tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-181857232024-03-07T18:41:14.876-08:00THE GROUSE'S PERCHgrouse 1 |grous| noun ( pl. same)
a medium to large game bird with a plump body and feathered legs. Family Tetraonidae (or Phasianidae)ens.
• the flesh of this bird as food.
ORIGIN early 16th cent.: perhaps related to medieval Latin gruta or to Old French grue ‘crane.’
grouse 2 |graʊs| |graʊs|
verb [ intrans. ]
complain pettily; grumbleN. Grouse Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16924166468582608138noreply@blogger.comBlogger96125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18185723.post-85376452589523108862014-11-14T13:50:00.001-08:002017-07-21T05:06:31.798-07:00Prince George's Mayor - Choosing between Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-DeeTomorrow municipalities across BC go to the voting booths to select the benighted souls who will lead (we hope) our communities for several years. Exercising my mandate is something I have never shirked from. Indeed a dozen years or so back I stood for and won a seat on the the Central Coast Regional District as "Director" for Area D. There followed two tumultuous years that happened to coincide with the massive Great Bear Rainforest campaign and the shutdown of two of Bella Coola's major employers, Interfor and the BC Ministry of Forests office. But I enjoyed being of some use immensely and would still be trying to serve had we not upped stakes and moved to Prince George. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWNXwBDOC8qlmVz0XzpUYdGd-PeTogf5x5izbJJ4PBU7aPF3N682hsiJKvHtAjETNGeQK49n7_v7YJcU3cUV_vxPQpiW6EdrtpPwwoH1H-2UBU77P3bQgp0U9-kDmpO4XxuebK/s1600/Tweedle+&+tweedle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWNXwBDOC8qlmVz0XzpUYdGd-PeTogf5x5izbJJ4PBU7aPF3N682hsiJKvHtAjETNGeQK49n7_v7YJcU3cUV_vxPQpiW6EdrtpPwwoH1H-2UBU77P3bQgp0U9-kDmpO4XxuebK/s400/Tweedle+&+tweedle.jpg" /></a></div> <p>Here, I have watched as a succession of mayors, none of whom have electrified me have come and gone -- I arrived when Colin Kingsley was at the helm and his can-do rightist politics left me nauseated, though never so much as when after retiring he soon became the <a href="http://northerngatewayalliance.ca/contact.html">regional mouthpiece</a> for the Northern Gateway pipeline. He was followed by the affable PR-pro, Dan Rogers, who I liked personally but, unsurprisingly, given his professional background, never could really sense what if any purposes he had in mind for our city. The last and soon-to-be former incumbent of the big chair was local retailer Shari Green whose reign has proven to be Hobbesian: poor, nasty, brutish, and (mercifully) short. Shari seemed from the start to be rather too close to some of what in the old days would have been called the "vested interests." Her major preoccupation was pure "Tea Party" as she set about not so much to govern as to <i>gut governance</i> through the useless, single-minded and expensive <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/daybreaknorth/2012/11/02/city-of-prince-george-core-services-review-final-report/">"Core Review"</a> designed principally to back up her (and her back-room boys') neoCon desires.
<p>Her departure, alas, seems less to have been prompted by the incompetence she showed than by her lust for an office with far more perks - filling the miniscule shoes of our long-sitting MP Dick Harris. Getting the Conservative nomination may be challenging for her, but if and when she is the Harper designate in the riding of Cariboo-Prince George, you have a victory guaranteed. For as I have oft-opined the Conservatives could run a moldering corpse here and win (indeed, some might be excused for saying that that is exactly what we have had from here on the backbench for too many a year).
<p>Ah but I digress though I can still stay with the theme of worse-than-useless politicians while returning to the topic at hand. Now, to be very clear some fine folks have stepped up for the city council positions, people like current councillor Murry Krause, former councillor Deborah Munoz and the unique gay, part native, part Asian drag queen <a href="http://pgelxn.com/election-2014/council-candidates/travis-shaw/">Travis Shaw AKA Foxy De-Rossi</a>. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDMbTF1q0ddk1la2VyUQEqYyurAvAUjjQ0sxHlSUhyeLsHTVfHL7uiRtk6hEwJfmbjcira7d9fm5-3CIEf_GwNP6L6v1NKW8yGiCSs2AfBkwMd1XnNI0DxXBB-qNd3tVb8PvF4/s1600/Untitled+72.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDMbTF1q0ddk1la2VyUQEqYyurAvAUjjQ0sxHlSUhyeLsHTVfHL7uiRtk6hEwJfmbjcira7d9fm5-3CIEf_GwNP6L6v1NKW8yGiCSs2AfBkwMd1XnNI0DxXBB-qNd3tVb8PvF4/s320/Untitled+72.jpg" /></a></div>But at the top of the ballot, there is vacancy, utter vacancy. Two dreary ex-councillors who have appeared often in the past few weeks, managing to say essentially nothing memorable except one of them's -- Don Zurkowski -- hearty endorsement of the Northern Gateway pipeline (This actually could have surprised no one given that lurking about at his candidacy announcement several months ago was the ruddy-faced promo-man ex-Mayor Kingsley).
<p>Zurkowski's mug is everywhere and he has certainly mouthed middle brow slogans about engaging the community. But when the rubber hits the road, folks, he keeps his campaign vague and innocuous, close to the chest on most anything except that pipeline. Take for example, a worthy special section that the <i>Prince George Citizen</i> prepared asking all candidates for mayor and for council the same four questions which ranged from an open invitation to pontificate -- "Why Should Residents Vote in the November Election?" (be still my racing pulse!) to the not so vapid, indeed potentially controversial retrospective on whether candidates would have supported siting a women's rehabilitation centre near an outraged city neighbourhood. Tough and potentially damaging as a response either way risked, almost every candidate provided a reasonably clear answer. But then there was the man who opinion polls show to be ahead for mayor, Don Zurkowski answering thus:
<p><i>
"I was not on council at the time and did not attend the public hearing: as such I do not have all the information and will not state a position."</i>
<p>How very engaging Don!
<p>Unfortunately this kind of dodgy substance-avoidance appears to be how the would-be leader likes to work. This morning the <i>Prince George Citizen </i>reports (and editorialized) their fruitless effort to get Zurkowski or his opponent, Lynn Hall to reveal their campauign funding sources. Zurkowski responded, to quote <a href="http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/news/local-news/mayoral-hopefuls-mute-on-money-1.1586047">the report's</a> paraphrasing, "any disclosure prior to the election would be incomplete, and so wanted to wait until the full filing was made." This filing is not due until February -- an incomprehensible flaw in its design -- and therefore we must take it on faith that nothing untoward -- such as a revelation that some of those vested interests like Enbridge have undue influence -- has transpired.
<p>Despite having enough moolah to have a double-sided insert advertisement in the local newspaper yesterday (Nov 13), Zurkowski is mute about the source of sufficient "support" for such multi-thousand-dollar one shot ad. Even with that amount of space available to him, Zurkowski's pages gave almost no specific and substantive indication of where he would take this municipality. Other, that is, than pushing Prince George to grow its population from the current approximate 75,000 to 100,000. How? Unclear but even more important, why? Are we not living in an age when the dogma of endless growth has been amply shown to lead down a path to environmental and thereby social destruction? Read Naomi Klein's recent award winning tome, <a href="http://penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/215017/changes-everything#9780307402028">This Changes Everything</a> and you will see but the latest of a lenghty and growing body of analyses critiquing growth as a goal in and of itself. To be spouting on about such a meaningless, unjustified target as the lead point in one's campaign reveals a candidate who ought to be an historical figure of the naive early post WW-II boom years not 2014.
<p>How lovely it would be if his opponent, Lyn Hall could in fact lead a charge against some of the vulnerable vapidities of Zurowksi. Show same fortitude and character something that just might be needed in the coming years! But Hall says almost nothing about Northern Gateway, falls in line with his adversary when it comes to hiding important information about campaign funding and generally has put on a mutual good-ol'-boy chummy show whenever the two have -- top use a highly exaggerated phrase. "squared off" in public discussion or debates. Again the Prince Geroge Citizen commented on this pleasant jibing and camaraderie which we get here in lieu of any real choice. <a href="http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/opinion/columnists/can-a-man-beat-a-machine-1.1550653">One of their columnists put it nicely</a> that it was like cornflakes clashing - soggy ones, I would add.
<p>So tomorrow, I will do what I never have never before done: oh, yes, I <i>will</i> go to the poll and I'll give the aforementioned would-be councillors my "X", along with some strong school board trustees who were nominated. But regretfully I must leave the circle beside our propsective mayors' names as empty as these men themselves have been in their spiels through the campaign. There is no good way to pick when it's Tweedle-Dum against Tweedle-Dee.
<p>(SEVERAL YEARS LATER)
<p>Not that a myriad of readers have been sitting around breathlessly waiting for the moribund Grouse to stir himself and say something but, <a href="http://globalnews.ca/news/1669387/prince-george-election-results-2014-full-results-in-the-mayoral-race/">Lyn Hall won</a>, which brought mild grousian relief at the time, given Zurowski's slipperiness. That was in December 2014. In the years since, I feel proven wrong about the guy. He's been a solid, no-frills mayor, quietly and steadily doing what he was elected to do. And as leader of the city's finest hour (at least that I have witnessed)—the overwhelming support for our Cariboo neighbours who have had to evacuate due to wildfires this summer (2017), <a href="http://www.timescolonist.com/news/b-c/influx-of-fire-evacuees-keeps-prince-george-mayor-hopping-1.21214186">Lyn has been damn near Churchillian</a>, minus the cigar. N. Grouse Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16924166468582608138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18185723.post-25946535804063124722014-11-08T07:24:00.001-08:002014-11-08T07:24:37.788-08:00It Lives !!! The Grouse's Return (Again)My alter-ego, the Grouse, had gone off into the woods after a brief return in May 2012, and seemed to have expired amidst the busy-ness of dissertation-making (of which more below). Also, it had suffered a seemingly-fatally whiff of grapeshot from the dominance of post-bloggian and more contemporary forms of online socializing and opinion-spouting. After all, when one can annoy hundreds of friends on Facebook with one's palaeolithic sentiments and tweet to many more, why spend the much greater time needed to compose and post a blog which, even at its peak, was never deluged with visitors. Fewer yet were substantive comments despite the intentionally offensive postings -- for every one of the few who took the time to tell me what an a**hole I was in a nice personal manner, there were countless more offers for organ-enlargening supplements or ostensibly buxom Belorussian pen pals.
<p>So to repeat, like an old soldier, the Grouse did not so much die as fade, fade away. And as I sat at my predominantly dissertational desk, I ignored the plaintive death rattles of an ever-expiring gallianceous provocateur. I was sure, at last, he had gone never to return.
<p>But then one fine day in late July of this year, I waddled to the microphone in Dayton, Ohio and was passed a scroll and duly convocated by Antioch University, a doctorate in Leadership and Change, based largely on my dissertation which, in typical grousian fashion, was narcissistically about myself, as a prototypical would-be friend to the First Nations an "empathic settler" as the title put it. For the light and disturbed sleepers among you, head on over to Antioch's <a href=" http://aura.antioch.edu/etds/154/">e-library</a> where you can watch a video intro to this and if really insomniacal, download and peruse the tome itself!
<p>But, as always, I digress. Fact is that the Grouse is needed more than ever as the mass idiocy of the US mid-term elections and Canada's irreparable elevation of a mid-levl oil advocate to the Prime Minister's office -- with the consequent <a href="http://news.gc.ca/web/article-en.do?nid=858469">rubber-stamping of hideous mega-projects</a>, well reveals. Free of the aforementioned scholarly endeavour, I have the time now to take on issues tiny and huge, spanning (as they will), matters as local as the current utter non-choice my domicile city of Prince George has between mayoralty candidates to the much-travelled but essential topic of climate change denial, in which, in a forthcoming column. I will try get my mind around why every mid-sized city like here, seems to have been allocated its own bevy of unpaid bloviating denialists. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDTSQKMfq96fLF0voEwYBhFdPUBSroPh2RL1ZJrrTJGYEBSSTUOU-iPnWzm2KTo90dMmbCALHiFXvL3dNAwZKaIJ5mCt0uwAuLeaM7yNxfefhHkuLDrGVTwQ9fwKz44cNxdlCT/s1600/Undead+Grouse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDTSQKMfq96fLF0voEwYBhFdPUBSroPh2RL1ZJrrTJGYEBSSTUOU-iPnWzm2KTo90dMmbCALHiFXvL3dNAwZKaIJ5mCt0uwAuLeaM7yNxfefhHkuLDrGVTwQ9fwKz44cNxdlCT/s400/Undead+Grouse.jpg" /></a></div>I mean, I really get why the petroleum giants spend lavishly on creating the false sense that there is still scientific controversy about global warming. But why do retired independent duffusses sit at home with barely contained excitement and anticipation for the latest reports from the <a href="http://www.ipcc.ch">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</a> so that they can grab their proverbial dull pencils and write angry, deconstructions of what people who know what they are really talking about say on greenhouse gloom?
<p>Ah, but there I go giving too much away ahead of the upcoming full article on local denialists. Do stay tuned. I mean, really, friends, get ready. The ground above where we thought the Grouse was permanently interred, shudders; a familiar if partially decomposed avian visage bursts forth; it's back! It's back! N. Grouse Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16924166468582608138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18185723.post-52332818167680927572012-05-07T10:07:00.000-07:002012-05-07T10:09:24.707-07:00As Spring Brings Forth the GrouseMy goodness. It is almost 11 months since the Grouse pecked away at anything. One of its longest hibernations, brought on, methinks, because of how much easier and more readily accessible to my countless fans, Facebook is. When that urge comes to call attention to some egregious or just plain old dumb happening within my purview, it's all too simple to just open up Facebook and rant out a few lines to ease the stress of having heard the latest malfeasance of Harper and his claque, the Vancouver Canucks, so-called scientific experts, the endless stream of Canadian and other western pols who continue to suck up to the tyrants who run China -- or whomever else has earned my spleen for the day.
But with the spring, I, like the pilgrims seeking grace in Chaucer's time, having <i>"sleepen all the night with open eye,"</i> have had my courage pricketh-ed and now am ready, again,<i>"to seeke strange strands... in sundry lands." </i>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPqlH-E-6ZV_D1-YVKXkhMxlBBtqJ4IwNW_-v3YJ7flXOyYI8aKuUYnYaJlNx_kgieVEmaE4f3K9EwUurWXQwlaHKg-66kOXvSeGa0N7fDQhjx8HPOL1Id_XU3QcC_iJw2e89n/s1600/Putin+Czar+-a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:right; float:right; margin-left:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="262" width="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPqlH-E-6ZV_D1-YVKXkhMxlBBtqJ4IwNW_-v3YJ7flXOyYI8aKuUYnYaJlNx_kgieVEmaE4f3K9EwUurWXQwlaHKg-66kOXvSeGa0N7fDQhjx8HPOL1Id_XU3QcC_iJw2e89n/s400/Putin+Czar+-a.jpg" /></a></div>
Where to begin? Where to begin? Just this morning we are waking up to the unsurprising return of the tyrant Czar Vladimir and no less bothersome, the unsurprising news that the Greek electorate have voted heavily for candidates who want to tear up IOUs which have accumulated because that same electorate has been living beyond its means. I have found it an intriguing idea which I should perhaps adopt with Revenue Canada next time they assess me back taxes: just say no to debt, tell your creditors that after careful consideration you have chosen not to pay them what you borrowed. I suspect that Germany and European banking institutions are going to be no more sympathetic to this innovative debtor stance than RevCan would be with me.
Anyway, I am going to have to get warmed up and re-start (again!) the Grousings which y'all so appreciate and anticipate. Please stay tuned.N. Grouse Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16924166468582608138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18185723.post-36692204520011877772011-06-27T08:20:00.000-07:002011-06-27T08:37:14.037-07:00On the Lighter Side...with BeethovenI cannot not enter a contest, especially CBC's and especially when the first prize is an all expense paid trip to my favourite Canadian city, La Grande Dame, Montreal! The network's excellent well-balanced classical request show, Tempo is the perpetrator of the latest way for me to waste my time. They <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/tempo/2011/06/22/beethoven-bound-win-a-trip-to-hear-the-osm-in-their-new-glorious-concert-hall/">have called on listeners</a> to pen limericks about Ludwig Van Beethoven's whose 9th Symphony, comprising the ubiquitous "Ode to Joy" highlights opening night for the new home of the L'Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL6tugbN2yA4l9_7a8Zlh0DOnR2wrWK_OxD9NDTzXOyBUyA9YcZ6XotKbH8UPxefoCFONt_Ne9ZGBS50emo-uC6qMjyMGk0AhQU49OZzBoq_mfFAoa2T_xxYkSDCtmh8vARqiY/s1600/polls_Beethoven01_1402_200378_answer_1_xlarge.jpeg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 271px; height: 350px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL6tugbN2yA4l9_7a8Zlh0DOnR2wrWK_OxD9NDTzXOyBUyA9YcZ6XotKbH8UPxefoCFONt_Ne9ZGBS50emo-uC6qMjyMGk0AhQU49OZzBoq_mfFAoa2T_xxYkSDCtmh8vARqiY/s400/polls_Beethoven01_1402_200378_answer_1_xlarge.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5622923970225256434" /></a> That's more or less concurrent to my own immortal beloved and me marking 18 years of marriage. So who can resist? Not me for sure.<br /><br />Here then 10 entries for your possible amusement<br /><br /><br />Ludwig B___, a musician from Bonn<br />Would practice piano ‘til dawn<br />“To get the tune right<br />I insist on moon light!” <br />He declared as he stifled a yawn. <br /><br /><br />Young Ludwig composed very well<br />Yet when flattered by his clientele<br />He would often exclaim<br />“I deserve no great fame --<br />For this piece is a mere bagatelle.” <br /><br /><br />Napoleon to Ludwig once said<br />“Though most of great Europe I’ve led<br />When I sit down to play<br />Josephine will not stay<br />Sometimes even my valet has fled.” <br /><br /><br />While at work on his latest great opus<br />Bee-tho-ven shouted out “This is hopeless”<br />My “beautiful” waltz<br />is nothing but schmaltz <br />Proving I’m just a musical mopus*<br /> <br />*(Note: “Mopus” is an archaic expression for simpleton or ineffectual perso – see Oxford English Dictionary and usage by Johnathan Swift) <br /><br /><br />Van Beethoven’s brand new serenade<br />the young orchestra so badly played<br />But a more seasoned trio<br />covered it with such brio <br />That he said: “t’is for you gents, it’s made.” <br /><br /><br />Beethoven once said to his chef<br />“Great torte ! - but your viola clef<br />Sounds so misbegotten<br />Like a pate turned rotten<br />Looks like you, pal, not me, who’s gone deaf!”<br /><br /><br />Ludwig for his girl named Therese<br />Wrote a beautiful score, her to please<br />But she turned down his hand<br />For a far richer man<br />So he lied and said “T’was <span style="font-style:italic;">Fur Elise</span>!”<br /><br /><br />While at work on his famous sonata<br />Ludwig B. polished off the dolmathas<br />Then that piggish ‘composa “*<br />Ate all the samosas<br />to become a persona non grata. <br /> <br />* to be read with an English or New England dropping of the r from composer. <br /><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Immortal beloved</span> – how romantic!<br />Ludwig B. wrote some woman, so frantic.<br />But just who “beloved” was<br />Still has scholars a-buzz<br />as they argue their viewpoints pedantic. <br /><br /><br />Old Ludwig woke up in a sweat<br />‘Bout a project he’d not started yet.<br />Had he been far too rash<br />to accept advance cash? <br />This would truly be a Late Quartet!*<br /><br />[There being a set of such quartets that the man composed in his old age and which are collectively known as the “Late Quartets”]N. Grouse Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16924166468582608138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18185723.post-37446628280853621602011-06-21T09:59:00.000-07:002011-06-21T11:07:52.091-07:00I'm Sorry - Nobody Truly RiotedI'll keep this short because it's just an extrapolation on the immediately previous screed. I need to express bemusement bordering on amusement at the massive and ubiquitous denial about the ugly activity last week when Vancouver went down to the Bruins. I've already mentioned that the next day Lotusland bystanders, politicians, the media etc. reacted to the rioting with comments to the effect that this is not <span style="font-style:italic;">really</span> Vancouver. That has been dealt with (see the final words of <a href="http://grouse-perch.blogspot.com/2011/06/victorious-boston-riotous-vancouver.html">my column</a>, "Victorious Boston...")<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU_-3BLLG-0L1F70fF8BMHDJp3O4LTigW5VJ_0_WCEgyZ74pNoRm3mhT2OwLh0eIW4odNXWGNni9oMHFF14w5LIn83_vx8LrQG2-QGoudKdWvhsaQ3EkNZpRHMw9DcRfjgdmOF/s1600/True+Fan.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 317px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU_-3BLLG-0L1F70fF8BMHDJp3O4LTigW5VJ_0_WCEgyZ74pNoRm3mhT2OwLh0eIW4odNXWGNni9oMHFF14w5LIn83_vx8LrQG2-QGoudKdWvhsaQ3EkNZpRHMw9DcRfjgdmOF/s400/True+Fan.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5620732903639580962" /></a><br /><br />Many radio talk-shows later, I continued to hear similar clap-trap but then learned from no less authority than the vanquished Canuck team itself that the hooligans were <a href="http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2011/06/17/stanley-cup-riot--0/">not "true Canuck fans"</a>. They may have worn the blue and green and been seen doing rather fan-like things -- booing Boston's surprising finesse and unsurprising roughness, cheering the Canucks at least until the 3rd Boston goal, and then turning sullen <span style="font-style:italic;">en masse</span> -- but, no, they weren't really fans, not "true" ones whatever that means in the luminary lingo of Luongo, manager Mike Gillis etc.<br /><br />To ice the cake, now one of the do-badders, a well-heeled young fellow from Maple Ridge, has fessed up to having attempted to incinerate a cop car. Nathan Kotylak bravely came forward -- well, after photos of his deed went viral on the internet. He turns out to have been a high-achiever academically and in water polo, though, one must surmise, not actually a "true fan." But, after his very public tearful admission of his very public crime, along comes his dad, Greg, a general surgeon, and - echoes of all this massively accreting denial - <a href="http://www.calgaryherald.com/sports/Teen+water+polo+star+apologizes+dumb+role+riots/4970640/story.html">asserts:</a> "that night does not reflect his <span style="font-style:italic;">true</span> character." <br /><br />In conclusion the whole schmozzle has taken us into the far reaches of postmodernism where what is true is no longer what is true. We seem to be sliding down into a muck of Orwellian public discourse where slogans proclaim the exact opposite of reality.N. Grouse Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16924166468582608138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18185723.post-23920567192803608972011-06-18T08:48:00.000-07:002011-06-18T12:16:32.793-07:00Victorious Boston, Riotous Vancouver<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibXVaYyZtYB1p5gvdwbhp1bLXqudei6v2igSlSTHZJs0OSovuEJBETUuWdxWxFqyoPDimFx013zKp1HJZiu-zi-6HI9tx8_Cmz0Fso5ejY5vnGoeub1-l0x9xAi_3tjhF_e5QA/s1600/chara+stanley+cup.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 309px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibXVaYyZtYB1p5gvdwbhp1bLXqudei6v2igSlSTHZJs0OSovuEJBETUuWdxWxFqyoPDimFx013zKp1HJZiu-zi-6HI9tx8_Cmz0Fso5ejY5vnGoeub1-l0x9xAi_3tjhF_e5QA/s400/chara+stanley+cup.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619639710180641682" /></a><br />The Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup! I think I need to say this because, thanks to the "exuberance" of innumerable poor losers in downtown Vancouver, That hard-earned triumph had to play second fiddle to riot trash talk. In fact, the hooligans accomplished, albeit incidentally to their purposes, the feat of distracting Canadians from the real and durable story Wednesday night - towering Chara hoisting the cup and, giving credit where due, the BC fans inside, staying on and showing genuine appreciation for the guys that had just tromped their idols. But in the media hype the next day this stunning win just didn't compete with burning cop cars in the heart of the world's most self-admiring city. <br /><br />So I will make a modest correction of this and devote my opening paragraphs to that Bruins' win, commenting as I did to an embittered friend who called this a victory for "thuggery", that, no, it was heart beating ego. It wasn't quite the miracle on ice as when the U.S. Olympics squad upset Russia. But, especially if you lived and listened in British Columbia these past two months of playoff hockey, you would end up almost as dumbfounded as that fabled story way back in 1980. The Cup finals were supposed to be a coronation, a royal ceremony acknowledging that the Canucks like the city they play home games in, are best in every way. Indeed, the faithful frothing fans could not have been more surprised if - say - back in April, Kate Middleton had suddenly dumped Willy at the altar and leapt into the waiting arms of Tim "The Tank" Thomas. <br /><br />In fact the Bruins earned the victory the old fashioned way. They were not thugs and though they are rough-and-tumble, nothing they did in the whole series to the purportedly faster, more sophisticated Canucks, compares to the vicious high hit, away from the play, that ended both perp Canuck Aaron Rome and victim Bruin Nathan Horton's 2011 finals.It had been a homey's series 'til then - indeed the Canucks' flop at the hostile Boston Garden was one of the battery of excuses that their supporters yanked out to explain the non-sweep. Ah, but back in GM Place, the Crown Princes of Lotusland would have their day. But, by mid way through the second period, badly outplayed and out-coached, Vancouver was a wind-bag with the air leaking out fast. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1jX2v93FSl1L-6A_QQTs_vS02Z7de6aI78sN9mwN10i17MLiXxmTlFB7FDzIOZNjyf1zXwZjO0AsFRNSnSnARxY_az3Ny_4GYAGYpvVExNbeADWyxRB7tp663yFlOwIyJMSpr/s1600/Screen+shot+2011-06-18+at+12.15.19+PM.png"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 277px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1jX2v93FSl1L-6A_QQTs_vS02Z7de6aI78sN9mwN10i17MLiXxmTlFB7FDzIOZNjyf1zXwZjO0AsFRNSnSnARxY_az3Ny_4GYAGYpvVExNbeADWyxRB7tp663yFlOwIyJMSpr/s400/Screen+shot+2011-06-18+at+12.15.19+PM.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619640764952638066" /></a><br /><br />And, truth be told, how could that surprise very many partisan or not? Even going into the last game, the Bruins had outscored Vancouver 19-8; had the Canucks won, they would have set, by a country kilometre, the record for the worst goals' deficit by any Stanley Cup chumpion (did I misspell that?) ever. Boston, however, kidnly spared them that ignominy.<br /><br />That's when the real civic ignominy took over by the milling mob outside. Already before the glass and debris was even cleaned up Thursday, Vancouver's spin doctors were predictably spewing out the "bad apple" theory story with many an indignant local adding to this over and over <span style="font-style:italic;">ad nauseum</span>, to the effect that these aren't real Canucks fans, they were just a few bad and heavily marinaded twits; hell, they were probably mostly from Surrey! <br /><br />Well, yes, in most any show of public violence whether by sports fans or pro-democracy demonstrators from Bangkok to Tunis, it is always a minority who go the furthest and start burning or throwing stuff. But let's not kid ourselves: there a lot of hoodlums on the loose.Of course, they had been stirred up to a fever pitch and milling about for days loudly insisting <span style="font-style:italic;">"it's our turn."</span> The media had been trumpeting this for weeks; being a CBC listener I got a daily overdose locally, provincially and even nationally, as citizens were enjoined to support "Canada's team!" Rather presciently, the owner of the Canucks, Francesco Aquilini, <a href="http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Canuck+faithful+still+boast+unwavering+belief+heading+into+Game/4947739/story.html">even issued "a call to arms"</a> in cajoling nationwide support for his team before Wednesday's match. <br /><br />Like spoiled children who really thought it was "their turn", but who got queue-jumped, a rage of denied entitlement swept through that mob, a gigantic throng that had been encouraged to come on down for the party, while fore-notice was also trumpeted that the liquor stores would be closing early - like saying "Hey, stock up ahead!". Many injuries, arrests and millions of property damage resulted as did the predictable indignant proclamations <span style="font-style:italic;">"This is not the <span style="font-weight:bold;">real </span>Vancouver!"</span>,<br /><br />And, sure, it was laudable that many locals turned out to help clean up and give with assistance to the police and business owners who got caught in whirlwinds of drink-stupefied disbelief and sore loser-ship.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_wxL9y7HJNT-Fk-Rxl9eD81HFurX6KQojISyocIjoaaLE5OaKkQ9AHG89D7QB7S5lTRm7K5k1l2ulPpAXpIzJNYyRmNNl4zYGN3JH5KCBf7QAO9-mmpXJUYV_279G4i6xbrDZ/s1600/riot.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 190px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_wxL9y7HJNT-Fk-Rxl9eD81HFurX6KQojISyocIjoaaLE5OaKkQ9AHG89D7QB7S5lTRm7K5k1l2ulPpAXpIzJNYyRmNNl4zYGN3JH5KCBf7QAO9-mmpXJUYV_279G4i6xbrDZ/s320/riot.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619639875828118578" /></a><br /><br />But please: let's not pretend that this ugliness was just a few drunken idiots some of whom even came prepared to do damage. This, folks, was just as much the real Vancouver as all those mountains and early blossoms its inhabitants are so fond of condescendingly pointing out to the rest of us.N. Grouse Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16924166468582608138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18185723.post-48840920595126796652011-04-04T07:46:00.000-07:002011-04-05T09:32:54.237-07:00Smart is as Smart Does - Rex, Iggy & the Other GuysAs usual our revered Newfie broadcaster Rex Murphy has started out the current Canadian federal election, <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiTHPKV8BfZc_UV3piz3G8RqweZ_gMeN8OS_nYb1BS7virOnfZIwv3dKqWBpjVBr9QZgb1gEAExsVnzbuJ1y_XLoPri2dSsK4c47G2ScRrVoG_865vLa1wBKwyCJguXBHA7Z0g/s1600/rex2.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 142px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiTHPKV8BfZc_UV3piz3G8RqweZ_gMeN8OS_nYb1BS7virOnfZIwv3dKqWBpjVBr9QZgb1gEAExsVnzbuJ1y_XLoPri2dSsK4c47G2ScRrVoG_865vLa1wBKwyCJguXBHA7Z0g/s200/rex2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5592122456455911154" /></a>by clearing away every worthy, possible discussion topic so he and other at least temporarily parochial commentators can have the venerable <span style="font-style:italic;">Cross Country Check-Up</span> all to themselves for their latest fix of Can-Pol junk. For those who may not know this program airs every Sunday, live across Canada. The topics range from the good fun of summer book selections to the most serious and deadly of world issues. And Rex, who uniquely combines a homey squid-jiggin' dialect with Rhodes scholar intellectual agility, is never at a loss for words or facts. Definitely worth a listen for anyone not yet familiar.<br /><br />Well, <span style="font-style:italic;">usually</span> worth a listen except for these periodic Canadian federal elections when his addiction to the small talk and smaller issues of our frozen Dominion swamp his good judgment.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb5j1IXpTAdHzogOAV2JVG3brQ4iRNZPcRnsrdO3-FDWp0uY9XsOKjpVEKojxQgiY9rfFf-I3sSa6L4lZNEyLsxEeo9Xm68-FIgijctOP3yHBJGLXaPBgPtRp5JRKvlkTm4xGz/s1600/Russo2.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 138px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb5j1IXpTAdHzogOAV2JVG3brQ4iRNZPcRnsrdO3-FDWp0uY9XsOKjpVEKojxQgiY9rfFf-I3sSa6L4lZNEyLsxEeo9Xm68-FIgijctOP3yHBJGLXaPBgPtRp5JRKvlkTm4xGz/s200/Russo2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5592122589881369458" /></a> I refer primarily to the obsessive, repetitive insistence on covering the election despite ample more important issues. This week for example, it might have been rather important to consider the future of Western aid and presence in Afghanistan where mobs murdered selfless UN workers in response - get this! - in protest of a wing-nut Florida preacher burning a copy of the Koran. A lot of Canadians, including yours truly, might have wished to discuss these atrocities and what it says about putting our youth's lives on the line and our economy in debt to spend so thankless a decade among the Afghans. But no, we had to suffer through 2 hours of hearing about Elizabeth May being shut out of a televised debate or, the pros and cons of Harper's unfounded rants about hidden agendas and coalitions. (For podcast of this, the April 3 episode of <span style="font-style:italic;">Cross Country Check-up</span>, <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/checkup/episode/2011/04/03/the-election-what-issues-are-important-to-you-what-are-being-missed/#">click here</a>)<br /><br />And as if the choice of topic was not bad enough, Rex Murphy somehow got himself into saying some very strange things about Michael Ignatieff, the Liberal leader. Kicking off the program with a discussion with Rob Russo, Ottawa Bureau Chief of the Canadian Press, these two luminaries hastily reached concurrence that "Stephen Harper is very very smart" and that, on the other hand, (I directly quote from the podcast) for Michael Ignatieff,<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBeP7Oz9d2pzg0TbnnjN_dZRuT-o9pPJKGG-cqQ4Ag3kzZmJNRuHSjfwrP-IzID6MlUxLOoDJwUTLvDMQHg68RpbLdPYX2AhJ99pKu6wIgfQg2dmmB0avxBKdt3zGHDgNAzgta/s1600/Harper2.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 174px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBeP7Oz9d2pzg0TbnnjN_dZRuT-o9pPJKGG-cqQ4Ag3kzZmJNRuHSjfwrP-IzID6MlUxLOoDJwUTLvDMQHg68RpbLdPYX2AhJ99pKu6wIgfQg2dmmB0avxBKdt3zGHDgNAzgta/s200/Harper2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5592122782187330018" /></a> <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Russo</span>" <span style="font-style:italic;">"...the expectations are so low that if he'd put subject and predicate together, put one foot in front of the other he would have exceeded those expectations."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Rex:</span><span style="font-style:italic;">"Very true...I subscribe to the analysis that you've just laid out, I have no dissension on it all"</span><br /><br />Now let me get this straight: Stephen Harper, Master's in Economics from the University of Calgary whose pre-political work experience was following the well-oiled (pun intentional!) path of his Dad at Exxon's Canadian branch plant, Imperial Oil -- is the "very, very smart" one of our principal combatants for Prime Minister. <br /><br />And the inarticulate bumbling one to be facetiously congratulated, as Rex would later put "because he put two words together that had a sequence that is allowed by logic" - that's Ignatieff? <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3hb2iuYKxvQj3PYO5QIZwBGME7sjTl_JKUcFEWU5E-pnYLMQOhaPzs6nPQnJEWMLTq3NV7ryj8_P9FTtOU98KeHyedYCL2gkxQgR0UuLA4YYCfX_ZIYoeF9fGoWQIBevhM17j/s1600/Iggy.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 167px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3hb2iuYKxvQj3PYO5QIZwBGME7sjTl_JKUcFEWU5E-pnYLMQOhaPzs6nPQnJEWMLTq3NV7ryj8_P9FTtOU98KeHyedYCL2gkxQgR0UuLA4YYCfX_ZIYoeF9fGoWQIBevhM17j/s200/Iggy.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5592122970950173298" /></a><br />You know, the guy who holds a doctorate in history from Harvard and held teaching posts over the years at the University of British Columbia, Harvard, Cambridge, Oxford, the University of California, the University of London and the London School of Economics. Yup, <span style="font-style:italic;">that</span> Ignatieff, the former student and biographer of Isaiah Berlin, author of 17 fiction and non-fiction books, one of which, <span style="font-style:italic;">Virtual War: Kosovo and Beyond</span>, won the George Orwell Prize while another, <span style="font-style:italic;">Scar Tissue</span>, got shortlisted for the Mann-Booker. Poor tongue-tied Iggy was also a BBC broadcaster for a while, writing and hosting the award-winning series <span style="font-style:italic;">Blood and Belonging: Journeys into the New Nationalism,</span> which probably helped land him on Prospect Magazine's <a href="http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/prospect-100-intellectuals/">list of the world's top 100 public intellectuals</a> (Very, very smart Harper has yet to appear, nor have Murphy and Russo). Oh, I almost forgot: he also somehow managed to handle a few subjects and predicates in a logical-enough order to be <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/massey-archives/2000/11/07/massey-lectures-2000-the-rights-revolution/">Massey Lecture laureate</a> on Rex's own home network, CBC, in 2000. <br /><br />Mind you, Rex ain't no slouch either on the brain side. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Ignatieff's Oxford - never completing a degree, mind you, but that hasn't impeded his stringing together those circumlocutory sentences that we all so love, has it?N. Grouse Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16924166468582608138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18185723.post-41442876087630854872011-03-28T07:01:00.000-07:002011-03-28T07:13:20.423-07:00Endorsement of Sorts: Anyone But Harper!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrTjVB5FE6RnfsMUweU0pA-t6wHYL4jFS0elri1x23ojOuBLwEtQYUNuKx2MpRemPUfb-YVcCTzy-26SXnKzo39hNcXYD_pbFXnmKAGKkR57ibWBSfOFgN3B0ITm2N4a1zAKX-/s1600/harper-witch-of-the-west.png"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 270px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrTjVB5FE6RnfsMUweU0pA-t6wHYL4jFS0elri1x23ojOuBLwEtQYUNuKx2MpRemPUfb-YVcCTzy-26SXnKzo39hNcXYD_pbFXnmKAGKkR57ibWBSfOFgN3B0ITm2N4a1zAKX-/s320/harper-witch-of-the-west.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5589133661768909266" /></a><br />I want to get ahead of competing media sources like the Sun and the Globe and file my endorsement only 3 days into the Canadian election campaign. <br /><br />Here it is and it couldn't be simpler. I endorse the candidate in your riding with the best chance of defeating whatever contemptuous, climate change-denying, trash-advertising, closet-tea-bagger, Harper has running there. <br /><br />Have a hard keen look at polls in your area and make sure you are on the right side for not splitting the anti-NeoCon vote and allowing the Conservative snake to slither up the middle towards Ottawa.N. Grouse Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16924166468582608138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18185723.post-67381154736118533472011-03-27T11:38:00.000-07:002011-03-28T07:01:22.401-07:00On Dredging Up the Other Guy's PastSo here we are, Canada, into yet another federal election. Prime Minister Harper is predictably dividing his attention in these earliest campaign days between implying that the election was not something Canadians want and trying to arouse fears that the three other main political parties are surreptitiously planning a coalition <span style="font-style:italic;">coup d'etat.</span> I predict that neither theme will get far: having someone whose government has just been <a href="http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Tories+fall+contempt+motion/4507174/story.html">historically held in contempt of parliament</a>, sounding off about what average Canadians want sounds, well, a little but like listening to Qaddafi claim that his now squelched military actions against Libyans were launched because he loved them so much. <br /><br />As to the coalition bogey, no one is all that interested and any trace of authenticity to Harper's fear-mongering have been gloriously detonated by Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe's <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadavotes2011/story/2011/03/26/cv-kickoff-bloc.html">incontrovertible evidence</a> that the PM was pussyfooting about in 2004 cobbling together precisely the kind of alliance he now pontificates against. Frankly, I think Canada and Quebec would be very well served by an experiment in collaborative governance wherein patriotic Canadians and avowed <span style="font-style:italic;">separatistes</span> were obliged to explore innovations in our fragile federalism. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOry1xxZ0n80V8GI5zFLvAypNkxz73HWn05YH8lfEuqAQhGTw8ZO-NM8vUloD9CPa7SJcigkT9h_cgzdDK0ryLcJkBMp5XZRlzujl3MHF-qWSJ04RFZhZg09Ad2lXzaGGW_EhF/s1600/Harper-Bush.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 315px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOry1xxZ0n80V8GI5zFLvAypNkxz73HWn05YH8lfEuqAQhGTw8ZO-NM8vUloD9CPa7SJcigkT9h_cgzdDK0ryLcJkBMp5XZRlzujl3MHF-qWSJ04RFZhZg09Ad2lXzaGGW_EhF/s400/Harper-Bush.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5588846761223367298" /></a><br />But mentioning patriotism brings me around to the real thrust of what I have to say about the rhetoric of the incipient election campaign. For many weeks now, Harper's party has been running <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaqNxU2Ea6w">malicious ads</a> about Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff. The thrust of these is that Ignatieff abandoned Canada, coming back only to claim a patrician's due right of governance. Intimations of a longstanding Canadian phobia for absentee rule abound in this unsubtle, mean-minded screed. Weirder yet, coming from George W.'s once-favourite hand puppet is the evidence trumpeted in the ad that Ignatieff - sit down please - admires the USA! What a sin to feel affection for our closest friend, ally and most significant trading partner.<br /><br />The curiously counter-intuitive message is that an internationally <a href="http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/prospect-100-intellectuals/">respected public intellectual</a> who has the merit to obtain senior academic posts at Cambridge, Oxford and Harvard, and who has won acclaim and significant international awards for his writing, should be ashamed of having lived outside Canada. He has, in the Harper claque's estimation, the wrong pedigree not to mention divided allegiances. <br /><br />The problem with probing into one's opponent's background - quite aside from the daft attempt to re-cast incredible achievement as a source of shame - is that it prompts a similar inquiry into one's own background. While Ignatieff was triumphing in noble, world-renowned institutions, Stephen Harper was also putting mind and heart into service for another immediately recognizable global entity - Imperial Oil. Analogous to Ignatieff's following in the footsteps of his famed diplomat father, George, Stevie also was making his dad proud. Papa Joe worked as a star computer expert and accountant for years for the oil giant and no doubt nudged and winked his baby boy into early summer jobs and later a start down a similar vocational pathway, doing financial programming for ExxonMobil's Canadian subsidiary. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcQ0qiC8HwJy5WlT9wCfNJ3upEaZM_hEFGFxizS1542Hc1OxLF7oWlN5R4zNPjlcFtch0wVaTi6j_y5z0IRl9ERDLaPKZPjrMFBm2rMJLxWFnqV4KYcwzihBsx1NIsZ-BLtWaR/s1600/090417_review2.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 360px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcQ0qiC8HwJy5WlT9wCfNJ3upEaZM_hEFGFxizS1542Hc1OxLF7oWlN5R4zNPjlcFtch0wVaTi6j_y5z0IRl9ERDLaPKZPjrMFBm2rMJLxWFnqV4KYcwzihBsx1NIsZ-BLtWaR/s400/090417_review2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5588846607697669970" /></a>The lad's strong identification with oil company interests drove him out of an early involvement in Young Liberal politics and into the welcoming arms of Alberta political crazies who eventually became the Reform Party, Canadian Alliance and now the Conservatives. Trudeau's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Energy_Program">National Energy Program</a> which only slightly and temporarily constrained the financial free play and mega-growth of the oil patch, was the Darth Vader forcing Harper's youthful rightward conversion. <br /><br />This, then, is the personal past that Harper invites us to stack up against the skeletons, such as they be in Michael Ignatieff's closet. Perhaps, my fellow Canadians as you ponder the choice you should ask this: if Micheal's heart really and secretly resides with the institution of Harvard University while Stephen's belongs to the corporate headquarters of Imperial AKA Exxon, which covert fealty should concern us more?N. Grouse Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16924166468582608138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18185723.post-61580465269639510842011-03-15T10:10:00.000-07:002011-03-16T05:48:37.240-07:00Gaddafi's "Luck"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRD8bOt5HHdGX3XzC1MqPwo3D0VoyxWuPePCFqeDoFYXPjKGslbL5amKRqAIoaxnShNGYGCY_kvEfdfvZDifRuIySiGz6SqcTre0vruqp-dGQJiX17KHxBG9Cl3kNXTvVc-a7b/s1600/smokescreen.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 500px; height: 350px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRD8bOt5HHdGX3XzC1MqPwo3D0VoyxWuPePCFqeDoFYXPjKGslbL5amKRqAIoaxnShNGYGCY_kvEfdfvZDifRuIySiGz6SqcTre0vruqp-dGQJiX17KHxBG9Cl3kNXTvVc-a7b/s400/smokescreen.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5584358234249587330" /></a><br />Definitive disclaimer: I am deeply concerned for the noble people of Japan who have in the past five days faced three interconnected cataclysms of unimaginable duress. We should help in any way we can as individuals, communities and nations. This said, I was stupefied when this morning's flagship CBC newscast, World Report covered nothing, zilch, <span style="font-style:italic;">nada</span> - not 10 seconds about the continuing free hand Qaddafi is having rolling over the Libyan citizenry, using advanced weapons he <span style="font-style:italic;">bought from the west</span> and Russia and China <span style="font-style:italic;">with profits gained from selling us all oil</span>, developed with the expertise of <span style="font-style:italic;">our</span> corporations.<br /><br />The result is that the public here - and I fully imagine the same is true in Europe and the USA - is having its always deficient attention riveted on the quake, the tsunami, and the failing nuclear power plants while losing any zeal it had to urge our feckless leaders to do something tough in Libya. Qaddafi's henchmen are rolling east, behind air-power that ought to have been knocked out weeks ago. The noose is closing on Libyan citizens who are soon going to wish they lived in the stricken prefectures of northeastern Japan. <br /><br />When the smoke clears from all this tumult there are going to be millions of traumatized Japanese who we will help and smugly feel good about ourselves for doing so; and there are going to be no fewer Libyans, murdered or reincarcerated in a brutal state and by a lucky madman whom we could have helped them get rid of.N. Grouse Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16924166468582608138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18185723.post-53271022565193908992011-03-09T16:37:00.000-08:002011-03-15T10:59:21.319-07:00"Yes We Cant" or 6 Million Kitty Genoveses<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgspdOW48-322G4eMOukUtvNSBoTCrPLbOiOPlxGmpJROGXY8QEOG_qUwDc7K7pgAPu01pT-AGaBGxBB9qymbvUnEGr2qrdLAzRcSjToyBnHRFAZBf-xxuG6j0Sz08tLUhTFZLN/s1600/Kitty.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 216px; height: 299px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgspdOW48-322G4eMOukUtvNSBoTCrPLbOiOPlxGmpJROGXY8QEOG_qUwDc7K7pgAPu01pT-AGaBGxBB9qymbvUnEGr2qrdLAzRcSjToyBnHRFAZBf-xxuG6j0Sz08tLUhTFZLN/s400/Kitty.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5582311280198712834" /></a><br />I wonder as I write this what dwindling percentage of the population knows the name of Kitty Genovese. For we graying boomers who were just teens when she was murdered in 1964, <a href="http://riverdaughter.wordpress.com/2009/08/02/a-fascinating-intersection-of-true-crime-psychology-and-media-misinformation/">the story and the somewhat embroidered myths</a> of neighbourly indifference are never to be forgotten. As it was told back then, Ms. Genovese, a late shift bartender was attacked close to her New York City apartment and allegedly within the earshot of a famous 38 uncaring neighbours. As the story goes, they could hear her screams but simply closed their windows and pretended nothing was happening.<br /><br />Also iconic when one is speaking of violent death is the number, 6 million. But I am not referring to the victims of the Holocaust except that many of them too could have been saved had indifference and prejudice not kept their refugee vessels offshore. No, I am building an analogy based on, Kitty lying bleeding and dying on the street, her assailant initially scared off but, emboldened by neighbourhood apathy, coming back to finish her off. And the analogue is the vast majority of Libyans (<a href="http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/wpp2008/wpp2008_text_tables.pdf">2010 pop. est. at 6.42 million</a>) who have been willing to struggle against horrid odds and actions, while the richest most militarily capable nations on earth - ones who've partnered shamelessly with the Libyan madman, stand by and wring their hands. Like Kitty's attacker, Winston Moseley, Qaddafi seemed initially hesitant to mount a full deadly force assault. What would all these countries, recently <a href="http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/03/libya-qaddafi-monitor-group">chummed up by well-paid Western PR consultants</a>, do if there was a counter-revolutionary slaughter? But he soon realized how toothless were these tigers, that the West would pontificate but be secretly relived in having to do nothing knowing that, inevitably, the far greater tyrannies of China and Russia would <a href="http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/russia-china-seen-as-hard-sell-on-libya-no-fly-zone/">nix forthright UN Security Council action</a>. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtDw7bYqr9CmqjMdJpvwG_e1Rj9Gp-8T0QabM2d9-8v99pC6F8uaEJtUTmpd9gN3F5ZeIhgwUXdIvkOTd1iZF5ZSy4O-xmY6SXGrhdRjqnQX4dyTVjvMAy6nJO35edGRDw2fni/s1600/66810-woman-with-her-face-painted-in-colours-of-libyan-flag-joins-demonstrat.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtDw7bYqr9CmqjMdJpvwG_e1Rj9Gp-8T0QabM2d9-8v99pC6F8uaEJtUTmpd9gN3F5ZeIhgwUXdIvkOTd1iZF5ZSy4O-xmY6SXGrhdRjqnQX4dyTVjvMAy6nJO35edGRDw2fni/s320/66810-woman-with-her-face-painted-in-colours-of-libyan-flag-joins-demonstrat.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5582311401078135970" /></a> These pompous bloviators are like one of Kitty's neighbours who, it is said, raised his window on that March night 47 years ago, and said "Hey, stop that!" then closed the window and probably went back to the TV wrestling matches. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFvt-QWheo50bh7NGxiWcOJ89PjTedSl-MO1bg9k_8tTAOu-wuTAB-t4AHVU7-tuwVSNeNBt03RKL8xIyu0mmwjFsoFt-hA-3k1AuWnKWAR-y-O9xji2y6I23BndXAVyY4iLqI/s1600/cant.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFvt-QWheo50bh7NGxiWcOJ89PjTedSl-MO1bg9k_8tTAOu-wuTAB-t4AHVU7-tuwVSNeNBt03RKL8xIyu0mmwjFsoFt-hA-3k1AuWnKWAR-y-O9xji2y6I23BndXAVyY4iLqI/s200/cant.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5582315069084869170" /></a>Each day hundreds of brave freedom fighters die and Qaddafi's henchmen, using the modern materiel that our western development and markets for Libya's oil have financed, draw closer to a major massacre. And now we get limp "hey-stop-thats" from, among others, a Nobel Peace laureate who used to proclaim "Yes, we can!"N. Grouse Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16924166468582608138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18185723.post-39589719982994842592011-02-25T06:50:00.000-08:002011-02-26T06:27:23.879-08:00Deserting the Desert, or Who We Should Be Worrying AboutPerhaps it is simply the inevitable occlusion of media that we are now hearing more from and about the political leadership of Canada on getting our nationals out of Libya than any other of the many urgent matters. Likewise there's been a flood of the almost automatic inevitable <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2011/02/24/nl-pilot-libya.html">bitching from stranded Canadians</a> and media hype pejorative of the undoubtedly overwhelmed Canadian embassy staff in Tripoli. No one can ever be doing enough for these benighted souls somehow stranded in North Africa. <span style="font-style:italic;">Somehow?</span><br /> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCNDPuc_eZ4hoZByoZHDw3YmjGgeXJzso_0t9imxYDmoXlb1L8ND7XYUin5ByJsbRkzSK0qkXTkNzo_a0lcejtSstBMU_qpYqQ8Xn56uL1ALc3ZeOE-Q6-oiBCeipWxx11tznc/s1600/Gaddafi+Rats.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 388px; height: 283px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCNDPuc_eZ4hoZByoZHDw3YmjGgeXJzso_0t9imxYDmoXlb1L8ND7XYUin5ByJsbRkzSK0qkXTkNzo_a0lcejtSstBMU_qpYqQ8Xn56uL1ALc3ZeOE-Q6-oiBCeipWxx11tznc/s400/Gaddafi+Rats.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5577682536948698114" /></a><br />As this scramble for means of evacuation so publicly continues, almost no one is asking the obvious companion question: why are there so many Canadians in Libya who suddenly <span style="font-style:italic;">need</span> our government and our tax dollars for their salvation? <span style="font-weight:bold;">Why are they there?<span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span> Why - I'll ask with feigned momentary naivete - are they so plentiful in a bleak desert country in North Africa that there is such massive demand for rapid egress? Or, equally rhetorically, why so much Canuck <span style="font-style:italic;">ingress </span>in the first place?<br /><br />Of course the one word answer is <span style="font-style:italic;">oil</span> as it is the massive Libyan petro fields that brought in foreign nationals and, more to the point, foreign development in the first place. If we allow ourselves one more rhetorical, to what extent has it been the presence of western money, western oil companies and all those now anxious to desert the so lucrative desert who have been the willing and well recompensed bulwarks of the Brotherly Leader and his henchmen. Where would Qaddafi have been in the 42 years of his tyranny without the steady support of major firms like Shell, Conoco, Husky and the Italian giant Eni. But even more pervasive are the countless small to medium sized oil and gas supporting cast whose ancillary services range from catering to heavy equipment repair to helicopter transport to the secondary and tertiary thriving nationalized businesses whose existence, to repeat, is all about oil.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5VscDO9ErVlmnMLFXHcB51His6Sm4Sk1rb4lH10fSFsBmzZFZRWu5qq9qraOLt48Y19_byCbg4RPTKgZmJe-_OgtXva2oLidoWC6seLe6xDakzsMTruoXH4hca7xEx9p-c03W/s1600/Libyan-protest-007.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5VscDO9ErVlmnMLFXHcB51His6Sm4Sk1rb4lH10fSFsBmzZFZRWu5qq9qraOLt48Y19_byCbg4RPTKgZmJe-_OgtXva2oLidoWC6seLe6xDakzsMTruoXH4hca7xEx9p-c03W/s400/Libyan-protest-007.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5577677005570562802" /></a><br /><br />Canadians have been prominent in blithely joining this workforce and thereby taking strong supporting roles in maintaining Qaddafi's primary source of money and might. At the same time, Europe, followed by the USA fell for Qaddafi's newfound, strategic, but shallow "reasonability" by buying more of his oil, investing in his regime, and generally welcoming Libya back into the fold of respectability needed for ever-widening globalization. "Complicity" is way too passive and gentle a word for all that was done since the early 2000s to suck up to Qaddafi's propaganda and his petroleum. <br /><br />So as the real victims in this sordid situation - the innocent and courageous native Libyan men, women and children - cower in their unlit and unprovisioned hell-holes, while Qaddafi's oil-funded goon squads roam the streets, should we not be asking more critically who is deserving of ours and other western government's primary <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgr7jTna8KgRab_L-eRfTXdOPjVBJfKFuB9Ip56qK3SHJQyglMTl_bvsiCv0rGTLIzNPwd_8QNQe37jz0q6Fr9S9BIcuRm0uCr0dZrBCN-B_5ySPkBZy1W0tkvztESs-xxCUP1/s1600/gaddafi-obama.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 239px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgr7jTna8KgRab_L-eRfTXdOPjVBJfKFuB9Ip56qK3SHJQyglMTl_bvsiCv0rGTLIzNPwd_8QNQe37jz0q6Fr9S9BIcuRm0uCr0dZrBCN-B_5ySPkBZy1W0tkvztESs-xxCUP1/s320/gaddafi-obama.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5577676651302071890" /></a>attention? Should we be preoccupied with rescuing our "own," most of whom gladly and for their own enrichment, went to Libya, thereby rather obviously propping up Qaddafi all these years? Or should, we instead be focused, with other NATO allies, on firm intervention to put an immediate stop to audacious slaughter? We need to save people who are not only Qaddafi's but <span style="font-style:italic;">our</span> victims, those who have endured a tyranny partially of the making of foreign nationals now scrambling for cover. Is it just too hard to admit that the "mercenaries" in this tragic situation, are not just the paid thugs roaming Tripoli's bloodied streets? Many are standing around airports and seaports, suitcases in hand, waiting to desert Qaddafi's sinking ship. <br /><br />Qaddafi, seems to be <a href="http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/africa/news/article_1621127.php/Gaddafi-barricaded-in-Tripoli-compound-ex-diplomat-says-Extra">holed up in Bab al-Azizia,</a> the same compound that NATO blasted in 1986 with far less justification than freeing an entire long-suffering populous. You do the math.N. Grouse Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16924166468582608138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18185723.post-49170571022834776192011-02-08T18:10:00.000-08:002011-02-09T07:38:02.168-08:00HAPPY BLOODY ANNIVERSARY Vancouver Olympics!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxSjj61SDpzieHstJysrZS3WUEsRA31pSFFV4s0H2Unn6BqDyBX6IxQhRSBw1H937QAEcl7shRi_lpdA6-A0bQUUAUzyB1GLSxjAYy7pRhfaKBoERkffddedG4hyphenhyphenjynL0Yx-kG/s1600/Quatchi.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 263px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxSjj61SDpzieHstJysrZS3WUEsRA31pSFFV4s0H2Unn6BqDyBX6IxQhRSBw1H937QAEcl7shRi_lpdA6-A0bQUUAUzyB1GLSxjAYy7pRhfaKBoERkffddedG4hyphenhyphenjynL0Yx-kG/s320/Quatchi.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5571713958872610690" /></a><br />How time flies! Here we are a year since the Lower Mainland of British Columbia (the province's richest region) got a two week party thrown for it by the rest of BC and Canada. Apparently the CBC is revving up a television special with all the tedious hoopla replayed while the City of Vancouver, which got the lion's share of any the debatable long term benefits, <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/01/21/bc-vancouver-olympic-anniversary.html">ramps up for an anniversary celebration</a><br /><br />But to their credit, the CBC, through <span style="font-style:italic;">The Fifth Estate</span> and news coverage this week, has also been instrumental in unearthing the fatal incompetence of the Olympiad's luge track and the disgraceful story of how one company purged its surplus inventory, to wit, healthy huskies, once the party was over and the anticipated tourism dropped off. <br /><br />Here then, that Olympic legacy that us doubters never anticipated...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">IN MEMORIAM 1:</span> <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12331024">The 100 or so huskies butchered </a>by an outdoor adventure company that ramped up sled dog numbers for the Olympic bubble and, then, when the inevitable drop-off in demand followed, executed them. These victims should become the logos for the preposterous ill-founded claims that the Olympiad perpetrators and their lap-dogs continue to make for its economic and "psychic" benefits for Canada.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZNicAgPApYcLPwmY1crhxQsfgzZj7NFFPvBCkYR400Kg2FQFVIRI3aE0vKNM6cOgXmXrJwFWHoGXAl_SoBxhc0zfSbz4aTySFhpTtSfjtZ4LnXZATtaAvM8uBCRakNBr8eaQ4/s1600/dog.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 299px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZNicAgPApYcLPwmY1crhxQsfgzZj7NFFPvBCkYR400Kg2FQFVIRI3aE0vKNM6cOgXmXrJwFWHoGXAl_SoBxhc0zfSbz4aTySFhpTtSfjtZ4LnXZATtaAvM8uBCRakNBr8eaQ4/s400/dog.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5571696823155719746" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />IN MEMORIAM 2:</span> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/08/sports/olympics/08olympics.html?_r=2&scp=2&sq=luge&st=cse">Georgian Luger Nodar Kumaritashvili</a> whose deadly practice run was quickly hushed up by the Vancouver Organizing Committee whose head honcho denied any conceivable inklings of the track being too fast. Now CBC's <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/2010-2011/deathattheolympics/">The Fifth Estate</a> has unearthed emails from Furlong which, to the contrary, show that there were warnings and, further, that he well understood the liability this could have created long before the Nodar was killed. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPkst4nS6tnCzIhZXAF3XBBEPRV2OZhh0goIaiBUYM1nHRvGfeTCS3It-1r03qs5Bb4cuHrWX3_hzubhzbj-G0xfwGZnjgbteF9V2CjrJMANU8pQk_6l7HQ0N1yA7E_7y-RBW2/s1600/NODAR-KUMARITASHVILI-GEORGIA-WAKE-PICTURES-PHOTOS.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPkst4nS6tnCzIhZXAF3XBBEPRV2OZhh0goIaiBUYM1nHRvGfeTCS3It-1r03qs5Bb4cuHrWX3_hzubhzbj-G0xfwGZnjgbteF9V2CjrJMANU8pQk_6l7HQ0N1yA7E_7y-RBW2/s400/NODAR-KUMARITASHVILI-GEORGIA-WAKE-PICTURES-PHOTOS.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5571696960115549794" /></a><br /><br />I guess all you can say to the Olympic organizers and the countless Canadians who swallowed all the patriotic blather that continues to be pumped out about this costly, but trivial pursuit, is bloody Happy Anniversary to ya!N. Grouse Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16924166468582608138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18185723.post-37621247780344480022011-02-02T12:18:00.000-08:002011-04-05T20:42:47.843-07:00My Come-Uppance on CBC about Cell Use While Driving<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMFpJqIo-oftotG_4WWOygwVV8NMV0z1CMNRZ6MlUEEKNiu4MdB66iueWC0Jex9Dni0uE6bia1ZE1vJZAuLr2-ksMz9-Ie0v9YL00xZh1bTbtjeDCDH8lRV2SF6dY9uY6r6TC2/s1600/texting+and+driving.jpeg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMFpJqIo-oftotG_4WWOygwVV8NMV0z1CMNRZ6MlUEEKNiu4MdB66iueWC0Jex9Dni0uE6bia1ZE1vJZAuLr2-ksMz9-Ie0v9YL00xZh1bTbtjeDCDH8lRV2SF6dY9uY6r6TC2/s320/texting+and+driving.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5569209435701267042" /></a><br />The sheer annoyance factor of seeing drivers on cell phones was captured satisfyingly in the earliest day's of the device in the 1990 comedy, <span style="font-style:italic;">Crazy People</span>. Allegedly going crazy, ad-man, Emory Leeson (Dudley Moore) manifests his breakdown by jumping out of his car, wrenching a nearby driver's clunky old fashioned car phone from his grip and tossing it off the Brooklyn Bridge (you can see this most gratifying scene at the beginning of the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7oqz6Ykpd0&feature=related">movie's trailer</a>). Seemed very sane to me even at the time and today, should merit some kind of good citizen commendation. <br /><br />Indeed, jurisdictions all over the world <a href="http://www.cellular-news.com/car_bans/">have recognized </a>the incompatibility of cell phone use and safe driving, lessons derived from countless tragedies. Stunningly,with the advent of texting, ubiquitous half-wits have added this activity to their repertoire of pastimes done while behind the wheel. In British Columbia, where I live, a law prohibiting all of this came into effect a year ago but it has been widely observed that while there may have been a brief period of abiding by the new rules, recidivism is high. And so it is estimated that in the vicinity of 50 deaths and who knows how many injuries have been caused by the now illegal activity here in BC alone. The world figure of course is in the the 1000's with <a href="http://ajph.aphapublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/AJPH.2009.187179v1">texting having dramatically increased fatalities.</a> <br /><br />BC Alamanac CBC's once-excellent noon call-in show <a href="http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/bcalmanac_20110201_44703.mp3">observed the one-year anniversary</a> of the law on Tuesday (Feb 1) by bringing in RCMP Superintendant Norm Gaumont, who has been a <a href="http://www.news1130.com/news/local/article/177038--distracted-drivers-not-getting-the-message">lead spokesman</a> on this issue in BC's Lower Mainland. . Clips were played from a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DebhWD6ljZs&feature=player_embedded">riveting documentary</a> prepared, interestingly enough, by AT & T; Mark urged listeners to call in with ideas on "what more could be done to stop" this. He then turned to Supt. Gaumont to expound more knowledgeably on the dire consequences of this incomprehensibly dumb and now illegal activity. <br /><br />There followed several calls confirming full agreement among the guest, the host and the callers of this increasingly frequent and often tragic scofflawing. You could hear the veritable hand-wringing!<br /><br />But what to do about it? There were mutterings of raising the fine from its current $167 although no one seemed to have much expectation that that would have a measurable positive effect on seemingly incurable and often terminal driver stupidity. Well, as unusual I held some strong opinions not only on this practice but what could be done to stop it: I called in and suggested that anyone caught in the act should have her or his phone forfeited. What with the rising infatuation for high cost iPhones and the like, this seemed not only a fitting measure to me but one likely to give even the most asinine compulsive texter, pause for thought as their stupidly-used smart phone vanished forever.<br /><br />To my surprise Supt. Gaumont dismissed the idea out of hand with the incisive explanation that people including politicians wouldn't like it. Golly gee. You know just like if you caught an armed mugger and took his gun away, he <span style="font-style:italic;">wouldn't like it</span>. Yet cell phone drivers kill roughly the same number of innocent victims annually in our province as do those with firearms. <br /><br />At that point Mark hit the button for the next call without giving me a moment's opportunity to engage the good policeman on the possible logical and moral errors of his blithe and presumptuous rebuff. <br /><br />So I am left only repeat here the point that it is an entirely fair consequence when one perilously misuses a device, breaking a law and mortally endangering others, to forfeit the offending item. I would further argue that laws and regulations be enacted so we could ban repeat offenders from even owning a phone for some substantial period. Lives would be saved but, oh my goodness, Supt.Gaumont doesn't think think that the moronic scofflaws would <span style="font-style:italic;">like that.</span><br /><br />As long as the primary enforcers like Supt. Gaumont, who know all too intimately the blood-stained impacts of cell-crazy drivers, maintain such craven and occluded views, closing their minds knee-jerk to alternatives, this problem will simply grow. <br /><br />By way of addendum, may I also grouse -- as is my entitlement -- about the way that Mark Forsythe, the long time and, in my view, once-excellent host is now handling calls. As mentioned, when I advanced my view and Supt. Gaumont so cavalierly tossed it aside, Mark had already cut me off which meant no chance to challenge the guest's feckless, knee-jerk reaction. This is utterly inadequate and disrespectful of authentic public discussion. It privileges the so-called expert while reducing anyone who goes to the trouble of dialing, to the short shrift of studio guests' one-liners.<br /><br />Back when BC Almanac was two hours long, you usually had a chance to make at least one rebuttal point and not be left sounding like some know-nothing whose hare-brain thought is unworthy of further talk. That's the way dialogue still goes on on the national call-in show, <span style="font-style:italic;">Cross Country Check</span> up on Sundays. To pretend that what Almanac is doing now is real public deliberation is delusional. Mark and his producers should either fight to get back the full time period - I'll help! --or altogether drop this phony phone discourse. We, the great unwashed could then just sit up straight with hands meekly folded, listening to our betters, just like the literally dumb little creatures we are being treated as.N. Grouse Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16924166468582608138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18185723.post-9536746280702002612011-01-24T07:04:00.000-08:002011-01-24T08:47:14.631-08:00Puzzled about YouTube Blockers<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbpoYW2CYDuSR2XFWWR4Sx3ggvUD0oJZe_wveBbEP6YIftjxzb7K6zvnxKm5hCxBDSguVlWfFWGvMN3nt0E907nWmmb43Qlcb-DK9jvEvXK_EVKiEYI8EvCUoBB3W56M8Xj7KO/s1600/All-the-Roadrunning-B000F0UV0E-L.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 283px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbpoYW2CYDuSR2XFWWR4Sx3ggvUD0oJZe_wveBbEP6YIftjxzb7K6zvnxKm5hCxBDSguVlWfFWGvMN3nt0E907nWmmb43Qlcb-DK9jvEvXK_EVKiEYI8EvCUoBB3W56M8Xj7KO/s320/All-the-Roadrunning-B000F0UV0E-L.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5565781462748048578" border="0"></a><br />Recently I heard again, "Beachcombing" a song by Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris which had just breezed by me when it was released in 2006 on their album, <span style="font-style: italic;">"All the Roadrunning."</span> This time, no doubt because some of the lyrics presciently connote the disastrous Deepwater Horizon oil spill, I was more deeply affected. It opens...<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">They say there’s wreckage washing up<br />all along the coast<br />No one seems to know too much<br />Or who got hit the most<br />Nothing has been spoken<br />There’s not a lot to see<br />But something has been broken<br />that’s how it feels to me<br /><br />We had a harmony<br />I never meant to spoil<br />Now it's lying in the water<br />Like a slick of oil<br />The tide is running out to sea<br />Under a darkening sky...</span><br /><br />I went to YouTube (where else?) and was surprised to find very limited entries. It's become pretty common when one gets a penchant to hear some favourite song, to find videos with the music. Often these are pretty rudimentary, maybe just a still picture or two of the artist sitting there throughout. For "Beachcombing" there was a little more but if anything it would have been better to have stuck with the stills. Thus, for example, one YouTuber nicknamed McDaidUSA, chose to have this haunting anthem <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG9IZf9sLdo">as back up</a> to her or his reunion with relatives in Ireland's west country. This includes spots of barely comprehensible voice-over narration of McDaidUSA's big trip. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsU4x6pio4C1CsVxTIrJGs8NHHYlt3d0Kdc7aRexsfA4Wf_c7JqVYWA0zswSlfnQdgsBvM_fDwHU-a3QK_bDcuP7GNWQKWwQE-AN5WA9RQbIepv_CLXYeKgC3ta_1O_HAkBZT7/s1600/Spanish+video+ending.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 210px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsU4x6pio4C1CsVxTIrJGs8NHHYlt3d0Kdc7aRexsfA4Wf_c7JqVYWA0zswSlfnQdgsBvM_fDwHU-a3QK_bDcuP7GNWQKWwQE-AN5WA9RQbIepv_CLXYeKgC3ta_1O_HAkBZT7/s320/Spanish+video+ending.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5565781795688522898" border="0"></a>My sister searched about at my request and found another non-YouTube posting -- a <a href="http://tu.tv/videos/mark-knopfler-y-emmylou-harris-beachcomb">Spanish language one</a>. It was far worse than the travelogue of Eire, mainly consisting of panoramic shots of white-sanded tourist-y tropical resorts, punctuated by the occasional young lady in bikini. Indeed, the finale is of one such woman beaming with delight, captured in the accompanying screen-shot. It seemed to me that the melancholy tone and pensive lyrics were entirely missed by whomever assembled and posted this. <br /><br />Idled for a morning (i.e. not wanting to work) I decided to rise to the challenge and splice together a slide show which was exquisitely (or so I think) timed so that the images synched with and were appropriate to the lyrics. Once done, I uploaded to YouTube and sent the URL to my sister who discovered minutes later that it had been blocked. Even though I'd credited and indeed promoted the album, a surly and chagrined little red face appeared with an unconvincing apology, "<span style="font-style: italic;">"This video contains content from WMG and UMG, one or more of whom have blocked it on copyright grounds. Sorry about that."</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1j4ATPNR1vGFmezo6so05o6Z170AJFCxOmcPGth5I4IJyD2kRQAOiwoCzyMxkab2EbPt5lL8so48pGLpuHpGWgTnrv36BpUU43NtfSl8eHAxMocfaTzNn03cIRwboAvRDapE3/s1600/red+face.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 118px; height: 97px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1j4ATPNR1vGFmezo6so05o6Z170AJFCxOmcPGth5I4IJyD2kRQAOiwoCzyMxkab2EbPt5lL8so48pGLpuHpGWgTnrv36BpUU43NtfSl8eHAxMocfaTzNn03cIRwboAvRDapE3/s400/red+face.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5565781637927064002" border="0"></a><br /><br />So have I got this straight? -- it's okay to rip off the artists and production company as back up for your so fascinating Irish vacation or to switch to Spanish and show tourist scenes and nubile beach girls? But, for heaven's sake don't give direct credit and try, at least, to jibe with the creator's seeming intent! Well, not to be stymied, here's the <span style="font-style: italic;">ouevre</span> for your enjoyment whilst I figure out a way around the YouTube enforcers.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxY191l2pkbpBOon1IP3ch3s_pZi0HJgYnEpqifHwBvr12CJsUF5x6ODpQxs8EK_zfBNoW8UkBXE_E' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe>N. Grouse Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16924166468582608138noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18185723.post-29248706632725210992011-01-11T09:42:00.001-08:002011-01-13T07:51:03.298-08:00Don't Miss "Entitled Opinions"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpyBS3naNad9x3wV1v2yoGrFzOuVStoVnasfh9NMAN7GEFi6C1iI1JDjNKx_WfkuDq2XP5-7698hLYUUKktxpYfyFr6vilmu9QSz_KD02e-Zt3QODrLl5tTrZHDM8NEH0e5Org/s1600/Harrison.png"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 273px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpyBS3naNad9x3wV1v2yoGrFzOuVStoVnasfh9NMAN7GEFi6C1iI1JDjNKx_WfkuDq2XP5-7698hLYUUKktxpYfyFr6vilmu9QSz_KD02e-Zt3QODrLl5tTrZHDM8NEH0e5Org/s320/Harrison.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5561319272987636066" /></a><br />I seldom promo anything on this hitherto commercial-free hub of the North. But as today marks the return of my absolute favourite podcast, an exception is made. <a href="http://www.stanford.edu/dept/fren-ital/opinions/">"Entitled Opinions"</a> flows out from a basement studio at one of the world's finest universities, Stanford. The head honcho is Robert Harrison, a professor of Italian and romance literature there. The format for the show is that he kibitzes for about an hour with a leading luminary on subjects whose variety will astound. If I read the list correctly, it all began with a couple of shows about Freud almost 6 years ago, and then traversed <span style="font-style:italic;">terra creativa </span>from conversations about Kurt Weill's music and life, through several excursions with Harrison's esteemed Dante to sessions on the Jesuits, tennis, the Blues, Emily Dickinson and Jimi Hendrix...and a whole lot more. What is striking for me is just how passionate <span style="font-style:italic;">and</span> knowledgeable Harrison is on so eclectic an array of topics. <br /><br />On top of this, as of last year, the opening switched from an old <span style="font-style:italic;">Enigma</span> cut, to a haunting and voluptuous song which I could not track down for quite a while. Then, I learned that it was the <span style="font-style:italic;">Entitled Opinions</span> team comprising several academics including Harrison and his brother, Tom. Harrison is a damn fine guitarist, adding to his intellectual and broadcasting abilities, the kind of Renaissance man that you are glad exists <span style="font-style:italic;">somewhere</span> but are also happy that your high school rival didn't grow up to be! <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPqApFwlksN2Gzul0tWWiTJgSJ4ioV3ihzEJr7LIBxqXk0WTGVUzFK2F3Cx-WhhvJmj2PJyZlQJ0X4yTDF2OiQX9QFFFb8OxljNG4kOd561S0ROZ5cmN6614-YKOYfVIx77t8O/s1600/41xbSYmzaeL._SL500_AA280_.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPqApFwlksN2Gzul0tWWiTJgSJ4ioV3ihzEJr7LIBxqXk0WTGVUzFK2F3Cx-WhhvJmj2PJyZlQJ0X4yTDF2OiQX9QFFFb8OxljNG4kOd561S0ROZ5cmN6614-YKOYfVIx77t8O/s320/41xbSYmzaeL._SL500_AA280_.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5561320044497784610" /></a>. The music group which he's formed, <span style="font-style:italic;">Glass Wave</span>, has cut a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003DYPQAO/ref=dm_sp_alb?ie=UTF8&qid=1294845591&sr=1-2-fkmr0">fascinating literary excursion</a> which, in contrast to other high-concept academically inspired offerings, is also just a real good listen. Eclectic as ever, Harrison's group with vocals by <span style="font-style:italic;">Entitled Opinions</span> producer and Stanford doctoral candidate, Christy Wampole, travels broadly through canonical literature - <span style="font-style:italic;">Narcissus, Hamlet, Frankenstein, <span style="font-style:italic;">Moby Dick</span>,</span> Virginia Woolf, Poe's "Annabel Lee," etc. - not only making good music but also providing original and critical insights into the story-lines and characters of these classics. The cut, "Ophelia", for example, broadened my longstanding perspective on Hamlet, disabusing me of the belief that I had heard everything and much more that I ever needed about the play. <br /><br />Well, the wait is over and another season of <span style="font-style:italic;">Entitled Opinions</span> is now underway, alas with Christy departing so as to finish her dissertation. The opener is on <span style="font-style:italic;">Moby Dick</span>. Listen, friends! Subscribe!N. Grouse Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16924166468582608138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18185723.post-81293292246909000682010-12-17T08:28:00.000-08:002010-12-18T06:26:46.686-08:00How Much is that Polar Bear in the Window?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzg4pqZWpqjXFJopir3LGsFqBdeHaZtA2QIFlwSU9fM0xCA8ZV1CWvVWH0jEwsDVb-zZ0ktJmkkTYm5wmIrO8HgMrP_mhxNYilldb4qeuLcmiLkALvZwquTWdyZMAOsoR0k5LP/s1600/Horniman_polarbear.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 258px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzg4pqZWpqjXFJopir3LGsFqBdeHaZtA2QIFlwSU9fM0xCA8ZV1CWvVWH0jEwsDVb-zZ0ktJmkkTYm5wmIrO8HgMrP_mhxNYilldb4qeuLcmiLkALvZwquTWdyZMAOsoR0k5LP/s400/Horniman_polarbear.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551713057037636642" /></a><br />This morning CBC is <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/12/17/pricing-polar-bears.html">featuring a news item</a> about a Canadian federal government contract to put a dollar figure on the worth of polar bears.The precipitant is the consideration of polar bears for designation under our Species at Risk Act (SARA). I find it odd that this has come up for so emblematic and, as the lingo goes, charismatic a species as the big whites given that the list of endangered species currently includes a multiplicity of hitherto unheard of creatures which even the most eco-sympathetic and creative economist would have trouble ascribing money value to. For in addition to such zoological shoo-ins as the Grizzly and the Grey Whale, presently, Canada has listed the <a href="http://www.sararegistry.gc.ca/species/speciesDetails_e.cfm?sid=275">Pygmy Short-Horned Lizard</a>, the <a href="http://www.sararegistry.gc.ca/species/speciesDetails_e.cfm?sid=591">Dwarf Wedge Mussel </a>and the <a href="http://www.sararegistry.gc.ca/species/speciesDetails_e.cfm?sid=141">Pacific Water Shrew</a> on the top priority ledger - Schedule I qualifiers. It would be superficially entertaining to see the economic rationale for these or for plants like the <a href="http://www.sararegistry.gc.ca/species/speciesDetails_e.cfm?sid=204">Illinois Tick-trefoil</a> or the <a href="http://www.sararegistry.gc.ca/species/speciesDetails_e.cfm?sid=734">Incurved Grizzled Moss</a>, both also on the list of priority designation.<br /><br />I say "superficially" because superficial is exactly what this preposterous economic study is now underway by a Quebec firm, ÉcoRessources. CBC's commentators are reporting the analysis as if this is some vanguard hitherto unseen creative methodology when, in fact, it is nothing of the sort.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiney0ct2kx2py3lnqU10ucUnaiU2Ut4k0TumzfwC47WLCg1Q-ZQODreeamx9Ik3V0MWkL72576UXvpDnDHLrnVWDDQtzO-QSuGP6HJ7BQpfVdLHPhUcCm35MmA4nr8Zb3H4QCc/s1600/shrew.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 274px; height: 234px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiney0ct2kx2py3lnqU10ucUnaiU2Ut4k0TumzfwC47WLCg1Q-ZQODreeamx9Ik3V0MWkL72576UXvpDnDHLrnVWDDQtzO-QSuGP6HJ7BQpfVdLHPhUcCm35MmA4nr8Zb3H4QCc/s320/shrew.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551712856404982050" /></a> During one of the last century's several pulses of environmentalism, in the late 1960s and 1970s, economic busy-minds, anxious to be part of the vogue for environmental impact assessment, clunky calculators at the ready, started turning up all over the place with data-rich evaluations that put dollar values not only on species but entire valued ecosystems. A new sub-discipline replete with own journals and internecine methodological controversies emerged - "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_economics">ecological economics</a>". yet this was itself, only a johnny-come-lately to work such as the venerable <a href="http://www.rff.org/About_RFF/Pages/RFFLegacy.aspx"><span style="font-style:italic;">Resources for the Future</span></a> and the less venerated US Army Corps of Engineers had been doing for years, busily tallying up the worth of nature, often merely as part of the due diligence for planning and implementing ecocidal mega-projects. <br /><br />Which brings me to why anyone truly concerned about polar bears or obscure rare mosses should speak out against this hyper-mundane attempt to reduce our caring to the almighty loonie. On the surface, these exercises frequently come up with equally news-catching headlines trumpeting that such and such a species is worth some bigger number of dollars than you and I will ever have to whatever jurisdiction it lives in. For example in an interview on CBC's Daybreak North program today, one of ÉcoRessources' staff gave the example of a Wisconsin assessment that valued the state's bald eagles at a whopping $28 million dollars. Our local CBC interviewer seemed impressed: but pause and think about just how small a destructive project which may threaten those eagles would have to be to score higher. A mid-sized port dredging project or the extension of the Green Bay airport runway could easily boast discounted future benefits that kicked eagle ass. My point is that it is exceptionally dangerous to concede to the economic frame of mind the methodology by which evaluation of real value is to occur. <br /><br />Thirty-five years ago, the traditional indigenous peoples of the Mackenzie Valley, in dialogue with Justice Thomas Berger, demonstrated a very different way of taking measure of nature's services. They turned up at countless small community workshops and told Justice Berger why bears and everything else that interacts with them are precious beyond the transitory benefits derivable by pumping hydrocarbons south. Their "metrics' were of the heart and, with Berger's excellent rapporteur-ship, those evaluations provided a durable protective cover for lands and creatures we need and we value way beyond dollars. It would seem from yesterday's news that most though not all of the Native people along the planned pipeline corridor have been won - or should I say "bought"? - over to <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2010/04/21/mgp-neb-inuvialuit.html">a more "realistic," contemporary mind set</a>, i.e. take the money today and damn the consequences to that once-vaunted seventh generation in the future. Or as an academic paper by a very wise and now late economic historian, Robert Heilbroner wryly asked "What has posterity ever done for me?" <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibEG9-EL7H1EID4DHTYwDDKGbk2HS5nKhz27RseMPDlDy8ian1Ik9otxz5kBvVVfzEEHHJ6Cg7xtgc80LUqijVF1hZP5vVBsJKOWRVqPD4TUaDZD4NcVI2dR7UItHnqDOVPCfg/s1600/Antoine+Berger.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 250px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibEG9-EL7H1EID4DHTYwDDKGbk2HS5nKhz27RseMPDlDy8ian1Ik9otxz5kBvVVfzEEHHJ6Cg7xtgc80LUqijVF1hZP5vVBsJKOWRVqPD4TUaDZD4NcVI2dR7UItHnqDOVPCfg/s320/Antoine+Berger.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551710460097788786" /></a><br /><br /><br />Well before even Berger or Heilbroner, one of the founding fathers of environmentalism took on early ecological number crunchers with his beautiful and brilliant plea for a land ethic. Back in 1948 he confronted the trend even then to quantify the value of species and environments in these words, well worth reflecting on as our philistine government and its analytical handmaidens pore through the dollar figures on our magnificent and declining polar bears:<br /><blockquote><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;">When the logic of history hungers for bread and we hand out a stone, we are at pains to explain how much the stone resembles bread. I now describe some of the stones which serve in lieu of a land ethic.<br /><br />One basic weakness in a conservation system based wholly on economic motives is that most members of the land community have no economic value. Wildflowers and songbird are examples. Of the 22,000 higher plants and animals native to Wisconsin, it is doubtful whether more than 5 per cent can be sold, fed, eaten, or otherwise put to economic use Yet these creatures are members of the biotic community, and if (as I believe) its stability depends on its integrity they are entitled to continuance.<br /><br />When one of these non-economic categories is threatened and if we happen to love it, we invent subterfuges to give it economic importance. At the beginning of the century song birds were supposed to be disappearing. Ornithologists jumped to the rescue with some distinctly shaky evidence the effect that insects would eat us up if birds failed to control them. The evidence had to be economic in order to be valid.<br /><br />It is painful to read these circumlocutions today. We have no land ethic yet, but we have at least drawn nearer the point of admitting that birds should continue as a matter of biotic right, regardless of the presence or absence of economic advantage to us.</span></span> </blockquote> <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyJTlyMpSw-141f5e-pL369daiOghJixI9YnESd1LhYqqmMdawicSX9z-faWHOA_Lwdv-_z6nIgjtf-bfgxFyRQfvZmQmxN2DOJ56DRg3OjyObZhqbrnedqHccb_PC1BH-JikK/s1600/49bfda3de7532-lg_polar_bear.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyJTlyMpSw-141f5e-pL369daiOghJixI9YnESd1LhYqqmMdawicSX9z-faWHOA_Lwdv-_z6nIgjtf-bfgxFyRQfvZmQmxN2DOJ56DRg3OjyObZhqbrnedqHccb_PC1BH-JikK/s200/49bfda3de7532-lg_polar_bear.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551714021021041378" /></a>This profound insight and the ethic upheld by Leopold are what ought to underlie the stewardship Canadians and others get behind including the belated and so obviously needed designation of the polar bears - lest otherwise they exist in animatronic Coke commercials or in the windows of museums.N. Grouse Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16924166468582608138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18185723.post-5925966268004714452010-12-16T06:01:00.000-08:002010-12-17T07:17:32.517-08:00Full Circle in Afghanistan<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUehUVX-E5X7wY9JyXjO29nuFLyxfHEHZgk-ndtSwYHQOqdHzTgkH1D631oUdafJcuzR0vLfP6bkFtMgYNxDWGWAP4I66S5IaLRmtE-nOBWwSuTlivNo2tv5gU2xCHsPVZjBn9/s1600/obama+mud.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 330px; height: 325px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUehUVX-E5X7wY9JyXjO29nuFLyxfHEHZgk-ndtSwYHQOqdHzTgkH1D631oUdafJcuzR0vLfP6bkFtMgYNxDWGWAP4I66S5IaLRmtE-nOBWwSuTlivNo2tv5gU2xCHsPVZjBn9/s400/obama+mud.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551521246658509202" /></a><br />Today the unwitting heir of Bush's Afghan adventure releases his <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/17/world/asia/17sanger.html?partner=rss&emc=rss">long-awaited assessment of the war</a> over there. There will be sufficient commentary and dissection by people who know something about this, that more virtual ink from my peepings can add little. But I do have to flag an irony of the forest which the better informed may miss for all their insights on the trees. Despite all the different rationalized objectives that have piled up since the invasion nine years ago, the espoused single-most purpose in romping into Taliban country was to root out the Al-Qaeda militants from their training bases, the locales where the World Trade Centre's demise was planned. The add-on purposes that we in Canada and the USA know hear widely touted - establishing un-corrupt democratic governments, liberating women, (re)building the infrastructure of a nation so long at war etc. - were entirely subsidiary to and derivative of getting rid of terrorist incubators. <br /><br />The seemingly deliberate ignorance of the history of longer term foreign intervention in Afghanistan is stunning as is incomprehension of basic precepts of insurgency, laid down long ago by the likes of T.E. Lawrence and Che Guevera. You don't raze villages and "collaterally damage" thousands of innocents and then expect love, gratitude and support or emulation. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR6AM9tWsAwAJGk8SAzj1-rwY2NcG8MpQYghvjD6w3JIstxvwjJDawVHad5dwSAgKumQJWlRkfZl6uzJQIrWdNkRz2slmQICFSp9KbuM9j6I4BG32PkEjQimhZTS9c1TM8esh-/s1600/Roibal+re+Karzai.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 225px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR6AM9tWsAwAJGk8SAzj1-rwY2NcG8MpQYghvjD6w3JIstxvwjJDawVHad5dwSAgKumQJWlRkfZl6uzJQIrWdNkRz2slmQICFSp9KbuM9j6I4BG32PkEjQimhZTS9c1TM8esh-/s400/Roibal+re+Karzai.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551522016584576562" /></a>So here we are back on December 16, 2010 and the key insight emerging from Obama's year-long situation review is that <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/17/world/asia/17sanger.html?partner=rss&emc=rss">the enemy has extensive sanctuaries in Pakistan, about which, it appears nothing can be done</a>, not without further alienating the world's second most dangerous and unstable nuclear power. The net result is that the terrorist training camps of the early 2000s in Afghanistan are dead; long live the terrorist training <span style="font-style:italic;">refugiae</span> across the border today. The persistence of these bases means that all the other high-sounding purposes of freeing women and building bridges and schools for a future Afghan democracy have no more staying power than does the Karzai regime, of which it has been said: if the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force leaves at 4 p.m., it'll be toast by 6.N. Grouse Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16924166468582608138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18185723.post-27986685561995290852010-12-08T07:27:00.000-08:002010-12-14T17:09:44.531-08:00Flanagan's Fatwah (and Other Wiki-Crap)It seems an increasingly common thing for me to wish a pox on both sides of public controversies. Call it maturity. I had watched the continuing massive and unselective dumping of WikiLeaks with a feeling of disdain, especially irked <a href="http://foreign.peacefmonline.com/business/201011/111527.php">when commentators would equate this to whistle-blowing</a>. The latter practice refers to the courageous, often career-destroying and never self-aggrandizing practice whereby knowledgeable insiders within organizations, publicize the failings and misdeeds of their employers. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS9pcgE0LqYX8FKLVaR_lVUp4d2-vdkfsrmJXa1W8pS5neFflStBY4MA-j7bIelV7ppSzDvDMOtMzmPc0AcKEi96QKBWM-D8G37VtCI8f5jtEtdYIv9I5RYLEPLBd2-e7aGuZb/s1600/0726-Julian-Assange-WikiLeaks.jpg_full_600.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS9pcgE0LqYX8FKLVaR_lVUp4d2-vdkfsrmJXa1W8pS5neFflStBY4MA-j7bIelV7ppSzDvDMOtMzmPc0AcKEi96QKBWM-D8G37VtCI8f5jtEtdYIv9I5RYLEPLBd2-e7aGuZb/s320/0726-Julian-Assange-WikiLeaks.jpg_full_600.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5548537295106338610" /></a>Part and parcel of real whistle blowing is finding that something is seriously wrong within one's organization, usually trying to have head honchos mend their ways, and, failing that, going public. Famous examples include Karen Silkwood, who exposed the dangerous ambient levels of plutonium in nuclear facilities and Jeffery Wigand, the cigarette company exec who went public about nicotine-doctoring aimed at increasing the addictiveness of smokes. Both of these heroes were immortalized on the big-screen and, no doubt, it won't be all that long before WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is likewise "honoured".<br /><br />But his plundering and publicizing of communications shows neither the specificity of rationale nor the necessary step of trying to effect change before going public. Assange seemed little more than one of those irksome parasites known as computer hackers whose motivation has nothing to with societal betterment or anything so tangible but instead lies in simply being able to screw things up for someone else. He's just done that, thanks to an equally unselective and unreflective low-ranking informant,<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradley_Manning">Bradley Manning</a>, on a vaster scale than any of the pimple-faced vandals who break into other people's files for the pure fun of it. This is not to say, that all Wiki-leak leaks have always been thus. When the targets were specific and could potentially induce needed change, great! This seemed to be the <span style="font-style:italic;">modus operandi</span> before the current deluge, if one <a href="http://213.251.145.96/about.html">scans the pre-2009 history of the organization</a> and its activities. Now, the targets are innumerable and there are good reasons to expect that far from creating more openness and candour in the conduct of international relations, the result will be a global clamming up, heightened security that will affect efforts to shed needed and well-focused light on wrongdoings in high places. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3QyLKgMp5UbQ6G7hWyDVAZaX-eEk-Isr88wDPU4TXG9SnZOhsaK7jS0KOmhvQf3JpK9-CYrj16WKi-FRb5-pELHFPx86VZrKzfUjvUDwxf0-ku4f89wVCGnbtsZrwnUGc25JJ/s1600/Untitled2.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 242px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3QyLKgMp5UbQ6G7hWyDVAZaX-eEk-Isr88wDPU4TXG9SnZOhsaK7jS0KOmhvQf3JpK9-CYrj16WKi-FRb5-pELHFPx86VZrKzfUjvUDwxf0-ku4f89wVCGnbtsZrwnUGc25JJ/s320/Untitled2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5548768735908590850" /></a><br /><br />So Julian was and is no hero of Wigandian stature to my mind, but instead, at least in his and his organization's most recent activity, a thrill-seeking cyber-thug, who doesn't care whose windows get smashed when he hurls his rocks helter-skelter. <br /><br />But then, just when I'm thinking what a self-aggrandizing vandal he is, along comes Tom Flanagan, a man whom I have despised for decades most especially after his neo-colonial disquisition on indigenous people, a diatribe titled <span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://books.google.ca/books?id=5MRNyntZQNwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=First+Nations+second+thoughts&source=bl&ots=mDJEOtuoNG&sig=2DvlWUzFBcxIZdbNVAeQpPyXPPU&hl=en&ei=rjIBTcLeBYq6sQO2n_ivCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false">First Nations, Second Thoughts</a></span> - a strange choice of title for a "scholar" who does not appear to have had a second thought about anything over the course of his decades in Calgary. Yes, the same Flanagan who greased Stephen Harper's trail to the head of the Reform Party and thence to Parliament's East Block (a contribution for which, by itself, he deserves a few days in the stocks). Yes, medieval punishment comes readily to mind for Ayatollah Flanagan who very publicly opined that Assange should be assassinated suggesting that Obama dispatch a drone to do the job -- apparently not reflecting much in this outburst of what he called "feeling very manly" on how that might work for a fugitive hiding out in central London, England. <object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/MjyKOGUGIt4?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/MjyKOGUGIt4?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="320" height="192"></embed></object><br /><br />Well anyone this wing-nut hates can't be entirely worthless and I was later to discover that Fox TV loony Bill O'Reilly likewise is advocating the death penalty for such traitors too. This and the suspiciously timed rape charges that Sweden began to push are enough to sway me a bit towards sympathy for Assange. It may well be true that he is a sex offender but we also can rightly suspect - in no small part thanks to the threads of gold amidst all the WikiLeak dross - that the shadowy figures who linger in the crevices of international relations frequently come up with vicious schemes, far less stupid but of a similar mind-set to motor-mouths like Flanagan and O'Reilly.N. Grouse Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16924166468582608138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18185723.post-50397896119339501552010-12-07T05:42:00.000-08:002010-12-08T08:44:16.108-08:00Low Class LeavingI would like to pretend that the dearth of Grouses since my last post in mid October wherein I demanded BC NDP Leader Carol James' departure, was some kind of journalistic fast that I stalwartly maintained pending her compliance. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-obPzHR-nBPnU1AwY2zWFtt2DIkI5ExzHNNkVfewB9vFS-1q5uhCZS8k_OlAX5Az3Ujbxxf_z4Svi9wvWB_mNX4klZ2eemByQ_YSoJG99ALNS8UoyM82wzEgQHh21zf03tkgv/s1600/James.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-obPzHR-nBPnU1AwY2zWFtt2DIkI5ExzHNNkVfewB9vFS-1q5uhCZS8k_OlAX5Az3Ujbxxf_z4Svi9wvWB_mNX4klZ2eemByQ_YSoJG99ALNS8UoyM82wzEgQHh21zf03tkgv/s400/James.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5548331446658960434" /></a>In that version, I can e-speak again because yesterday (Dec. 6), she finally got the message and vamoosed. I wish I could report that she did so with some grace, a tinge of the kind of classiness that had eluded her at least in the last year of her reign. Alas, Ms. James left with the same conspicuous defects as she presided over the should-be replacement for Gord-O's Liberals.<br /><br />Puffed up like a hen defending long dead and infertile eggs, she clucked on about her ever-growing legion of detractors as - get this from a leader who fired a guy for saying she gave an unimpressive speech! - "bullies." She unlike them, she sermonized, had the interests of the people of British Columbia at heart. While these ducks pecked at her, we were told, she had been trying to lead effective opposition in the province. It's not clear when she thinks she started doing that nor does she seem to take one micro-gram of credit for the unprecedented opposition that had built in her own caucus - I say "unprecedented" because though BC generally eats its presiding premiers alive, opposition leaders, especially ones who haven't held highest office, have never, before James, excited such hostility. <br /><br />The tragedy is that she still was unwilling to acknowledge why all this was happening, to look deep (or as deep as she goes) into her own soul and performance, her inability to defeat a repulsive, hated Gordon Campbell who, lacking a worthy opponent had to shoot himself repeatedly in the foot to finally get the boot. Carol and her supporters are happy to take credit for the NDP's phoenix-like return from 2 to 35 seats in the legislature when, in fact, the kudos belong to the Liberals who should have been trounced two years ago. What Ms. James wears forever is all the added neo-con strife and stress Gordon Campbell and his successor will have foisted on society's most needy, thanks to her dismal and failed electioneering in 2008.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaz4K2OiGFYJ9J9dVF2b1bskrZ1FBC3PZt3sk9h2Ay61vCU2P6dJnwE8a-39hDC87KxTYEJe3iMdSi5v4hN4Ie5jvMLhrDZq0ii-Nnhp1v5vA3VM3iSsjX8O_gybep3QKet4wA/s1600/Christy.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 175px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaz4K2OiGFYJ9J9dVF2b1bskrZ1FBC3PZt3sk9h2Ay61vCU2P6dJnwE8a-39hDC87KxTYEJe3iMdSi5v4hN4Ie5jvMLhrDZq0ii-Nnhp1v5vA3VM3iSsjX8O_gybep3QKet4wA/s320/Christy.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5548331606434696450" /></a><br /><br />Especially with <a href="http://www.cknw.com/Channels/Reg/NewsLocal/Story.aspx?ID=1323806">the announcement today</a> of the photogenic and relatively untainted candidacy of broadcaster Christy Clark for Liberal leader, it is imperative that the NDP think and look outside the box for a more progressive and electable antidote. Carol James benefited enormously from Campbell being so easy to despise. The new NDP leader will not have Gord-O to kick around and will have to win, if at all, on merits. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq4_eiXsSlznyijUKB16boFCrGNfacyOxLjBpULQ6Vx5ePcjP0yNEpCTOq_6INUSWNLwG3Nd43HkNhzvfZKI3nYZSBqIqGDbYdYr8vHwR0QX8ZeyUZWFpaAsoZmNTyTNQCrh5H/s1600/Turpe.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 141px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq4_eiXsSlznyijUKB16boFCrGNfacyOxLjBpULQ6Vx5ePcjP0yNEpCTOq_6INUSWNLwG3Nd43HkNhzvfZKI3nYZSBqIqGDbYdYr8vHwR0QX8ZeyUZWFpaAsoZmNTyTNQCrh5H/s400/Turpe.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5548332077635622834" /></a><br />I can only repeat my "dream" replacement for James - Mary-Ellen Turpel-Lafonde with her impeccable integrity and determination, excellent counterbalances to the glitz of someone like Clark. <br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Coda: I see that one name that is <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/six-potential-contenders-to-replace-ndp-leader-carole-james/article1827316/?from=1826894">being touted elsewhere</a> for the NDP is the youthful and impressive Skeena MP, Nathan Cullen. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRnmUQ0PMweDTh4D7pbTRMUHizF_Accg1fPhjouTp6qqpWBv7Ikv2wbdYC3NDqYJknOtuyf-Q_CiRhKsVlRyQNPnJvOozQTauTDUzShI_IcguklCEbHI3AomvsEmre9xVqPhbe/s1600/Nathan.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRnmUQ0PMweDTh4D7pbTRMUHizF_Accg1fPhjouTp6qqpWBv7Ikv2wbdYC3NDqYJknOtuyf-Q_CiRhKsVlRyQNPnJvOozQTauTDUzShI_IcguklCEbHI3AomvsEmre9xVqPhbe/s320/Nathan.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5548332257855942914" /></a>I'd throw my considerable weight (albeit of the wrong kind) behind this passionate and intelligent lad, if, as is likely Mary-Ellen continues to ignore my calls for her candidacy! </span>N. Grouse Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16924166468582608138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18185723.post-34149430668842730532010-10-16T06:41:00.000-07:002010-10-19T11:16:41.645-07:00Carol James: You GO, Girl! (Please)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTG7JyIR5FBjb4AR7I6sJyz9pALwNJhkCxggixM8zSJTlqY4ypl7igowTPJbACHgXffBCQgmUjoHEahl5HECM4pVEvSdQjsYp0UlVyyDCjQLYtPvJXMRRcjaUaKv0zJCKHqwN_/s1600/Carol+James.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTG7JyIR5FBjb4AR7I6sJyz9pALwNJhkCxggixM8zSJTlqY4ypl7igowTPJbACHgXffBCQgmUjoHEahl5HECM4pVEvSdQjsYp0UlVyyDCjQLYtPvJXMRRcjaUaKv0zJCKHqwN_/s320/Carol+James.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5529392461923192866" /></a><br />At a time when it should be gearing up to replace the badly faltering Campbell Liberal Government in British Columbia, the NDP seems to be working rather hard to assist its opponents' resurrection. Or at least, the current shenanigans let the Libs catch their breath as news shifts from Gord-o's bald faced lying and the HST imbroglio, to how hapless NDP Leader Carol James has dumped a caucus member for disloyalty. <br /><br />The skinny, for those who value their time too much for political soap opera, is that the legislative member for North Cariboo, Bob Simpson publicly criticized the lackluster speech James had given at the Union of BC Municipalities convention last month. In rather gently calling attention to the NDP leader's content-free remarks, Simpson had hardly been a dramatic news-maker. He merely pointed out the obvious: Carol's manifest inability to define and advance key public issues, which, in the 2008 election campaign, gave Campbell four more years of neo-con reign. Here are the comments, no more , no less, that got Simpson booted out: <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_lE67G-KTsEzaPEKXqSozMSa_swvSO_o93G7dWKswZ8W7JaLRL8csdfqGxrzZMNXnbdX6O4dJeehq7H8nob-MQrKxTsmYtCwua-uNVhjnohmFgaMGF03ll4ZS2-h8nTe0F3VW/s1600/Bob+Simpson.png"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 152px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_lE67G-KTsEzaPEKXqSozMSa_swvSO_o93G7dWKswZ8W7JaLRL8csdfqGxrzZMNXnbdX6O4dJeehq7H8nob-MQrKxTsmYtCwua-uNVhjnohmFgaMGF03ll4ZS2-h8nTe0F3VW/s200/Bob+Simpson.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5529394523538573314" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">"The Leader of the Opposition likewise had little concrete to offer the delegates other than a commitment to be more consultative than the current government and a promise to explore the possibility of revenue sharing with local governments. This is a timely concept which has the potential to address the resource needs of local governments, but the lack of specifics was a disappointment to delegates."</span><br /><br />One wonders if all those years in the legislature in no way thickened Ms. James skin if this is enough to induce so hysterical an over-reaction. Yes, I know: the back story is that Simpson was a pain in the butt, <a href="http://thetyee.ca/News/2010/10/08/SimpsonRift/">an habitual gadfly for Carol</a> -- but it is such unsympathetic feedback that a healthy organization needs to make sure alternatives are considered and progress as well as regress are well tracked. By implication, Simpson has hitherto kept this talk internal, only recently going public with his differing perspective, and then, as you can see, in wording so mild that any person of reasonably sound self-worth would shrug it off. <br /><br />But, understandably in light of her ho-hum performance, James is especially on edge. She is not paranoid for the threat is real: much bigger long knives than Simpson's are now gathering. If she had the party's best interests at heart she would not force it to go through what now seems an inevitable and confrontational leadership bloodbath. She would stand aside, stay with the NDP and see if she can redefine herself and her role, putting her indubitably good heart and head to work in a supporting role that matches her abilities and shortcomings. <br /><br />Contrary to the <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/columnists/rod-mickleburgh/okay-ndp-critics-who-among-you-could-do-better-than-carole-james/article1757993/">arrogant crap</a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW8nFRzCZTHXZtLB3maLHDkOdhvai2vbUONcUtl2Ne2fVv9P1FFf-anmCA16wFwOVQuISLXoqI9CO5acwS4eQuJygzMhQ68bD-Spqhb0XhNHxa8NKD1_IMJnZ-kBWSkUQL7dhJ/s1600/5808.Mary_2D00_Ellen-Turpel_2D00_Lafond-1lw1108.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 193px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW8nFRzCZTHXZtLB3maLHDkOdhvai2vbUONcUtl2Ne2fVv9P1FFf-anmCA16wFwOVQuISLXoqI9CO5acwS4eQuJygzMhQ68bD-Spqhb0XhNHxa8NKD1_IMJnZ-kBWSkUQL7dhJ/s320/5808.Mary_2D00_Ellen-Turpel_2D00_Lafond-1lw1108.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5529397643498259250" /></a>that Globe and Mail columnist Rod Mickleburgh promulgates, there are plenty of prospective, highly electable potential successors. Once the James lid comes off the pot, there are 33 other elected NDP caucus members and 9 federal ones to think about. Moreover as <a href="http://grouse-perch.blogspot.com/2010/05/turpel-lafond-for-premier.html">I advocated several months back</a> in these pages, an ideal leader with a proven ability to bring Gord-O and his neo-con dogs to heel, is <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mary-Ellen-Turpel-Lafond/135719669794582#!/group.php?gid=101108866601589">Mary-Ellen Turpel Lafond</a>, BC's Representative for Children and Youth.N. Grouse Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16924166468582608138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18185723.post-10993307931158211552010-10-08T07:04:00.000-07:002010-10-08T08:03:00.280-07:00CBC Radio Gripe #2548Okay, I know, I haven't posted that many nor, really, much in a while of venom spewing from my love-hate relationship with CBC Radio. Sure, I made up the number 2548 but guarantee you that the bones I have to pick with this institution would vastly exceed that in the Drumheller dinosaur collection. <br /><br />Of course, I keep listening because compared to anything else we receive in smelly Prince George, the CBC comes off like a shining island in the sky. But...<br /><br />First let me remind you of my published past bitchings here, which in reverse chronological were: <br /><br />"<a href="http://grouse-perch.blogspot.com/2009/11/all-points-tasteless.html">All Points Tasteless (2009)</a>" - the disgusting spectacle of the mediocre bunch at CBC's Victoria-based afternoon show, <span style="font-style:italic;">All Points West</span>, in hustling on down to the seaplane terminal the day after a fatal crash at nearby Saturna, to push microphones in imminent flyers' faces and ask them if they worried about flying.<br /><br /><a href="http://grouse-perch.blogspot.com/2009/11/bless-you-cathy-haag.html"><br />"Bless You Cathy Haig (2009)"</a> - a not very gracious thank you to CBC Overnight for, after many years, purging the wee hour airways of the propaganda from Russia and Poland (Cathy was and is the perky voice that uselessly comes up and announces the transition from one night-time program to another and once, after I wrote about my concerns about the programming haughtily replied that I didn't have to listen, to which I answered with equal disdain, that I did have to pay her salary, nonetheless)<br /><br />"<a href="http://grouse-perch.blogspot.com/2006/03/greatest-canadian-hogwash.html">The Greatest Canadian Hogwash</a>(2006)" - an embittered expose of the bad process and worse outcome of CBC's elaborate process of picking the purported Greatest Canadian. It culminated in the selection of that pompous prairie chicken, Tommy Douglas, whom Canadian voters of the era, with uncharacteristic perspicacity had certainly not seen as all that great, <br /><br />"<a href="http://grouse-perch.blogspot.com/2005/12/cbc-all-quiet-on-klander-front.html">CBC - All Quiet on the Klander front(2005)</a>" which pointed out how CBC completely ignored the summary dismissal of a Liberal party hack for drawing a comparison between Sylvia Chow, Jack Layton's wife, and the dog breed of the same name. <br /><br />and last, not least and most a-propos of why I am crapping on CBC Radio again today:<br /><br />"<a href="http://grouse-perch.blogspot.com/2005/11/on-not-winning-cbc-contest.html">On Not Winning a CBC Contest (2005)</a>" occasioned by having used my creative juices to respond to gratingly sunny North By Northwest Hostess, Cheryl McKay's contest to write about homecomings" only to find that the lazy buggers simply drew the winner rather than taking the time to read and judge entries. <br /><br />Well, they got me again! <br /><br />You may recall <a href="http://grouse-perch.blogspot.com/2010/09/operatic-challenege-singing-anna-mae.html">my recent post</a> in which I proudly presented my poem about Anna Mae Aquash by way of nominating her as a Canadian worthy of her own opera. This was entered in the Canadian Opera Challenge with the incentive of winning an all expense inclusive trip to the world premier of what sounded like a most intriguing opera, <span style="font-style:italic;">Lillian Alling.</span>. This came over the air with prodding from <span style="font-style:italic;">Saturday Afternoon at the Opera</span> host, Bill Richardson, to "get creative" with entries. Stupidly, I presumed from this, and from the 250-word limit they put on submission length, that someone was actually going to be read and judge the entries by merit and originality. <br /><br />Several days after the deadline I went looking for information on whether there was a winner and happened across these chilling words (which, I admit, had always been there in the fine print of the contest information): <br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><br />"On Friday Oct. 1, 2010, a random draw will be conducted by the host during the taping of <span style="font-style:italic;">Saturday Afternoon at the Opera</span> aired on Saturday Oct. 2, 2010. This draw will be made from among all eligible email and regular postal entries received. The first contestant to correctly answer the mandatory question shall be declared the winner, subject to responding all the conditions described in these rules."</span><br /><br />Writing your heart out wasn't enough, mind you: because no merit basis is involved the contest-managers would be asking you what 2 + 2 is or perhaps, the square root of crow pie.<br /><br />To repeat, no question, the rules <span style="font-style:italic;">were</span> there on the website and so I let myself be suckered by the Bill and the gang into yet another manifestation of utter laziness, CBC Radio expecting, nay encouraging, us to put unpaid time and effort into something but then using dumb luck as a substitute for the effort it would take to critically read and evaluate our heart-felt entries. I might as well have proposed an opera about my dog. Or even more a-propos, one simply titled, "Sluggards" about Bill Richardson, Sheryl McKay, and the handlers behind them who come up with these contests and then are too indolent to bother with the input.N. Grouse Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16924166468582608138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18185723.post-73173230400031323672010-10-04T08:01:00.000-07:002010-10-05T09:19:25.550-07:00Be Vigilant, Mr. & Mrs. Tourist!Today, the <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/canada-warns-travellers-to-be-vigilant-in-europe/article1740059/">most urgent lead story</a> is <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfATfP9WlGZbPKkuSWV_W_cW_6xKTdseVagf0tXhRJ4hM813p1Xt2mHtsWr2Bmh6AFpSQNRmXbXPUfnup-wzJiPU1DtcjhfhG6QR79rmWbwWPeD5TBpZneny8jQ_CBUV5dR-IG/s1600/Use+caution.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 280px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfATfP9WlGZbPKkuSWV_W_cW_6xKTdseVagf0tXhRJ4hM813p1Xt2mHtsWr2Bmh6AFpSQNRmXbXPUfnup-wzJiPU1DtcjhfhG6QR79rmWbwWPeD5TBpZneny8jQ_CBUV5dR-IG/s320/Use+caution.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524220603611605602" /></a>that Canada has aped our southern neighbours (or is that neighbors?) in issuing warnings to those of us who are off to Europe. The admonition is that somewhere in Europe, something bad may happen to you and so you should be vigilant! That's it. No specific kinds of targets, not even a wild guess of most likely cities or countries. And, perhaps vaguest of all, no usable advice on just what the average camera-slinging perambulators are supposed to do to be "vigilant."<br /><br />One tidbit is that western anti-terrorist intelligence thinks that, just maybe, whatever deed is done may resemble the horrific Bombay* (AKA Mumbai) massacre two years ago. In that multi-pronged and exceptionally well planned assault, numerous sites were rapidly and simultaneously attacked by terrorists lugging grenades and automatic weapons, while concurrent car bombs went off rapid-fire. They came with clear orders to maximize fatalities and property destruction in as short a time span as possible. To those who survived, the suddenness of the events was unfathomable. Here's one anonymous account:<br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><br />"I was just sitting and reading the paper. ... I started seeing the sound was increasing and bodies started falling and all of the bloodshed. ... People were crying; people were limping. We were frightened; we started to run. I was trying to see if I could see anyone carrying a gun or anything, but I couldn't." (<a href="http://articles.cnn.com/2008-11-26/world/mumbai.attacks.web.sites_1_mumbai-hotel-basement-foreigners?_s=PM:WORLD">From Source</a>) </span><br /><br />So, again, what precisely is it that Canada, the US, and Japan are all suggesting that the hapless tourist do if she or he has the bad luck to be in the path of such determined, tactically proficient, well-trained fanatics? Or is the whole unsettling thing merely that intelligence agencies are covering their collective butts, causing all sorts of useless anxiety so that if and when the worst happens they can definitively say, "We told you so!" <br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">_________________________________<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">* <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1n1vMocbA6FWYnq-pndoJK9JGUJ0xoBxy60KQ1LEzAxr8K3xtXgfGluMpZQxIJSKPM0mvvE65u-XQYiqfc-oHzdGCpW32L2O_jeqe8tQyflkdgol48AdHgzdrlg-1LFnr5eb4/s1600/salman_rushdie.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 140px; height: 210px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1n1vMocbA6FWYnq-pndoJK9JGUJ0xoBxy60KQ1LEzAxr8K3xtXgfGluMpZQxIJSKPM0mvvE65u-XQYiqfc-oHzdGCpW32L2O_jeqe8tQyflkdgol48AdHgzdrlg-1LFnr5eb4/s200/salman_rushdie.jpg" border="0" The name change was brought about by far right Hindu leaders associated with only the one most powerful (the Maharashtrians) of the many ethnicities of the city and region. alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524220134074989794" /></a>The belief that the name "Mumbai" is the unequivocal preference of all India and that "Bombay" is only for imperialist throwbacks is <a href="http://ezinearticles.com/?Misconceptions-About-Mumbai-and-Bombay&id=3107341">a vast oversimplification</a> of how this latest bit of political correct toponymy arose. Many locals still prefer Bombay because at least the oppressor who gave the place that name is history, while radical Hindus are, alas, not. Besides, that most famous, gutsy and literate of all living Bombayians (my usage), Salman Rushdie still calls it by that horrid colonial epithet. And if it's good enough for Sal, it's good enough for me! </span></span>N. Grouse Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16924166468582608138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18185723.post-51529433722408299632010-09-20T08:16:00.001-07:002010-09-20T09:10:37.089-07:00Another PoemDon't worry I haven't entirely crossed over to the brain's right side but whilst looking for a recipe for kosher dill pickles, I came across a badly mis-filed piece of intentional doggerel that I'd churned out during my now fondly-remembered Bella Coola years. <br /><br />I wrote this poem to recite it at a town hall gathering we had about community survival. Interfor and the Ministry of Forests had quite recently shut down their main offices in the valley leaving a skeleton staff and thereby taking away a very large number of employed positions and the families that went with them. Even a few multi-generational settler clans were having to give some hard thought to looking elsewhere as the local economy slid towards the drain hole. <br /><br />That was also about the time of the 50th anniversary of finishing the road that linked the hitherto isolated outside world to Bella Coola. <a href="http://www.bellacoola.ca/culture/hill.php">The story of that feat </a>was one to inspire local initiative, for in that case it was their parents and grand-parents who'd had the pluck to <span style="font-style:italic;">just do it.</span> The Province did not think the road could be constructed at all or, at least at a cost worthy of the public purse. So locals just got together, surveyed the route, and used their own literally backroad know-how, equipment and dollars to punch the "Freedom Road" up the steep valleys through to Anahim. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj454l_7LcxYUqrzDHIZXXic2O8M7xkq7bK_rVti13G-sxJdI7qZZGyGIsJc97wBk9myHzKXtojOsCpvFVtyey6L8794MS1LFFttfcGEz1im6f6DGQ4Lz7Wu8nwTfR08AZ1rh8c/s1600/Hill+builders.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 357px; height: 288px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj454l_7LcxYUqrzDHIZXXic2O8M7xkq7bK_rVti13G-sxJdI7qZZGyGIsJc97wBk9myHzKXtojOsCpvFVtyey6L8794MS1LFFttfcGEz1im6f6DGQ4Lz7Wu8nwTfR08AZ1rh8c/s400/Hill+builders.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5519027757084593410" /></a>The BC Government eventually was shamed into partial funding but it remains a major testament to those folks, that beloved place, and the power that can arise anywhere when everyday people put their minds and shoulders to the wheel. <br /><br />So pardon the cornball but I meant every word of it:<br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Leaving Bella Coola <br /><br />The truck is packed, the kids are crying.<br />The alders down the lane are sighing<br />To think of nothing's what I'm trying,<br />Leaving Bella Coola.<br /><br />I'll smoke another pipe and ponder<br />What it is forced us to wander<br />Off into the unknown yonder,<br />Leaving Bella Coola.<br /><br />Time was when all the settlers' children <br />Knew this place would be their long-run<br />Home. Now empty homesteads watch 'em,<br />Leaving Bella Coola.<br /><br />For way too long the logging went on<br />Like the good times could not end on<br />Somber off-key dying swan songs,<br />Leaving Bella Coola.<br /><br />We let the profits from these rich lands<br />flow to distant sons-of-bitch hands<br />Just like water running through sands<br />Leaving Bella Coola.<br /><br />Now Gordon Campbell tolls the bell<br />To send this Valley straight to hell<br />And with no timber left to fell,<br />I'm leaving Bella Coola.<br /><br />But wait! remember 'fifty-three?<br />Did our forefathers build the Free-<br />-dom Road so now their kids could be <br />All leaving Bella Coola? <br /><br />No, it was built for coming back<br />Right down "the Hill" on their rough track<br />What did they have that now I lack,<br />Leaving Bella Coola?<br /><br />My pipe's gone out, but now there's flame,<br />Inside my settler soul again<br />No one can force this Valley man<br />to leaving Bella Coola.<br /><br />C'mon, unpack! We're gonna stay<br />If dad could build that road, that way<br />It won't be 'til my dying day,<br />I'm leaving Bella Coola. </span><br /><br /></span>N. Grouse Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16924166468582608138noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18185723.post-79918521046174867482010-09-15T07:23:00.001-07:002010-10-20T07:39:33.240-07:00Operatic Challenge - Singing Anna MaeAs both an avid opera fan and contest-enterer, I was tickled to hear Bill Richardson on <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/programs/sato/">Saturday Afternoon at the Opera</a>, announce a new competition, with the winner getting flown to Lotusland for the <a href="http://www.vancouveropera.ca/lillian_alling.html">premier of Vancouver Opera's Lillian Alling</a>. This is the true story of a homesick Estonian woman in New York who, in 1927 and being too poor for the ocean voyage, traversed North America all the way to Nome, Alaska.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwv-pJRXPTuOSPA4xdBpk6jOLvvihwZQNBqWueTaiLew0IGsR9v4BgVMx4raqVGm1AMK8N93sE7p4jmqkr_E1XHUhEhqMa-MLQxSwVN7raCioTx7v2VaTBYQk7OkGMcd7WjUzA/s1600/anna-mae-1.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwv-pJRXPTuOSPA4xdBpk6jOLvvihwZQNBqWueTaiLew0IGsR9v4BgVMx4raqVGm1AMK8N93sE7p4jmqkr_E1XHUhEhqMa-MLQxSwVN7raCioTx7v2VaTBYQk7OkGMcd7WjUzA/s320/anna-mae-1.jpg" border="1" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5517155707914682914" /></a> It is a production which, I am sure, would more than compensate for the nauseating experience of visiting that narcissistic traffic-swollen metropolis. <br /><br />It took me only a few seconds to know exactly which "Canadian" I would see immortalized in opera and my choice quite soon altered my mood from contestive exuberance to quieter reverence, sadness, even remorse. I had known about the murdered Native activist Anna Mae Pictou Maloney Aquash for many years, following the travesty of pseudo-attempts to solve the mystery of who killed her and why in South Dakota in late 1975. From the time that her partially decomposed body was found two months later, fingers have pointed in all directions with some trying to exonerate them,selves by saying Anna Mae was a traitor to the American Indian Movement (AIM), an informer. This made zero sense in terms of this woman's lifelong passionate commitment to her people and their full recovery from the battering of colonialism. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKpeDDuZkOYiU-btONgU6ta1PI4Aw-S_ej9WDFMLdBC5Yl89AusuQk61z_6EfLS7FtL0k0KlBejHJpSgWjRvKK8PhjL6MVoIDaixzAzFwDjcpzasjo_u9sxLI2-7ZXs972QGeL/s1600/anna_kitchen.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 288px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKpeDDuZkOYiU-btONgU6ta1PI4Aw-S_ej9WDFMLdBC5Yl89AusuQk61z_6EfLS7FtL0k0KlBejHJpSgWjRvKK8PhjL6MVoIDaixzAzFwDjcpzasjo_u9sxLI2-7ZXs972QGeL/s320/anna_kitchen.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5517157858594347794" /></a><br /><br />I dug out <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/gp/search?index=books&linkCode=qs&keywords=1550284223">Johanna Brand's biography of Anna Mae</a> and re-read several chapters to re-acquaint myself with this noble, short, and tragic life. I'd commend reading it as well as the several commentaries that can be found online by her daughter, Denise Pictou Maloney (<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/pictou05182007.html">here</a>, <a href="http://www.jfamr.org/denise_interview.html">here</a>). I should also mention a book that I have ordered and looked at with online previews that honours Anna Mae - <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Who-Would-Unbraid-Her-Hair/dp/096738530X#reader_096738530X">Who Would Unbraid Her Hair? </a><br /><br />Somewhat ploddingly I prepared a brief rationale for operatically telling Anna Mae's story and submitted it and then heard Bill Richardson elaborate on the instructions to contestants, suggesting that innovative ways of nominating would be especially welcome. Thus did I set out to write the following poem and, as I did, white guilt, or some kind of remorse washed over me: the act of making poetry moved me more deeply than I had ever felt -- but should have -- about Anna Mae. It brought back vague recollections from the 1970s when news of her death made it onto the back pages of Canadian newspapers. The item then seemed so minor, so predictable: another dead activist, just one more murdered Indian. Yes, part of what <a href="http://www.2think.org/ah.shtml">Stannard aptly called the American Holocaust</a>. Here's what I submitted:<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">POEM TO PROPOSE THE OPERA, THE ASCENSION OF ANNA MAE<br /><br /> “Died of exposure” said the Coroner.<br />But the wind, furious, accepts no blame.<br />so all that winter day <br />drove clumps of buffalo grass<br />shrieking “murder!” across the plains<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">They cannot just hide your story, Anna Mae: it must be sung.</span><br /><br />Little Shubenacadie Indian girl who went to Pictou<br />School - they feared all five feet of you <br />and fearless facing down white bullies<br />becomes your recurring libretto. <br /><br />From sweat-shop blueberry fields of Maine,<br />picked over by your people for chickenfeed,<br />up to Boston’s Combat Zone where, <br />they arrest your friend,<br />for the crime of being stabbed, <br />and you, petite avenging angel, <br />swoop from the cop car-top<br />and knock ‘em all, ass over kettle<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">They cannot just tell your story, Anna Mae: it must be sung.</span><br /><br />And later you’re a mother, seamstress, teacher,<br />helper to needle-armed, paper-bag-hiding Indians <br />strung out along Beantown’s filth-encrusted alleys<br />Then, leading the charge<br />against vacant Thanksgiving amnesiac ceremonies,<br />you board the Mayflower II <br />and down to DC too, you march the Trail of Broken Treaties<br />right into the Indian Bureau. <br />Then westward, ho! <br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><br />They cannot just cheer your story, Anna Mae: it must be sung.</span><br /><br />You steal into Wounded Knee, seen only by the murdered ghosts <br />from 80 years before;<br />You marry Aquash there, but soon, <br />within the bloodied barricade of AIM, <br />fingers point, rats inform<br />Who ? Who ? Who? <br />Does the owl call your name too,<br />Anna Mae ?<br />Or is it some lower predator, already in flight? <br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><br />They cannot just mourn your story, Anna Mae: it must be sung.</span><br /><br />February ’76: human remains found on a South Dakota back-road<br />And the coroner still goes on about “exposure”<br />no heed to that laughing hole in the skull<br />you could not take with you<br />on your final ascension.<br /><br />The decades and blame will pass; <br />The FBI exonerates itself and moves on, <br />pausing indifferently to jail old suspect friends.<br /><br />Doubt still falls like a February badlands snow<br />on everything - but your soul’s beauty. <br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">They cannot just praise your story, Anna Mae: it must be sung</span>.</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisNDZ35ZHddi0BGMA1aBZnxRIQR32npiHrKncNILUtMbGYwAWS5vLakv_LzjEQm9LQCf38WA9F2-pRuoi3u2nELXXzeCW_KoB0gy0SosouuhWNJYTgjCh90Q0Mipbg_LTp6vGM/s1600/bad+land.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:left;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisNDZ35ZHddi0BGMA1aBZnxRIQR32npiHrKncNILUtMbGYwAWS5vLakv_LzjEQm9LQCf38WA9F2-pRuoi3u2nELXXzeCW_KoB0gy0SosouuhWNJYTgjCh90Q0Mipbg_LTp6vGM/s320/bad+land.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5517158034268013970" /></a>N. Grouse Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16924166468582608138noreply@blogger.com0