Progressives are draining the life and blood of our existence.

***

This is the sort of social distortion and destruction they offer:

"The Archaeologies of Modern Conflict course now comes with a trigger warning that cautions students about the potentially traumatizing nature of history."

***

If you go to Liveleaks, or read reports not covered in the press or youtube, you find all sorts of crimes committed by progressives sometimes in live time.

The disturbing development is they claim they have a right to destroy and steal property because they believe they hold the moral high ground.

You also, after some digging, a lot of these faux-protestors are either really just plain dumb or paid by progressive groups to go provoke people at rallies.

Just some examples:







***

Police abuse is not real:

"Police officers across the country misuse confidential law enforcement databases to get information on romantic partners, business associates, neighbors, journalists and others for reasons that have nothing to do with daily police work, an Associated Press investigation has found.
Criminal-history and driver databases give officers critical information about people they encounter on the job. But the AP's review shows how those systems also can be exploited by officers who, motivated by romantic quarrels, personal conflicts or voyeuristic curiosity, sidestep policies and sometimes the law by snooping. In the most egregious cases, officers have used information to stalk or harass, or have tampered with or sold records they obtained."

***

Is Tesla playing people?

Daily Derp: The Return

Let's begin with some Renaissance porn to whet the tongue:

"In the Renaissance, art is private and Marcantonio's prints made art public. Marcantonio is not the inventor of the graphic print, but he's the first to work with an artist of such celebrity to create a unique persona for artists in a medium that was basically new."

***

Miami Hispanics dig Trump.

***

Nothing to see here.

"The inflow of asylum seekers in Sweden, a country with one of the most liberal laws towards refugees, is putting an increasing strain on the country's police. There are now reportedly 55 areas in the country, where the law is not fully upheld. 

Dubbed “no-go zones” in some media reports, there are now 55 areas in Swedish cities, where the police have significant problems in tackling crime. They are divided into three categories depending on how significant the risk to officers working there is."

Look at it. This is my surprised face.

Self-loathing progressive Westeners probably secretly cheer this on.

I mean, we deserve it, right?

***

Democrats expect Rpublicans to fix Obamacare fiasco entirely of their own doing.

You can't make this shit up.

"Mommy and daddy, I know you warned me about moving out before getting a stable job give me my rent money or else I'm gonna tell everyone you don't love me and racist!"
 
***

SJW gone awry:

"These tactics, while perhaps appropriate and effective in influencing legislators or officials in the executive branch, have no place in the judicial process. This is basic civics, and one would think students and others affiliated with a prestigious Ivy League institution would know this. Moreover, having read a few of the emails, it is abundantly clear that the writers, while passionate, were woefully ignorant about the issues before the Court. Hopefully, they will read this decision and be educated."

***

My God Seattle is run by moronic neo-command economy socialist luddites.

"The Seattle City Council last Monday passed a sweeping "secure scheduling" ordinance by a unanimous vote, making it only the second city in the nation to take a direct role in regulating how businesses set employee schedules."

It's too stupid to comprehend. I mean, really stupid.

Next up. Outlawing cutting back hours.

From comments:

"...Very rarely do you ever actually get to the death which followed the 1,000 cuts. This is because you only get 500 cuts. So everything still works. In fact, for the lucky few who are able to retain jobs, everything works great. Which creates more incentive to do more regulatory tweaking.
The fact that these processes exacerbate, and not reduce, net wealth is not relevant. That's because for most people anecdotes always trump statistical analysis. No one is looking at the big picture. Just their own wallet and their immediate circle's wallets.

So this regulation will live on. And it will prove to the masses that it's possible to have it exist and not destroy the economy. The net negative effect on wealth will never be a factor in the social consciousness. And the failure to impact aggregate poverty will continue to be seen as a problem of redistribution and not of mismanagement of the economic circumstances that people operate under.
And thus, the Leviathan continues to expand."

"...Seattle passes law that gives more sick time. Employees take more sick time. Employers forced to cover shifts making employee schedules very dynamic. Seattle then passes law that makes it expensive for schedules to shift. Employers then start heavily restricting schedule shifting. So no more picking up Timmy from school a little early cause of something unforeseen cause because Bob can't cover your schedule. So next Seattle will pass some new law to fix the problem with the second law that was to fix the problem with the first law. It is like watching a Road Runner cartoon. You think at some point Willie will stop ordering from ACME and take his money to the local diner for a good Turkey dinner but you know they won't."

We're watching how a city falls in 'real time' as one other commenter noted.

***

"Manville police cleared Harvey but district officials suspended him and said he'd have to undergo a five-hour evaluation before being allowed back in school because the teacher said she didn't recall giving him the assignment."

She didn't remember my ass. And what kind of low life is this useless teacher to allow a student to undergo a bull shit evaluation?

Good for the mother.

Fuck them and fuck them hard.

Know? I'm at the point libertarians and conservatives should just branch off the public school system and go off on their own.
It's getting out of hand when schools start to call cops and protective services - and in this case ordering a psych evaluation - over fucken school projects they disagree with.

Evil motherfuckers.

***

University of Michigan deserves all the scorn directed at them.

And people are already having fun with it.

Not sure what mandatory pronouns have to do with 'inclusiveness' and 'respect'.

Idiots run colleges it looks like.

***

Reason magazine was very busy bring to the attention of readers the slow drip and march of anti-humanist progressivism.

"As a judge tasked with upholding the Constitution, it seems ill-advised to openly call for the elimination of rights protected by the Constitution while acting in his official capacity. It's hard not to wonder how Walker would react if people started calling for the elimination of the Sixth Amendment—you know, the one ensuring people's right to a trial by jury."

Science Government Style

The DEA moves to ban kratom:

But dedicated kratom users might want to stock up. As soon as Friday, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) says it will classify kratom as a Schedule I substance, putting it in a class of drugs — along with heroin, peyote and marijuana — that, per U.S. government policy, have “no currently acceptable medical use.” The Schedule I designation will make kratom illegal to possess or sell and more heavily restricted than cocaine or oxycodone.

Kratom and its chemical compounds, said DEA Special Agent Jodie Underwood, “pose an imminent hazard to the public safety.

The DEA’s announcement has created consternation among scientists who study its effects and their potential medical benefits. This week, more than 50 members of the U.S. House of Representatives — including 28 Democrats and 23 Republicans — sent a letter to the DEA arguing its “hasty decision” to schedule kratom “will put a halt on federally funded research and innovation surrounding the treatment of individuals suffering from opioid and other addictions — a significant public-health threat.”

Washington Reps. Adam Smith and Denny Heck signed the letter.

“In the end, this is a disservice to science,” said Christopher McCurdy, chairman of Biomolecular Sciences at the University of Mississippi, which has been on the forefront of research into kratom as a non-opium-based painkiller and an herbal alternative to methadone or suboxone. For decades, the University of Mississippi also had the only contract with the DEA to grow marijuana for medical research.

Yeah. Something tells me this is more to do with the DEA ensuring its existence and less to do with public safety. 

And how did it come the DEA has this kind of power anyway? I wouldn't trust a single word that comes out of their mouths.

Science is only science when the government says it is.

Need more?

Okay.

Science:

"Last Wednesday, the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology (PCAST) released a report finding that reviews of several commonly used forensic methods—such as analysis of hair, bitemarks, and shoe-prints—"have revealed a dismaying frequency of instances of use of forensic evidence that do not pass an objective test of scientific validity."

Government:

"We remain confident that, when used properly, forensic science evidence helps juries identify the guilty and clear the innocent, and the department believes that the current legal standards regarding the admissibility of forensic evidence are based on sound science and sound legal reasoning," Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a statement to The Wall Street Journal. "While we appreciate their contribution to the field of scientific inquiry, the department will not be adopting the recommendations related to the admissibility of forensic science evidence."

Any questions?

Remember, the government claims to be all rational sciency where climate system change is concerned.

When politicians talk about science always ask: Cui bono?

Always.

Quebec Bilingualism Needs More

I keep hearing the argument that Quebecers - particularly French-Canadians are more bilingual. Quebec tends to inflate its successes in areas we know it to not be up to par with the rest of the continent.

This is not supported by the facts.

"In Quebec, the English mother tongue minority is the one that shows the highest bilingualism rate, with 66.1% of anglophones reporting they were bilingual in 2001, compared to 50.4% of allophones and 36.6% of francophones. However, all three groups were gaining ground. In New Brunswick, the bilingualism rate is 71.5% for francophones, 15% for anglophones, and 17.5% for allophones. In Ontario, it is 89.4% for francophones, 8.2% for anglophones, and 6.8% for allophones. In all other provinces, francophones show the highest bilingualism rates: 91.6% in Manitoba, 90.1% in Prince Edward Island, 89.6% in Alberta, 89.3% in Yukon, 89.0% in British Columbia, 87.8% in Saskatchewan, 86.3% in Nunavut, 86.2% in the Northwest Territories, and 85.8% in Newfoundland."

These figures mirror my experience. It's extremely rare to meet a non-French-Canadian who can't communicate in French. It's more common to meet a Francophone who can't speak English but I suspect this will change moving forward. It would have changed and progressed by now if not for the political nationalists who are needlessly slowing things down through various counter-productive and sometimes punitive language laws.

As a whole, Quebec is the most bilingual province followed by New Brunswick - two provinces with the largest French-speaking populations - thanks to the English-speaking community.

I refuse to use the terms 'phone' as they further perpetuate 'difference' through ethnicity and language.

It's nonsensical labeling.

This, however, is not because we're more open or progressive. If the figures were higher among French-Canadians, then perhaps there would be some justification for this assertion but even then I submit it wouldn't be the case.

The bottom line is English is a far more important language than French. It's a simple fact. So the incentive for someone in Alberta to learn French is limited outside of for romantic reasons. Conversely, a Quebecer needs to learn English lest they be isolated more than they already are.

It's a question of practicality. 

If anything, the bilingual rates are low for Quebec given this scenario.

Leadership And Intellecualism You Can Rely On

Behold the state of progressivism.

First, an article from Slate. Oh heavens me!

"...But Johnson isn’t quite so middle-of-the-road. Johnson’s radical free-market economic proposals would dismantle the social safety net and hobble a country still recovering from a devastating recession—a classic Witches Council move. His response to the climate crisis, which boils down to “¯\_(ツ)_/¯, the sun is gonna swallow us up someday anyway,” demonstrates a capacity for nihilism few mortals could muster. Johnson is as deep into the Other Realm as any Quizmaster could hope to be."

Ooookay, then.

Whatever. I have to go check on my pulled pork in the smoker.

Onto the President. The greatest orator since, like, Cicero:

“When I hear anybody say that America is somehow weaker now than it used to be, blah blah, it’s nonsense. This is the greatest military on earth. Nobody even comes close. Our personnel are better, better trained and more focused and exhibit excellence every day,” Obama said. “We need to take great pride, but we also need to cherish it, not be careless with it. "

Like in Libya, Egypt and Syira, right?

Drone killings of Americans without due process?

Blah, blah, blah, nonsense. 

***

Speaking of fake scandals and blah, blahs. Obama used a pseudonym to communicate with Hillary on her unsecured private server.

Awesome.

Just peachy.

From NRO Online:

 

"...I will end with what I said eight months ago: To summarize, we have a situation in which (a) Obama knowingly communicated with Clinton over a non-government, non-secure e-mail system; (b) Obama and Clinton almost certainly discussed matters that are automatically deemed classified under the president’s own guidelines; and (c) at least one high-ranking government official (Petraeus) has been prosecuted because he failed to maintain the security of highly sensitive intelligence that included policy-related conversations with Obama. From these facts and circumstances, we must deduce that it is possible, if not highly likely, that President Obama himself has been grossly negligent in handling classified information."

Quote Of The Day

New York Times readers (I use the term loosely) reacting to Johnson and libertarians:

"Roscoe Farmington, MI 1 hour ago
Nowadays they call this magical thinking. If our government is a passive wimp and we let greed and power run rampant somehow this will create the perfect society. The reality is that markets will bubble and blow up. The rich and powerful will take control of every institution and use it for their own personal gain. Guns everywhere will lead to random nuts shooting innocent people. Wars will increase and defense costs will blow up to drive profit for the military industrial complex. Race relations will become worse with many driven into poverty causing domestic violence leading to more police and more prisons that will have to be paid for. And by the way all these costs will increase the debt. The old and the weak will suffer and die because health care will only be for the few. I could go on but the Reality is the Republican Party has already created this libertarian state....it's happening now. And it happened because we elected them and their goal has been to make government weak, stupid and ineffective. This guy is not change but just more of the same. Vote for Hillary!"

Sherry Tampa 1 hour ago
No. The Libertarian Party under the Johnson - Weld ticket is not at all compatible with the Democratic Party under the Clinton - Kaine ticket. The Libertarian Party is just an iteration of the modern GOP, with the same structure of social policies designed to distract from economic policies designed to enrich the 1% on the backs of the 99 %, and generally destroy the entire government, even the parts that work well, and especially the necessary parts that are included in all modern democracies, civil, moral societies and that a majority of the citizens rely upon, like public education, federal highways, programs to support the very young and the very old, the most vulnerable. The only difference is that the social policies are an attempt to distract the left, now that the right is sufficiently distracted. I mean, The Koch Brothers are admittedly, proudly Libertarian - if that isn't a clue to the goals of the Libertarian Party, I don't know what is. Here's another clue regarding the viability of a Libertarian administration - the man at the top of the Libertarian Party ticket wasn't even familiar with the name of a city that is older than the Bible, let alone any familiarity with the modern day implications of it's current situation.
Voting Libertarian doesn't require deep breathing, ir causes suffocation.

The New York Times finest ladies and gentleman.

The irrational state of being. Pas beau, eh?

Who are these people?

One more:

Thom Quine Vancouver, Canada 4 hours ago
Libertarianism is the ideology of hatred of the poor. There is no society and therefore no social problems, there are only Mad Max individuals fighting it out. If you are low-income that is your own fault, if you can't afford medical insurance you should just die and let the rest of us keep our taxes. Government is bad, and everything they do is wrong by definition.
The problem with this ideology is that the most livable countries in the world have high taxes, lots of government regulation, low poverty, low crime, a strong social safety net, and a general understanding that being a good citizen means you make a contribution to the general health of the society, and you are not just in it for your own personal enrichment.
Don't fall for libertarian lies!

Jesus me. 

Opportunity Knocks No More

Hillary and the Democrats love to hammer out the vague 'income inequality' thing to rile up idiots.

But here's the thing.

The average person - even poor ones - don't give a shit about other people's success or wealth.

What they care about is their own hopes in having an opportunity to achieve wealth.

And god dammit there is no nation in all of human history that has provided this better than the United States of America.

So what do progressives do? Knowing damn well people don't care they've begun to attack the idea opportunity exists. They've come up with all sorts of meaningless catch phrases that have no beginning or end like 'the system is rigged'. Say it enough times and you'll convince enough people to rally around your mythical cry.

But the middle class is shrinking, T.C.! If it is, they were never of any use to progressives anyway. However, if true, maybe it's because the middle-class (such outdated terms) has graduated into the upper-classes. There is no damn 1% out to get or hoard. That's just boogey-man bull shit.

Here in Quebec, they consider $130 000 salary to be rich. So that makes those earning such an income 'riche' and deserving of scorn to be taxed.

It's just another version of with hunt only with envy as its catalyst.

It's not just that. 'Equal' opportunity now is meant to insidiously include equality of results.

They want to manage outcomes.

It's not nutty. It's what illiberal minds do in an effort to control and create a state controlled society where experts rule over the 'deplorables'.

It's not that difficult to see. 

They went right after your greatest asset: Belief.

And they took it from you.

All to make you their slave; their bitch.

Fact Checking The Fact Checkers

I stopped reading Politifact and Factcheck a while ago. I detected they were applying laws loosely to where Democrats are the target but then strictly interpreting holding Republicans They also play with how they determine what is 'mostly false' and 'mostly true'.

They're as political organization as any. 

It was just a hunch but once I was looking for it, I was catching all sorts of questionable ratings. I never really jotted them down - though I regret it - choosing instead to just move along. It takes a lot of work to fact check fact checkers.

I'm glad others are on it though.

Here are some examples from Human Events.

To answer the question: No, progressives lie. They are the revisionists. Their whole shtick was never about statistics and science but a version or reinterpretation of them to fit their schemes and narratives which basically, when you get down to it, are fundamentally anti-human.

In other words, they give Democrats a longer leash and more wiggle room.

And even between Fact Check and Politifact they don't always arrive at the same conclusion. If something is a fact, two sides would arrive at the same conclusion, no?

Factcheck:

Trump said “murders are up” in New York City since ending stop-and-frisk policies, while Clinton said “crime, including murders” is down. Both are correct.

Politifact:

Not for year-to-date, not for longer term

Donald Trump

In New York City, "murders are up."

More here.

The United Nations Makes Remarkably Stupid Request

I can barely keep up anymore but I couldn't let this slide.

It seems the United Nations and its 'experts' (the UN doesn't have experts. They have self-appointed bozo-bureaucrats like we do here pretending to be experts) feel the United States should give blacks reparations.

This is ludicrous as it outrageous. Besides the fact I have no idea how they're going to determine who should get them (never mind the obscene scenario of a wealthy black person getting such a check (personally, I'd send it back because I would view it as pointless and insulting but that's me) at the expense of a poor white person or ancestors who had nothing to do with slavery).

It's a stupid idea and quite frankly anyone who pushes and pimps it possesses a middling mind that lacks a humanist vision and perspective.

And never mind the breathtaking arrogance of the UN.

This is an organization that has persistently demonized Israel (while basically shrugging off the murders of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972. That said a lot about the UN as a legitimate body) and coddled some of the most heinous regimes and dictators in the world going as far as to place them on The Human Rights Council as well as the Security Council!

Not only that, and more importantly, it defies the facts of history. Slavery is but the story of humanity. It stretches back thousands of years. Are we to demand Rome and Athens pay reparations? What of European empires who engaged in the trade? What about the indentured Irish?

More explosive, what about the role of the Africans themselves in this shameless institution? After all, they sold humans to the Europeans and...Muslims.

Ah yes. Muslims. The new special status class in Western culture and the United Nations.

Islam's slavery record is one of the most astonishing of them all. Hundreds of millions killed and taken into captivity. Sometimes they didn't even bother to use middle-men and went straight into the homes of people and stole their children.

That's one massive reparation right there, no?

Still more, there has not been a more oppressed people in human history than Jews. They faced multiple massacres and a genocide for thousands of years.

What does the world owe them you piece of shits?

American slavery, relatively speaking, is but a tiny blip in world history.

No nation on the planet or in history has confronted its slave past almost to nauseating levels given birth to a pseudo-intellectual discourse (of which Coates - who is referenced as a journalist in the paper - is a member of and who is not a journalist. More like a word-farter) on the matter.

No nation has tried as hard to make amends by not only providing welfare but the opportunity to gain wealth like the United States. None. It's not perfect but American blacks need to stop this latest gray train because if they keep to it, it will set race relations back more than any white cop could ever do. It will piss off the vast majority of decent Americans (excluding progressives of course because they're miserable trouble makers) needlessly.

The United States should turn the grossly immoral UN around, kick it in the ass and tell it to go fuck itself for shamelessly publishing this garbage.

How Parasites Make Money

How does the parasite class operate?

Here's a good example how.

"The U.S. Justice Department is assessing how big a criminal fine it can extract from Volkswagen AG over emissions-cheating without putting the German carmaker out of business, according to two people familiar with the negotiations.

The government and Volkswagen are trying to reach a settlement by January, the people said, before a new U.S. administration comes into office and replaces the political appointees who have been overseeing the process."

Euro Trash In World Cup Final: Team Europe Gets Last Laugh

And now for Canadian stupidity.

An article by Dave Hilson in The Toronto Sun hasn't gotten enough attention for its 'Euro Trash' title in describing Team Europe.

That's a ridiculous thing to print. Not sure what was the point of doing that. Reminds me when Der Speigel at the 2006 World Cup and again during the 2016 Euro (I forget the publication this time) wrote some pathetically arrogant and insulting articles trying to demean Italians.

It's uncalled for.

Note: Notice I don't call for censorship lest we end up in a full blown parasitical progressive nanny state punishing people's opinions and now their thoughts as they do in Europe now.

Good on Don Cherry to bring it up. Not only that, he actually predicted they'd do well while every wrote them off. His logic was simple but true: Never dis people. Ever.

Never ever give your opponent something to hold on to. Never stomp on their logo. Never disrespect their flag. Never question their heart.

Ever.

“I said earlier today, when I saw the [Toronto] Sun, I will bet any money on Team Europe,” said Cherry, who held up the headline that read, “Euro Trash?”

Team Europe beat an outsanding Team Sweden squad 3-2 in overtime to reach the final against Team Canada.

And that's that.

It seems The Sun didn't publish the article online so I can't really delve more into it but someone did and I'll let them have the last word:

CLASSLESS
Re “Euro Trash?” (Dave Hilson, Sept. 17): Toronto is the host of this hockey tournament. What kind of ignorant, insulting headline is this? Invite guests into your house and treat them this way. What a classless thing to do.
Pat Stevens
Hamilton
(Team Europe is in the semi-finals against Sweden. So much for “Euro Trash”)

***

Quick word on Team Canada. They're at this point the equivalent of USA basketball in terms of dominance. I don't think I've quite seen the Canadian senior team dominate (the junior program hit its dominant stride in the 1990s and that continued for roughly 15 years) like we've seen over the last decade or so and definitely in the last few years like we've seen.

The great hockey nations  are barely touching them. It's almost reminiscent of how the Soviets ruled hockey back in the 1960's through the 1980s.

Kudos to Canada.

Quebec: The South North

I've observed the same thing in my business.

People from abroad come to Quebec but are not interested in staying. The like the place but there's too much politics preventing them from doing what they want. It's hard to describe and explain to a Quebecer this place is behind the curve and quite frankly I don't see it getting better. Not too long ago the Parti Quebecois went full unhinged and they're set to double down on this.

The part about where all things being equal they will choose the French-Canadian is accurate. They will claim this happens everywhere but that claim is weak. It's damn near impossible to pull that shit in the USA.

But believe this they must to justify their own discriminatory practices.

Case in point in the comments:

This is not an exodus of Quebecois but of people who are culturally foreign to Quebec. If French-speaking Quebecois were leaving en masse, this would be a big issue. Instead, those who are departing could be described as 'Westmount Rhodesians', privileged people who refuse to adapt to the majority culture or speak its language. The rest of Canada has a similar problem - one caused by 'Canadians of convenience', people who reject everything about the country except its prized passport and its medical and social welfare systems. In both cases, the whiners should just leave and not come back.

Way to go missing the entire point, pal.

What else is new? This is exactly why Quebec is as stagnant a region as they come.

It's not that they are unwilling to adapt you dipshit. It's that Quebec laws are onerous and not worth the headache. No one likes to be told where to send their kids or be forced to communicate with each other in not their native tongue. Once upon a time, nationalists assured us they were just looking for 'respect' and nothing more.

Now they've taken it up a notch and looking to enter the realm of speech and language control. It starts in the workplace (even where the majority aren't French. Of course this doesn't matter because 'French majority'. You may be 12 people but you must write to each other in French. Who in their right mind accepts this kind of insulting and interventionist bull shit? My retort is simple now. You want respect but I can't give it where it is not earned and nationalists in their constant railing against my language deserves none of it) and eventually in the homes. Watch.

It's coming. Insecure societies that focus on what other people are doing tend to stay stuck in mud.

It's not an opinion but a fact of history; of human nature.

People like this idiot don't understand our laws punitive and smart people see right through it and decide to leave. Instead of looking at what we're doing wrong he looks to blame the immigrant. These people are not looking to not assimilate. They're looking for a fair shake and demanding they take a French test to 'prove' it is pure fucking discrimination.

Heck, I'm tired of it and from here. How would this guy describe me?

Just stop bull shitting people and tell them flat out they need to be totally proficient in French or else.

Of course, Quebec can't do that lest they look like racist fools. So they try and pass a fast one only problem is people catch on. 

Calling people 'Westmount Rhodesians' (and this angers me) is essentially xenophobic and has its roots in the nationalist movement back in the 1960s when Quebec was waking up from its slumber while 'les autres' were moving past them on the social and economic scale. You have to be one insular son of a bitch to call people this. It's like Quebec refuses to learn from other people's perspectives regarding our shortcomings. The second we mention what they're doing is wrong and doom to fail they scream 'Quebec bashing'.

The only way they managed to reverse it was by applying laws that trampled on civil liberties. They can squawk all they want deflecting this fact, but it ain't fooling intelligent people this province desperately needs.

And mark my words. It will fail. It already has. Just look around the continent. We're not in the conversation. No one is looking at us; for good reason too.

Moreover, the second someone points something out that may not be beneficial, they scream 'leave if you don't like!' You know, like populists and nativists.

'Yeah were not so rich or so dynamic or offer more but at least we're French and I'll be damned some foreigner is gonna tell us what to do!'

The mentality displayed by the comment is something North America is working hard - and succeeding enormously - to eliminate.

The bottom line is by every metric and measure Quebec is a laggard. We're not a leader.

And this article points out one of the reasons why.

Only problem is Quebec just isn't listening.

How do you translate 'La, la, la' in joual?

Debate In One Quote

"Josh Jordan ‏@NumbersMuncher 10h10 hours ago Lester Holt negative questions to Trump:
Tax Returns
Birther issue
Iraq War
Hillary Presidential Looks
Negative questions to Clinton:
None"

Exactly. Seems to me the woman bull shitting about cyber security and who stored government emails on an unsecured private server deserved some grilling. It also seems to me Lester could have question the fact she voted for Iraq when she railed against the Bush tax cuts or as he pressed Trump about the birth certificate he could have reminded the audience of the fact it originated in the Democrat ranks. Or how about the 'pay to play' racket of the Clinton Foundation?

Lester Holt also was fact checking Trump while letting Hillary's crap slide.

Sigh. He's just another Democrat hack posing as a 'neutral' moderator. We saw this last year with Cindy Crowley.

Business And Bankruptcy

In the Presidential debate with Donald Trump Hillary attacked him for his bankruptcies alleging true successful businessmen don't declare bankruptcy.

Of course, this is not supported by facts and I didn't expect Lester Holt to fact check her like he seemed to for Donald so eagerly.

Shades of Crowley.

Not surprising seeing he works for NBC and his job was on the line. Good job Lester. You keep up the myth of the neutral moderator.

Hacks. 

Anyway.

Back when I was taking business courses in university, Robert Campeau was the entrepreneur du jour (whatever happened to that guy?). In my accounting class I had to analyze his deals and along the way I came across a statistic that the average businessman declared bankruptcy seven times in their lives before they became millionaires.

Which makes sense given taking risks means a high potential for failure.

Her attack is not backed by the reality.

Just more progressive rubbish. 

See 30 people who declared bankruptcy.

PQ Debate Doesn't Disappoint

Who needs the American deep south when we have our own knee-slappers here in Quebec?

I caught an interesting exchange between the hillbillies in the PQ discussing language.

And it wasn't surprising but still disturbing.

One Martine Ouellette railed with the usual false equivalence Quebec nationalist like to use. She wondered if Saskatchewan is allowed to be English only, why shouldn't Quebec be French only?

For this, the mob cheered.

But here's the thing. There's a much larger English-speaking fact in Quebec than Saskatchewan has French-speakers. Moreover, Saskatchewan is not doing it out of spite. However, Ontario does have bilingual signs on its highway system to which Quebec does not. So plus one to them. It really says a lot about the mindset of the PQ that they obsess and look at things this way.

And honestly, who gives a shit at this point? This false equivalence of 'But Toronto!' is tiresome.

I don't care about Toronto. It's weak play to justify our own prejudice against a linguistic community.  Two wrongs don't make a right and all that.

This is just plain and plump ignorant populism that continues to lurk in the PQ ranks.

The last thing you want to do is further insulate the province than it already is.

But wait. It gets better.

Some guy named Cloutier responded along the lines of 'we can't demand all signs be in French. There are laws to respect, it's too bad, but we have to respect it.'

Here, the crowd jeered. Hissssss!

Wow. Take a bow. Hand that yokel a shot of moonshine!

Lemme ask. How are we supposed to interpret this? 

So let me get this straight? You respect the law but not my language?

That's not how respect works.

Let's rephrase this to show how regressive these people can be. Just replace it with another language and transplant it to another region.

'I know. I wish we could have everything in English but there are laws in place. I know. It's unfortunate but Spanish is a language too!'

Imagine the uproar - and rightfully so - you would see. But you don't because for the most part such thinking is non-existent and if it is, it hold little water or power in North America. Only in Quebec does it have weight because the PQ represents 25% of the population.

This is not good. It's not good.

I keep hoping someone pulls these idiots by the ear and drags them around but I reckon it won't happen.

Which is why my daughter is not staying here. I don't want her exposed to this crap. Crap I tolerated and no longer wish to do so.

Don't like my language? Fuck you.

Do I offend you? Does the existence of my being threaten you?

But you sure as hell love my taxes don't you?

***

Oh. By the way.  A French-Canada is free to go anywhere on the continent and not be accosted for their language. No one will bother them if they put a sign up or anything that is free expression.

The favor is not returned here. The average Quebecer doesn't know their government actively engages in linguistic discrimination with bull shit language exams to get a mortgage broker or real estate license which doesn't exist anywhere. Nor do we have any campuses that forbid people from speaking their native tongue as we do here like at the Universite de Montreal where people are not allowed to speak English.

Never mind about the immoral insanity of suspending the only retinal eye specialist in the province because he couldn't pass a fucking lousy written test! Let's put politics above the health of Quebecers!

Bravo, you morons running this banana republic.

It's mad.

I wish I was joking but I'm not.

And nowhere does any jurisdiction have a language police harassing people for having the temerity to veer of the French language.

Vancouver has their own nitwits who complain about 'too much Chinese' but there are no language laws and hopefully it will stay that way.

Quebec nationalists bring absolutely nothing to the French language. They demean it through actions borne out of insecurity and misplaced pride.

That's why you're a laughing stock, Mme. Ouellette. 

***

Ever since the fall of the Catholic church and its influence in Quebec, the province has been in a constant state of chaos and manic insecurity where identity is concerned.

And it's manifesting itself in demagoguery particularly against 'les autres'.

Liberal Party Cabinet Minister Problems: t's No Longer 2015. What Happens Now?

What is it with the left and progressives and their obsession with claiming a different heritage than from what and who they actually are?

It's a bizarre development I'm sure I'm not alone in having detected.

For example, we had Elizabeth Warren claiming to be part Cherokee - with the charge she leveraged this into gaming affirmative action in her favor.

President Obama, for his part, admitted composites of people to define who he is in his book 'Dreams of My Commie Father.'

The story of Rachel Dolezal is perhaps as odd as they come. Dolezal, who is white, insists she is black.

And just for kicks, I add Jessica Alba seemed disappointed to find out she was of Spanish origin and not Native American. You can find it on youtube.

The list has now been expanded into transgenderism.

And...well.

I guess some do it because it's trendy pretending to be an 'exotic' origins and brownie bonus points if it comes with victim or special status or a protected class.

We seem to have created our own 'private bubbles' of existence where we can be anything we want to be leaving us vulnerable to various passing trends inevitably leaving people perpetually unfulfilled.

Which brings me to the story of Liberal cabinet minister Maryam Monsef. Monsef was heralded as the first Afghan born politician elected to office. However, it turns out she may be from Iran but she doesn't know. Worse, she seems to be throwing her mother under the bus blaming her for the confusion. The story is enough of a red flag because she was 11 when she immigrated. One would think she'd know if she came from Iran or not.

Here's the money quote:

"...When asked why security vetting for cabinet posts didn’t uncover this error, an official said “we learned of this information about Maryam Monsef’s place of birth when it was brought to us recently by the The Globe and Mail.”

Really? Makes you wonder if they're vetting refugees/migrants from the Middle-East properly. Suddenly, I'm not so confident.

This development is troubling as it is a showcase in amateurism where the Liberal party is concerned.

Yes, it is a big deal. Misrepresenting oneself or facts in a job interview or in a prospectus or any other area where you're expected to be truthful, is fraud.

The right thing to do is to just resign.

Boy, Trudeau's 2015 cabinet has been off to a right start. Just before this scandal came Hunter Tootoo for was embroiled in a relationship with a colleague only to move on to her mother.

Character we can believe in!

But things have gotten really stupid in Canada sooooo.

Critical Thinking...Not

So there I was, alone at the table. Just me and my slide whistle and the radio. Until I was interrupted by the Tommy Schnurmacher show on CJAD with a segment on critical thinking. I figured what the ham, why not? The guest was a professor at McGill named Dr. Damiel Levitin.

Boy oh boy it was quite the exercise in exactly the opposite of critical thinking. Basically, all he did was tell the audience to rely on "experts" in mainstream sources like Bell and The New York Times (because the media has been so awesome in the treatment of facts in recent times. From sensationalism to  plagiarists to liars, they've seen and done it all) and to fact check those with 'neutral' sites with investigative journalists like Politifact and Factcheck.

Of course, as any savvy navigator knows, these sites have also faced their own criticism. He claimed the fact checking at the NYT is incredible but when the host pointed out the NYT having to retract not one but two errors on Aleppo (after going smugly after Gary Johnson), he replied basically they do it for most articles and then when pressed again, he said they do it more in the print edition than online.

Hear that sound? That's the sound of a guy who just lost the plot. I wanted to change the channel at this point because it was insulting but I decided to listen on.

It didn't disappoint.

He took it a step further and this is where he commits a logical fallacy. He argued that if you're going to research, for example, meat don't go to 'meat associations' since they're *obviously*  bias.

I argue this is plain absurd. Just because, a scientist who works for an oil company or a research team gets a grant from a company in another industry doesn't  mean their work is compromised. To dismiss this outright is foolish. Besides, I doubt he believes government papers are non-bias so wouldn't this work both ways?

Moreover, it's a little like suggesting don't read Barron's or some other finance publication to learn or be informed on investments and the stock markets. 

However, he's right. You should research what's presented but I've come to learn the mainstream press is actually a laggard and often not accurate in some instances. You have to diligently back check the fact check. I have my own system in place; including trying to find an article or essay from outside North America to offer a perspective from different lenses.

But wait there was more.

He asserted 'there is no other side' in the climate change debate because all the serious scientists have come to a consensus that it's happening. The host, to his credit, smelling he's got a live one, asked 'since when is science done by consensus'? Bingo. He skated around it and then suggested of course people are entitled to take a counter-argument but those people aren't true scientists but people not related in the field of climate.

The science is settled. Eugenicists thought science was on their side too. Just sayin'.

Really? The biggest pimps for climate change are people like Bill Nye (engineer), Neil de Grasse Tyson (physicist), Al Gore (engineer/politician), Paul Ehrlich (biologist). And where they are actually in the field like Michael Mann, their theories (ie Hockey Stick) have been aggressively challenged if not thoroughly debunked. Another is James Hansen with his numerous frightening scenarios about climate.

Might I also add, his favorite NYT employs an economist (with a specialty in a sub-set of the dismal art) to talk about politics in Paul Krugman - who basically is just a shill for progressivism and the Democrat party. And then there's our old friend Thomas Friedman who seems to have amnesia. 

Never mind we have over 100 years of climate prognostications that never happened and never mind the '97% consensus' things has been outed as a fraud, and never mind the data and models have proven to be manipulated and erroneous, and never mind there are plenty of legitimate scientists and blogs and sites who have taken to set the record straight (a simple research into this will bring you into a world of sensible and rational thought) and never mind....bah, never mind.

Here too the host was skillful enough to get the guest to admit scientists have been on the wrong side of history too. Just because a majority agree with something doesn't mean their right.

But hey, there is not other legit counter-point according to this guy.

I went in hoping to sharpen my skills on how to spot a false equivalence or tu quoque better, instead I got some vague, unhelpful, and misguided pointers on how to research.

And he wrote a book on critical thinking? Maybe he has more to offer or perhaps it was a bad day but I was profoundly disappointed in his tips and approach.

You can listen to the interview here. 

I was better off playing with my slide whistle.

Oh. Might I suggest additional reading along with a piece of advice?

Learn to spot bull shit.

Netanyahu Trolls The United Nations; Israel Progresses While The Arab World Languishes

Opening parts of Netanyahu's speech to the UN:

"Mr. President,
 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

What I’m about to say is going to shock you: Israel has a bright future at the UN.

Now I know that hearing that from me must surely come as a surprise, because year after year I’ve stood at this very podium and slammed the UN for its obsessive bias against Israel. And the UN deserved every scathing word – for the disgrace of the General Assembly that last year passed 20 resolutions against the democratic State of Israel and a grand total of three resolutions against all the other countries on the planet.

Israel – twenty; rest of the world – three.

And what about the joke called the UN Human Rights Council, which each year condemns Israel more than all the countries of the world combined. As women are being systematically raped, murdered, sold into slavery across the world, which is the only country that the UN’s Commission on Women chose to condemn this year? Yep, you guessed it – Israel. Israel. Israel where women fly fighter jets, lead major corporations, head universities, preside – twice – over the Supreme Court, and have served as Speaker of the Knesset and Prime Minister.

And this circus continues at UNESCO. UNESCO, the UN body charged with preserving world heritage. Now, this is hard to believe but UNESCO just denied the 4,000-year connection between the Jewish people and its holiest site, the Temple Mount. That’s just as absurd as denying the connection between the Great Wall of China and China.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The UN, begun as a moral force, has become a moral farce. So when it comes to Israel at the UN, you’d probably think nothing will ever change, right? Well think again. You see, everything will change and a lot sooner than you think. The change will happen in this hall, because back home, your governments are rapidly changing their attitudes towards Israel. And sooner or later, that’s going to change the way you vote on Israel at the UN."

"...Today’s automatic majority against Israel at the UN reminds me of the story, the incredible story of Hiroo Onada. Hiroo was a Japanese soldier who was sent to the Philippines in 1944. He lived in the jungle. He scavenged for food. He evaded capture. Eventually he surrendered, but that didn’t happen until 1974, some 30 years after World War II ended. For decades, Hiroo refused to believe the war was over. As Hiroo was hiding in the jungle, Japanese tourists were swimming in pools in American luxury hotels in nearby Manila. Finally, mercifully, Hiroo’s former commanding officer was sent to persuade him to come out of hiding. Only then did Hiroo lay down his arms.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Distinguished delegates from so many lands,

I have one message for you today: Lay down your arms. The war against Israel at the UN is over. Perhaps some of you don’t know it yet, but I am confident that one day in the not too distant future you will also get the message from your president or from your prime minister informing you that the war against Israel at the United Nations has ended. Yes, I know, there might be a storm before the calm. I know there is talk about ganging up on Israel at the UN later this year. Given its history of hostility towards Israel, does anyone really believe that Israel will let the UN determine our security and our vital national interests?

We will not accept any attempt by the UN to dictate terms to Israel. The road to peace runs through Jerusalem and Ramallah, not through New York...."

"...Are the half million slaughtered Syrians helped by your condemnation of Israel? The same Israel that has treated thousands of injured Syrians in our hospitals, including a field hospital that I built right along the Golan Heights border with Syria. Are the gays hanging from cranes in Iran helped by your denigration of Israel? That same Israel where gays march proudly in our streets and serve in our parliament, including I’m proud to say in my own Likud party. Are the starving children in North Korea’s brutal tyranny, are they helped by your demonization of Israel? Israel, whose agricultural knowhow is feeding the hungry throughout the developing world?"

The sooner the UN’s obsession with Israel ends, the better. The better for Israel, the better for your countries, the better for the UN itself.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

If UN habits die hard, Palestinian habits die even harder. President Abbas just attacked from this podium the Balfour Declaration. He’s preparing a lawsuit against Britain for that declaration from 1917. That’s almost 100 years ago – talk about being stuck in the past. The Palestinians may just as well sue Iran for the Cyrus Declaration, which enabled the Jews to rebuild our Temple in Jerusalem 2,500 years ago. Come to think of it, why not a Palestinian class action suit against Abraham for buying that plot of land in Hebron where the fathers and mothers of the Jewish people were buried 4,000 years ago? You’re not laughing. It’s as absurd as that. To sue the British government for the Balfour Declaration? Is he kidding? And this is taken seriously here?"

"...I am hopeful about what Israel can accomplish because I’ve seen what Israel has accomplished. In 1948, the year of Israel’s independence, our population was 800,000. Our main export was oranges. People said then we were too small, too weak, too isolated, too demographically outnumbered to survive, let alone thrive. The skeptics were wrong about Israel then; the skeptics are wrong about 

Israel now.

Israel’s population has grown tenfold, our economy fortyfold. Today our biggest export is technology – Israeli technology, which powers the world’s computers, cellphones, cars and so much more."

Good stuff.

***

Obama, for his part, also addressed the UN and he spoke of a commitment to cooperation and multilateralism and took his usual subtle criticism of the U.S. characterizing it as 'my country'.

In other words, more blah, blah, blah.

The President is all for 'cooperation' unless it's domestic. Then he's all for bypassing Congress (apparently this is okay because they refuse to work with him) and attack countries like Libya, topple governments in Egypt; to say nothing of itching to bomb Syria. 

 

Thoughts On Vin Scully

The voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers Vin Scully is retiring and I've been taking in my fair share of Scully stories on sports radio.

Scully's stunning career began in 1958 and stretches back still further to the old Brooklyn Dodgers in the early part of the decade. All told 67 years of Dodgers history runs through his veins.

Now some may be wondering why a Montrealer would be talking about Scully.

A couple of reasons actually.

First off, this city has had its fair share of wonderful play by play broadcasters. For me, Dave Van Horne and Dick Irvin come to mind having telling Scullyesque tales in baseball and hockey respectively. Some of those years we had the pleasure of a Van Horne-Duke Snyder tandem and later Ken Singleton. On the French language broadcast we had Jacques Doucet.

Which makes me wonder about CJAD's decision to drop Irvin given how long Scully has gone. The day the Habs lost Irvin, was the day I lost all interest (among other reasons) in listening to the team on the radio. 

Through Snyder we begin to see the connection of Montreal to the Dodgers via the Montreal Royals who were the farm team.

Which brings me to another reason. Because of the Royals-Dodgers lineage and reading about the history, I decided to follow the Dodgers after the Expos moved to Washington.

Along the way, besides playoff games over the years, I caught my share of Vin Scully called games.

So, given this, the story and celebration around Scully is not lost on me.  As I write I'm listening to Scully call the Rockies-Dodgers game.

There's an incredible poetic cadence to Scully's layered style one in which comes with powerful imagery and authenticity.

Now if you don't mind, rather than delve deeper into this, I have a ball game to listen to.

Make that, Vin Scully to listen to.

Failed American Foreign Policy In The Middle East

Hillary keeps yapping on about how it was necessary to intervene in Libya leaving the country in civil war tatters. Another area where American foreign policy has completely lost its direction is in Syria.

If the American position or strategy makes little sense to you that's because it doesn't. It has no real effective plan in place.

Obama may have fooled sycophants, supporters, fans and a lap dog media into believing he was engaging in a game of chess but the facts of his decisions involving not just Syria and Libya but Egypt and Iran as well have for the most part failed.

And spectacularly.

In fact, the decisions undertook are every bit as dangerous as invading a nation outright.

Obama and Hilary have essentially engaged in sloppy and cynical version of 'war by other means' foreign policy.

He may have inherited a mess (which is part and parcel of taking over a nation) but he proceeded to create his own mess.

And then some.

Disney Capitulates

I said stop apologizing and pandering to the insane!

You will never win where SJW are concerned and I find it disturbing as it is ghastly Disney capitulated ans apologized for Moana.

Basically, you've effectively given more power to a minority of shrill and ignorant voices to continue their cultural appropriation buffoonery.

The proper response would have been: FUCK. YOU.

Stop Ignoring Islams Role For The Rise Of The Crusades

I happened upon this in The Straight Dope:

"...Throughout the Crusades, which began in 1095 when Pope Urban II called upon Christians to wrest the Holy Land from Muslim control, one side might reasonably have been described as civilized, tolerant, and progressive, while the other was by and large a bunch of backward, ignorant, bloodthirsty fanatics. Hint: It wasn't the Muslims who, upon capturing Jerusalem in 1099, gleefully slaughtered everyone there."

Yeh. I got a problem with this part in what otherwise was a response I agreed with for the large part.

Why? Mostly because it gives the impression Christianity undertook The Crusades for the heck of it and it enjoyed spilling some blood; Songs of Roland notwithstanding.

One problem though - perhaps unwittingly - spelled out in the sentence itself: wrest the Holy Land from Muslim control.

That part is key to me.

The Crusades were as much a reaction to Islamic expansion and desire to conquer European lands as much as any reason or explanation put forth.

Between the 7th and 15th centuries and until the fall of The Ottoman empire in the early 20th century, Islam was on the march and Europe - being poorer - was defending itself and used The Crusades to launch its own offensive to merely recapture lost Christian lands - which by the way were permanently lost in some cases. Ask yourself this. Why did so many Europeans pull back away from the shores during this period? Retrenching back to the hills and into castles as a means of protection.

So yeah. I'm not on board with the 'we went and attacked the peaceful Muslims'.

To assert this is to deny the fact Islam was ascending and it wanted to exploit and expand.

Next they'll try and tell me Islams role in slavery was more humane by us dirty Christians, right?

Time To Clean Up Or Disband The SQ

Growing up, we knew the Surete du Quebec (a strange 'off' police force) were a police detachment we wanted no part of. They exuded racism and possessed an unsettling swagger. We called them the 'le, le maudit ostie' police because we always got the feeling they were one slip up away from calling us 'wops' and we knew this is what they thought in the back of their minds.

Yes, shades of the Deep South when cops called blacks 'boy' in derogatory disdain.

Alas, this is the perception but we did hear stories from time to time.

Here's one story.

"Police officers trading money and cocaine for sex, a missing persons case that collected dust for months, and allegations of wanton cruelty against vulnerable women.

These are what indigenous people say they have encountered first-hand in their dealings with the Sûreté du Québec in the remote mining city of Val d’Or.

The allegations come from 12 aboriginal people, mostly women, from Algonquin communities around Val d’Or in northwestern Quebec, and they range from sexual to physical abuse."

No matter how you dice this, it's awful and appalling. It literally cuts to the heart of who we are and what we want our police officers to be.

We shut down a proud military regiment for this sort of behavior with the Somalia Affair involving the Canadian Airborne Regiment.

The came this story which came as very little surprise to me:

"Benaouda's cellphone camera was still rolling and recorded the conversation in the patrol car between Benaouda and Guénette. Benaouda protested that he did nothing wrong.

According to the police ethics board decision, Guénette then told Benaouda: "Check les lunettes mon ostie d'arabe," referring to his own glasses. 

This translates loosely as, "Look at my glasses, God damn Arab."

Guénette is then heard sarcastically trying to mock an Algerian accent, and suggesting that Benaouda had a Mafia lawyer."

Nice. Professional. 

Either the SQ cleans house, makes meaningful changes or the government must disband it.

Stop Apologizing To SJW; Trolling Dumbass SJW

Aw, a bunch of nationalist Mexican student association assholes (ugh, Student Associations) at Cornell are upset because a coach had the temerity to post a picture wearing a sombrero citing cultural appropriation.

Gee, I wonder if these clowns are aware Cornell is pretty much an Ivy League WASP institution or I'm guessing they enjoy the occasional egg roll and pizza.

Seriously. Stop apologizing to these idiots. The only appropriate response is FUCK OFF IGNORANT TURDS.

Now it's time to troll:



***

I'm still surprised no one has has pointed out about another absurd story involving Marc Jacobs that dreadlocks are not Jamaican but in fact have a history that goes back to the Ancient Greeks and Egyptians.

How's that for irony, eh?

But what do you expect from people who are historically deficient?

Stop apologizing and coddling them. You only enable and encourage their retarded behavior.

Of Change And Doughnuts And Cultural Appropriation

This ridiculous editorial in The Globe and Mail about Rogers Sports NET terminating Hockey Night in Canada's host George Stromboulopolous got me thinking about a bunch of stuff including cultural appropriation.

Here are some snippets:

"Sports fans are creatures of habit. Innovation just isn’t part of their vocabulary."

Alrighty. We're off to a bad start. This sets the mood for where this is gonna go.

"Rogers executives thought the old CBC Hockey Night in Canada approach was staid and out-of-date, and undoubtedly they were right. In particular, they focused on HNIC host Ron MacLean, whose insider status and intimacy with hockey lore weren’t enough to compensate for his forced folksiness, excruciating puns and deferential encouragement of Don Cherry’s simplistic rants."

I wonder what wine they were drinking and the color of their ascots the day they wrote this.

I've said this in the past and will say it again, Don Cherry is a sports phenomena. People embrace him - including myself- for whatever reasons. I find it appalling and annoying as I do hilarious having been subjected to media rail against him over the years. It's a classic case of 'We can't believe people like this guy. How can they not be enlightened like us? We'll have to fix them up' smugness to which I cared little for.

Also, more importantly, I've learned more about hockey from his 'simplistic rants' than I have from the vast majority of hockey writers through the decades. More often than not, Cherry has been bang on about what ails hockey and what makes it interesting; from his thoughts on equipment to rules to general insights (insights that have proven to be subtle in their usefulness making mockery of the claim he's simplistic) often overlooked by the mainstream press.

"Mr. Stroumboulopoulos, despite or indeed because of his skinny suits and hollow-eyed ex-rocker gaze, is reportedly out as a host, to be succeeded by the staid, outmoded icon he toppled."

We get it. It was outmoded. You open-minded trend-setters you. Jesus, I would love to meet and slap this person off the side of the head with a Brontasaurus rib.

And what is this? A teeny-bopper show? As an alternate and personal take, I consider myself a man of good taste and sharp dressing and those skinny suits didn't exude professionalism or hipness to me. It just didn't transfer well on television.

"Hockey broadcasting didn’t need some corporate idea of the latest thing, it turns out, and who’s surprised? The pleasures of being a fan are grounded in a conservatism that is hard to explain or justify in a culture of innovation but easy to recognize in a more intimate sports milieu that thrives on familiarity and predictability."

Ah yes. Let's get to the lazy portion of the argument and blame 'conservatism'.

Hockey as a whole, as the G&M knows, is an old boys network where innovation among teams and coaches tends to be limited and copy cat. They circulate and shuffle the same people around when in sometimes, it's probably best to bring in someone from the outside. I get this point.

However, this editorial could have made this point without the dreary and typical disdained arrogance all too common among media today.

And let's not over blow George here as some leitmotif for 'culture of innovation.' He just didn't connect. Why, I don't know and it sounds as though the G&M doesn't either preferring to blow smug steam out of its ass.

I admit to not paying much attention to intermission where sports are concerned. It doesn't interest me to sit and watch a bunch of heads just gargle stuff I pretty much deduced on my own. They all sell themselves as providing real insights but not really. You could have had a muppet hosting and it wouldn't change much.

I was indifferent to George. Not because I didn't like him, I just didn't see the point. But I can see why people may like him.

Michael Strahan on the other hand. Jesus, what is the attraction?

"Mr. MacLean, like the bombastic, irascible Mr. Cherry, has held court for decades, and that very longevity, however imperfect, became part of the draw for hockey regulars."

But you repeat yourself.

Is this a new writing-style technique? To rinse and repeat?

"In a world where change is a little too relentless and beyond our control, hockey can still supply stability and connect people across cultures and generations who otherwise have little in common.

Marketers, for their own mercenary interests, want to shunt us off into demographics and sell us on change. But the habits of hockey are powerful, and every now and then they provide this useful reminder: Sometimes the old ways are the good ones."

Aaaaand then they shift gears a little.

Yeah, sometimes the classics are great but too bad you're to ignorant to see innovation!

Bah humbug.

***

I've grown tired of the 'wagging finger' style of media where some journalist incredulously tells their readers what's good for them. The media does seem to think itself as some sort of gatekeeper to 'good tastes' of some sort.

A few years back, and for some reason The G&M article above reminded me of this, the media strangely went hard after Krispy Kreme's incursion into the Canadian market. It was almost as if they were offended that an American company was stepping on Tim Horton's turf. Heck, that probably was exactly why. I digress.

Everyday they were pounding away at how much fat and calories a KK doughnut had vis-a-vis its competitors. It became a farce. 'KK d'nuts have 800 calories versus "just" 770 for a Timmy'! leaving the viewer with the impression KK was *bad* for you when in fact both are basically junk food.

I don't know the details as to why KK has, what, just one location here, but maybe the stupid scare-mongering worked.

Yet, somehow, I doubt they turn down going to Tim Hortons for a doughnut, right?

***

Which, in turn, again with not real rhyme or reason led me to 'cultural appropriation' which I've discussed before. In a nutshell, if you invoke it or believe it to be a legitimate form of intellectualism, you're an idiot. No other way to put it.

No, wait. I apologize.

A profoundly ignorant idiot.

Cultural appropriation (of which there have been many examples), really, at its roots, is a form of insular thinking. It's a metaphor for the current intellectual dark age we're witnessing.

The rise of the welfare state has helped to contribute to the closing of the mind -a shrugging atlas if you will. It leaves people to their own devices locked up in a world of their own vomit and nonsense susceptible to stupidity and quackery.

It's easy to buy into all the crazy shit about climate change, vaccines and patriarchy when you're shut off from facts and reality. And when your little bubble of retardation is threatened, lash out incoherent assertions of 'racism' and 'sexism'. And when that's not enough, just censor and call for people to be imprisoned.

How can it be but a product of intellectual isolation to believe in cultural appropriation?

I personally find the thing about 'dreadlocks' to be interesting. Dreadlocks go back thousands of years and were originally found in Northern European cultures. Only later on did it become connected to Rastafarians. Is this not cultural appropriation? Ironic, no?

Whatever you do, never apologize to these idiots. Ever.

In any event, welcome to humanity. One big Amazon shelf of cultural appropriation.

***

I know there's a way to link all of these to form a full circle....but I'm just too lazy at the moment.

Now where's my doughnut?

Of Change And Doughnuts And Cultural Appropriation

This ridiculous editorial in The Globe and Mail about Rogers Sports NET terminating Hockey Night in Canada's host George Stromboulopolous got me thinking about a bunch of stuff including cultural appropriation.

Here are some snippets:

"Sports fans are creatures of habit. Innovation just isn’t part of their vocabulary."

Alrighty. We're off to a bad start. This sets the mood for where this is gonna go.

"Rogers executives thought the old CBC Hockey Night in Canada approach was staid and out-of-date, and undoubtedly they were right. In particular, they focused on HNIC host Ron MacLean, whose insider status and intimacy with hockey lore weren’t enough to compensate for his forced folksiness, excruciating puns and deferential encouragement of Don Cherry’s simplistic rants."

I wonder what wine they were drinking and the color of their ascots the day they wrote this.

I've said this in the past and will say it again, Don Cherry is a sports phenomena. People embrace him - including myself- for whatever reasons. I find it appalling and annoying as I do hilarious having been subjected to media rail against him over the years. It's a classic case of 'We can't believe people like this guy. How can they not be enlightened like us? We'll have to fix them up' smugness to which I cared little for.

Also, more importantly, I've learned more about hockey from his 'simplistic rants' than I have from the vast majority of hockey writers through the decades. More often than not, Cherry has been bang on about what ails hockey and what makes it interesting; from his thoughts on equipment to rules to general insights (insights that have proven to be subtle in their usefulness making mockery of the claim he's simplistic) often overlooked by the mainstream press.

"Mr. Stroumboulopoulos, despite or indeed because of his skinny suits and hollow-eyed ex-rocker gaze, is reportedly out as a host, to be succeeded by the staid, outmoded icon he toppled."

We get it. It was outmoded. You open-minded trend-setters you. Jesus, I would love to meet and slap this person off the side of the head with a Brontasaurus rib.

And what is this? A teeny-bopper show? As an alternate and personal take, I consider myself a man of good taste and sharp dressing and those skinny suits didn't exude professionalism or hipness to me. It just didn't transfer well on television.

"Hockey broadcasting didn’t need some corporate idea of the latest thing, it turns out, and who’s surprised? The pleasures of being a fan are grounded in a conservatism that is hard to explain or justify in a culture of innovation but easy to recognize in a more intimate sports milieu that thrives on familiarity and predictability."

Ah yes. Let's get to the lazy portion of the argument and blame 'conservatism'.

Hockey as a whole, as the G&M knows, is an old boys network where innovation among teams and coaches tends to be limited and copy cat. They circulate and shuffle the same people around when in sometimes, it's probably best to bring in someone from the outside. I get this point.

However, this editorial could have made this point without the dreary and typical disdained arrogance all too common among media today.

And let's not over blow George here as some leitmotif for 'culture of innovation.' He just didn't connect. Why, I don't know and it sounds as though the G&M doesn't either preferring to blow smug steam out of its ass.

I admit to not paying much attention to intermission where sports are concerned. It doesn't interest me to sit and watch a bunch of heads just gargle stuff I pretty much deduced on my own. They all sell themselves as providing real insights but not really. You could have had a muppet hosting and it wouldn't change much.

I was indifferent to George. Not because I didn't like him, I just didn't see the point. But I can see why people may like him.

Michael Strahan on the other hand. Jesus, what is the attraction?

"Mr. MacLean, like the bombastic, irascible Mr. Cherry, has held court for decades, and that very longevity, however imperfect, became part of the draw for hockey regulars."

But you repeat yourself.

Is this a new writing-style technique? To rinse and repeat?

"In a world where change is a little too relentless and beyond our control, hockey can still supply stability and connect people across cultures and generations who otherwise have little in common.

Marketers, for their own mercenary interests, want to shunt us off into demographics and sell us on change. But the habits of hockey are powerful, and every now and then they provide this useful reminder: Sometimes the old ways are the good ones."

Aaaaand then they shift gears a little.

Yeah, sometimes the classics are great but too bad you're to ignorant to see innovation!

Bah humbug.

I look forward to Coach's Corner whenever I'm around. Guess that makes me a conservative dolt. Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk!

If this pisses the media off all the better.

***

I've grown tired of the 'wagging finger' style of media where some journalist incredulously tells their readers what's good for them. The media does seem to think itself as some sort of gatekeeper to 'good tastes' of some sort.

A few years back, and for some reason The G&M article above reminded me of this, the media strangely went hard after Krispy Kreme's incursion into the Canadian market. It was almost as if they were offended that an American company was stepping on Tim Horton's turf. Heck, that probably was exactly why. I digress.

Everyday they were pounding away at how much fat and calories a KK doughnut had vis-a-vis its competitors. It became a farce. 'KK d'nuts have 800 calories versus "just" 770 for a Timmy'! leaving the viewer with the impression KK was *bad* for you when in fact both are basically junk food.

I don't know the details as to why KK has, what, just one location here, but maybe the stupid scare-mongering worked.

Yet, somehow, I doubt they turn down going to Tim Hortons for a doughnut, right?

***

Which, in turn, again with not real rhyme or reason led me to 'cultural appropriation' which I've discussed before. In a nutshell, if you invoke it or believe it to be a legitimate form of intellectualism, you're an idiot. No other way to put it.

No, wait. I apologize.

A profoundly ignorant idiot.

Cultural appropriation, really, at its roots, is a form of insular thinking. It's a metaphor for the current intellectual dark age we're witnessing.

The rise of the welfare state has helped to contribute to the closing of the mind -a shrugging atlas if you will. It leaves people to their own devices locked up in a world of their own vomit and nonsense susceptible to stupidity and quackery.

It's easy to buy into all the crazy shit about climate change, vaccines and patriarchy when you're shut off from facts and reality. And when your little bubble of retardation is threatened, lash out incoherent assertions of 'racism' and 'sexism'. And when that's not enough, just censor and call for people to be imprisoned.

How can it be but a product of intellectual isolation to believe in cultural appropriation?

I personally find the thing about 'dreadlocks' to be interesting. Dreadlocks go back thousands of years and were originally found in Northern European cultures. Only later on did it become connected to Rastafarians. Is this not cultural appropriation? Ironic, no?

In any event, welcome to humanity. One big Amazon shelf of cultural appropriation.

The SJW movement is one big backlash against the values and cultural patterns that have made Western civilization from Athens and Rome onward what it is. Now that we've amassed all this wealth in finance and cultural patrimony it's time to deconstruct it and demand it somehow makes amends to all those offended in the past, present and future.They loathe our values and culture but they sure want the money and wealth it produced to give them what they want.

It's a strange and shameless if not irrational pulsating instinct is it not?

***

I know there's a way to link all of these to form a full circle....but I'm just too lazy at the moment.

Now where's my doughnut?

What's A Leppo?

A leopard-hippo.

And yes, it's as awesome and magical you imagine it to be.