Reader Tips

Reader Tips 24 Comments

You know what’s wrong with television news? There’s not nearly enough of this.
Are you listening, Mansbridge?
The comments thread is open, as always, for your Reader Tips.

24 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  1. “The Arctic Ocean is warming up, icebergs are growing scarcer and in some places the seals are finding the water too hot….scarcely any ice has been met as far north as 81 degrees 29 minutes. Within a few years, it is predicted that due to the ice melt, the sea will rise and make most coastal cities uninhabitable.” — Washington Post, November 2nd, 1922.

  3. As they sift through the ashes of their town, the grieving citizens of Lac-Mégantic can console themselves that their loved ones did not die in vain: they have served as useful props for the advancement of Tom Mulcair’s political career.
    If the NDP leader did not explicitly blame the train derailment and explosion that levelled the town on Conservative spending cuts, he certainly left the impression they could have been responsible. “This tragic accident,” he told CTV News, “reminds us (that) we are seeing more and more petroleum products being transported by rail, and there are attendant dangers involved in that. And, at the same time, the Conservative government is cutting transport safety in Canada.”
    This was no stray slip of the tongue. The same day, the NDP released a statement making much the same point, in much the same language. “This tragedy reminds us,” it quoted its transportation critic, Olivia Chow, that “Conservatives have recklessly cut public safety,” to the tune of $3 million in the last year.
    If the party is not suggesting a causal link, then it is using the disaster to score points about policies that had nothing to do with it.
    The issue here is not partisanship, as such: that’s what politicians do. Nor is there anything wrong or disrespectful about searching for explanations after a tragedy, though it is usually considered tactful to wait at least until the remains have been identified. What’s wrong is seizing on explanations without evidence, based solely on calculations of partisan advantage.
    Let me repeat: there is no evidence to date to connect the accident in Lac-Mégantic to Conservative spending cuts. Indeed, it has not been established there have even been any cuts, in terms of front-line staff, or if there were, how they might have contributed to events. It’s just something to throw out there, hoping foggy minds will not think too closely about it.
    Andrew Coyne – Scoring political points before facts are known
    http://www.theprovince.com/opinion/op-ed/Scoring+Political+points+before+facts+known/8646490/story.html

  6. Loved the fancy footwork, EBD. But I’m having trouble seeing, or even imagining, Wendy Mesley doing this! OTOH, if she did, it sure would liven up a sluggish National.

  7. Great opening sequence; not-so-great cartooning following. Would have loved to see more of the real burlers following their craft.

  13. If you can read this you must be a Conservative.
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  17. “Thought Control In The Name Of Mother Earth – Part 3”
    “In Assignment in Utopia (1937), Eugene Lyons offers what were at the time perhaps the best eye-witness accounts of Stalinism as a state religion. He was UPI’s journalist in Moscow during the early years of Stalin’s rule (1928-34), which coincided with Stalin’s first Five Year Plan, and, despite all we have learned since then, his first-hand observations remain both vivid and strange to this day. Among several websites that I chose at random, for example, all give 1928 -1932 as the official dates of the plan, but none comments on the transformation of five years into four. Lyons literally saw how it happened. In his chapter “Two Plus Two Equals Five,” he describes the frenzied proclamations of the arithmetic that would later appear as an instrument of psychological torture in George Orwell’s 1984:
    Optimism ran amuck. Every new statistical success gave another justification for the coercive policies by which it was achieved. Every setback was another stimulus to the same policies. The slogan “The Five Year Plan in Four Years” was advanced, and the magic symbols “5-in-4” and “2+2=5″ were posted and shouted throughout the land… . Under their pseudo-scientific exterior of charts and blueprints the planners were mystics in a trance of ardor.”
    “continue reading”
    http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/5076

  18. TO: The End.
    Paywalled by MSM-GM.
    …-
    “Why does this seem like the beginning of the end?”
    “As you’ve doubtless heard, it rained this week in Toronto. Admittedly, Torontonians are quick to turn any hiccup here into national news. But this was bad: 126 millimetres of rain in just a few hours, shattering the city’s daily record, exceeding the average rainfall for the entire month of July. Streets flooded, roofs collapsed (mine included), tens of thousands lost power, a water snake boarded a stranded commuter train. Tragically, a swamped Ferrari had to be abandoned on Lower Simcoe Street.” (G-M)
    …-
    “The Rediscovery of Monsters”
    “Posting will be light today due to unexpected traffic interruptions downtown.
    Zombies
    Kaiju
    Authorities say the situation will be normal momentarily.
    Zombies? Monsters?
    Dylan Charles says zombies are what we have instead of Homer. “Myth and metaphor play an important role in constructing our culture and creating purpose in our lives. They are tools that help the subconscious mind to digest the happenings of a world that is too complex for our five senses alone. … When we hear tales of Homer and his Odyssey we also receive cues we need to uncover the strength and perseverance required to face personal challenges.”
    Today these challenges are mostly posed by ourselves. Charles enumerates them: nearly Unconscious Plebs on the Loose, an army of nearly undead pharmaceutical users, media hypnotized automatons, violence as the solution for everything and every man for himself. These are what we mean by ‘zombies’. In that sene we’re in World War Z already and have been for a long time. And no, the smooth flow of mental traffic will not return momentarily.
    The Atlantic Wire, writing in a much more sober vein, says: “The zombie apocalypse has emerged as the metaphor of the decade for all sorts of things, from emergency preparedness to estate planning, and for good reason: It’s a catch-all for the end of humanity and an uninhabitable world, with none of the political ramifications of real scenarios like terrorism or global warming.””
    http://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/

  21. Of Citoyen MulcairBloc and The Revered John (Jack) Layton.
    “Layton’s Christian name is John.”
    …-
    “Mulcair the invisible”
    “Mr. Mulcair — truth be told — is at least as distant from being prime minister as the day he succeeded the revered Jack Layton.”
    http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/07/13/rex-murphy-mulcair-the-invisible/
    …-
    “Layton found in bawdy house: Ex cop”
    “He came on a bicycle. I escorted him down and he went away on his bike.”
    http://www.lfpress.com/news/canada/2011/04/29/18085951.html

  24. A very interesting read …
    author’s credentials:
    Ian Rutherford Plimer is an Australian geologist, professor emeritus of earth sciences at the University of Melbourne, professor of mining geology at the University of Adelaide, and the director of multiple mineral exploration and mining companies. He has published 130 scientific papers, six books and edited the Encyclopedia of Geology.
    Born 12 February 1946 (age 67)
    Residence Australia
    Nationality Australian
    Fields Earth Science, Geology, Mining Engineering
    Institutions University of New England,University of Newcastle,University of Melbourne,University of Adelaide
    Alma mater University of New South Wales,Macquarie University
    Thesis The pipe deposits of tungsten-molybdenum-bismuth in eastern Australia (1976)
    Notable awards Eureka Prize (1995, 2002),Centenary Medal (2003), Clarke Medal (2004)
    Where Does the Carbon Dioxide Really Come From?
    Professor Ian Plimer could not have said it better!
    If you’ve read his book you will agree, this is a good summary.
    PLIMER: “Okay, here’s the bombshell. The volcanic eruption in Iceland . Since its first spewing of volcanic ash has, in just FOUR DAYS, NEGATED EVERY SINGLE EFFORT you have made in the past five years to control CO2 emissions on our planet – all of you.
    Of course, you know about this evil carbon dioxide that we are trying to suppress – it’s that vital chemical compound that every plant requires to live and grow and to synthesize into oxygen for us humans and all animal life.
    I know….it’s very disheartening to realize that all of the carbon emission savings you have accomplished while suffering the inconvenience and expense of driving Prius hybrids, buying fabric grocery bags, sitting up till midnight to finish your kids “The Green Revolution” science project, throwing out all of your non-green cleaning supplies, using only two squares of toilet paper, putting a brick in your toilet tank reservoir, selling your SUV and speedboat, vacationing at home instead of abroad, Nearly getting hit every day on your bicycle, replacing all of your 50 cent light bulbs with $10.00 light bulbs…..well, all of those things you have done have all gone down the tubes in just four days.
    The volcanic ash emitted into the Earth’s atmosphere in just four days – yes, FOUR DAYS – by that volcano in Iceland has totally erased every single effort you have made to reduce the evil beast, carbon. And there are around 200 active volcanoes on the planet spewing out this crud at any one time – EVERY DAY.
    I don’t really want to rain on your parade too much, but I should mention that when the volcano Mt Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines in 1991, it spewed out more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than the entire human race had emitted in all its years on earth.
    Yes, folks, Mt Pinatubo was active for over One year – think about it.
    Of course, I shouldn’t spoil this ‘touchy-feely tree-hugging’ moment and mention the effect of solar and cosmic activity and the well-recognized 800-year global heating and cooling cycle, which keeps happening despite our completely insignificant efforts to affect climate change.
    And I do wish I had a silver lining to this volcanic ash cloud, but the fact of the matter is that the bush fire season across the western USA and Australia this year alone will negate your efforts to reduce carbon in our world for the next two to three years. And it happens every year.
    Just remember that your government just tried to impose a whopping carbon tax on you, on the basis of the bogus ‘human-caused’ climate-change scenario.
    Hey, isn’t it interesting how they don’t mention ‘Global Warming’ anymore, but just ‘Climate Change’ – you know why?
    It’s because the planet has COOLED by 0.7 degrees in the past century and these global warming bull artists got caught with their pants down.
    And, just keep in mind that you might yet have an Emissions Trading Scheme – that whopping new tax – imposed on you that will achieve absolutely nothing except make you poorer.
    It won’t stop any volcanoes from erupting, that’s for sure.
    But, hey, relax…… and have a nice day!”

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