76 Replies to “October 15, 2021: Reader Tips”

    1. Man, I wish they had Penthouse in my school library.
      I tend to agree with Roddenberry: Gay porn is fine as long as its only lipstick lesbians…add men to the mix and it all goes south very fast.

  2. So, 2 people in Alberta, that bastion of conservatism, are now sentenced to denounce themselves. Fuck, if you guys separate, you’ll probably do a Kristalnacht on the first day.

  3. The trouble with Can Con…

    “The Trouble with Tracy, a Canadian television series produced by CTV for the 1970–1971 television season,…is considered by some to be one of the worst situation comedies ever produced.

    “considered to have been produced solely to meet the demands of the Canadian content regulations…CTV had little choice but to air the entire series, regardless of its ratings or quality, in order to recoup as much of its investment as possible.”

    “because of the above factors, it lasted longer, and had more time to become remembered than an American series of similar quality would have. In fact, just one year earlier, ABC had cancelled Turn-On, also commonly named as one of the worst shows in television history, after just a single episode — and some ABC affiliates did not even wait that long, pulling the show during a commercial break before the first episode had even finished airing.”

    Those brutal, capitalist, Americans… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trouble_with_Tracy

    2. The all-time worst science fiction TV series was also produced in Canada. Hands up those of us who remember The Starlost? Even Kier Dullea in the lead role, plus a variety of well-known guest stars (e. g., Walter Koenig–yeah, Ensign Chekov), couldn’t save that turkey.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Starlost

      Full episodes:

      https://www.youtube.com/c/StevenSchapansky/videos

      As for TTWT, I recall seeing glimpses of it in re-runs and, yes, the show was awful.

      1. I loved that show when I was a kid! Harlan Ellison was a big contributor.
        Sure, bad production values, but a generation ship 8000 miles long on a collision course with a star, with a few bumpkins trying to save it? Great premise!
        “Can I be of Assistance?” I’m pretty sure Starship Troopers “Would You Like To Know More?” was inspired by that.
        Like Space 1999; not brave adventurers setting off into the unknown, but screwed castaways trying to stay alive, or save their progeny.

        I also liked Jupiter Ascending. It’s all about the story.

        1. Both Ellison and science advisor Ben Bova quickly bailed out when they saw the series turning into a train wreck.

          Space: 1999 was sort of a follow-up to Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s series UFO.

          I never saw Jupiter Ascending, but it received some scathing reviews on IMBD.

          1. Jupiter Ascending is a bit of a chore to watch, and it has its share of BS empowered women, but I thought it a good story, nonetheless. I read alot, and most of my favorite stories could never be made into movies, like Zelazny’s Amber series, or Farmer’s “The World of Tiers” or “Riverworld” series, or Jack Vance’s Tschai series.
            We both know how they continue to fail with Dune, and then there is Dan Simmons’ work, Hyperion, Olympos, Ilium, etc. Then there is Peter Hamilton, and a dozen or more others.
            I only have an associate degree in physics, but I have read around 1 000 000 pages in my life, and it has made me strange.

          2. I largely gave up on SF a year or so after I finished my first master’s degree. By the, fiction had become fact for me and I noticed that a lot of SF had started becoming weird by my standards, going more towards fantasy and away from hard science.

          3. …and then there is CJ Cherryh’s work:
            30 000 in Gehenna, about a failed colony, just a small episode in her Alliance/Union/Earth Company universe, comprising around 5 000 pages or more.
            Cyteen; a 1200 page book. Orson Scott Card’s “A Planet Called Treason” and “Wyrms”. L. Ron Hubbard’s stuff too.
            Then Keith Laumer; A sci-fi author who rose to Major in WW2, then went on the become a diplomat, before writing his stories. Some of my faves by him is “Worlds of the Imperium”, “The Other Side Of Time” and “The Long Twilight”
            So many great writers, so few men able to make good movies outta them stories.

        2. BAD – I have to side with YeahWell on this one. I liked Starlost as a very young kid even though it was clearly done on a shoestring budget. It had a bit of mystery to it, every time they went into one of the colonies. The idea of the backward bumpkins finding the command center/bridge of a ship that was presented to be the culmination of human ingenuity was cool to me at the time. It didn’t make sense that the colonies would shut themselves off from each other at some point in the past. Reruns of Star Trek started on our two channel TV at the same time and I came to understand why it was more popular and longer lasting.

          1. Dr. Ben Bova was the editor of Analog when The Starlost was being produced. I vaguely remember him making some scathing remarks about the show and, if I’m not mistaken, he wrote a novel about what happened.

            If two renowned authors (Ellison and Bova) jumped ship so soon, there had to be something wrong.

      2. Babylon 5 Was my all time favourite….

        Now its The Expanse – Not only a Great Story line but one with some pretty damned good visualization of how things would actually work in a 3 dimensional space…(the Spacecraft vis a vis Yaw – Pitch – Roll)…and changing direction – Slowing down (flip and burn)…etc.

        But for Reading of Sci Fi…? big fan of Eric Thompson (Ex Cdn forces), the Dune series (all 20 or so of them)….and a few others.

        1. Babylon 5 was good. I never saw The Expanse.
          The best stories written cannot be made into movies, people are too dumb. Not the audience, but the film makers; They’ve wrecked Dune a few times now.

        2. I didn’t have much time for TV. Worked too much and played a lot. TV wasn’t something I did very often.

    4. “The Trouble with Tracy” I remember nothing about the show and I watched a lot of TV back then. I was going to university. I think there were only two channels. Just think, if I preferred CBC over that show it had to have truly sucked.

      1. During final exams at the residence I lived in during my last two undergrad years, a lot of us took our cafeteria trays into the TV room. We watched whatever was on while we ate and unwound. We were so zonked from writing exams, we could have found the TV test pattern to be as entertaining as, say, Star Trek.

        I’m pretty sure that if TTWT had been on, we would have gladly watched it as well.

  4. L – File under it’s probably nothing…
    ———————————————————————————-
    A dozen F-22 Fighter Pilots refuse the jab and walk out (2 minute video)
    36K views
    0:12 / 2:00
    https://twitter.com/DennisDehne

  10. While on the subject of movies, here are two more.

    I missed The Badlanders (Alan Ladd and Ernest Borgnine) when it was on TCM last night:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyvfmpMETq8

    It’s not as good as, say, Ladd’s earlier Shane but it’s entertaining.

    I heard about Sam Fuller’s China Gate (Gene Barry, Angie Dickinson, Lee van Cleef, and Nat King Cole) on an episode of TCM’s Noir Alley a few weeks ago:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewQwbBZrbEg

    It would have been much better without the romantic bit with Barry’s and Dickinson’s characters.

    1. Have you ever watched “Zardoz”?
      One of my favorite movies. it’s about a bunch of insane cybernetically connected people who realize their death-wish.
      False gods, lies, etc…

    1. ABC News says his septic blood infection was likely caused by a urinary tract infection.
      His p#cker keeps getting him in trouble?

  12. HOT TAKE ALERT
    Hunter’s art scam is the most in-your-face corruption that can be imagined, but the art itself isn’t as horrible as reported. It’s not great, certainly not worth the price, but it’s still better and more intricate than anything that idiot could manage to canvas, Hunter isn’t even painting them. That really pisses me off.

  13. How long would it take to get out of this relationship?

    https://www.international.gc.ca/trade-commerce/economist-economiste/analysis-analyse/china-canada-2020-commerce-chine.aspx?lang=eng

    The last sentence says a lot about who we have become.

    “Conclusion
    This study has explored Canada’s evolving and complex commercial relationship with China. China is Canada’s second largest bilateral trading partner and the economies are thoroughly interconnected. Canadian imports and exports with China are diverse, and are at roughly the same level of complexity. While two-way investment flows have grown considerably in the last decade, this part of the relationship remains small relative to the rest of the world. This paper has identified key products and inputs for which Canadian consumers and firms are heavily reliant on Chinese imports, and for which substitutes may be difficult to find. While the benefits of trade tend to focus on exports, it is import to recognize that Canadians benefit from lower prices by importing consumer goods from China, and many products—particularly electrical equipment—are important for Canadian producers.”

  14. Dear Leader is in private meetings today. Everyone is checking the airports to see what holiday spot he will be arriving in.

      1. Shiny Jet, Shiny Pony?
        I live very close to the Kelowna airport.
        A really shiny private jet landed today.
        Hmmm….could it be him?
        Granted, private jets are not uncommon at that airport, but seeing as Blackie will be just up the road in Kamloops on Monday, why not do a wine tour first?

          2. It was that. Nailed it, scar.
            Seriously. That is why I noticed that it wasn’t a golf goof with a non RCAF rig.
            I have lived on flight paths in various places, and I know when the sound of a given plane sounds, well, like a special plane.

  15. Fairly illuminating article on the current world energy crisis and how Vladimir Putin has huge power over weak Europe:
    https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/What-A-Global-Energy-Crisis-Means-For-North-American-Stocks.html

    Couple of points:
    – the energy crisis will lead to a world recession, accompanied by inflation. Watch for stock market and housing market crashes;
    – Western Canada’s oil and gas industry will continue to profit from the crisis, but watch for a 1980-style National Energy Progtam II to be brought in by Trudeau II. Way back then in 1980 I was a middle-level research economist writing on Alberta and energy issues, for an Ottawa-based think tank, and got into trouble with senior management for siding with Alberta in one or two articles I wrote. The attack on Western Canada energy will be renewed, probably in the next budget.

    1. Western Canada’s oil and gas industry will continue to profit from the crisis

      Huh? I regularly drive to and from my house in B. C. and it’s definitely not profiting. I don’t see a lot of oilfield-related traffic on the highway now and a lot of motels have empty parking lots.

      Any activity now is likely related to finishing up existing contracts or maintaining existing facilities. I rather doubt that any new work is being committed.

      And, yes, Dear Leader will make sure that Alberta will howl in pain even louder. Pretty Boy Jason will plug his ears to it, while his successor in office, Rotten Rachel, will cackle with delight.

  18. While staying seven weeks at the New Brunswick hospital hostel, receiving radiation therapy, I discovered Joe Brown and his Heresy Financial podcast. He’s an articulate young guy, with a good understanding of the world’s utterly dangerous economic situation. Here he discusses the oncoming inflation, and how the media oligarchs downplay it:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5D0fS093U6g

  19. I have newly found respect for Ruth Bader Ginsburg. (Katie Couric hid the truth to protect Ginsburg’s liberal credentials).

    “Katie Couric is facing intense backlash over a stunning admission in her book about a 2016 interview she conducted with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

    In her tell-all memoir “Going There,” Couric detailed how Ginsburg was critical of national anthem kneelers in the midst of the furor over former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s decision to take a knee to protest police brutality.
    …
    Ginsburg told Couric she was opposed to the action, saying those who kneel during the anthem were showing “contempt for a government that has made it possible for their parents and grandparents to live a decent life,” according to new reporting by the Daily Mail.”

    https://www.foxnews.com/media/katie-couric-ruth-bader-ginsburg-kaepernick-nfl-anthem-backlash

    1. Good position for Guinsberg, but not enough to save her reputation for those of us who think her progressive political views have been very destructive. I am also disgusted by her reluctance to leave office once it was obvioys she was too ill to continue. Smacks of egotism and partisan games playing.

  21. Breaking news on the CBC site.
    Blackie says parliament will resume on November 22.
    His priorities are conversion therapy ban, paid sick leave, cheap day care, extending cerb, getting everyone jabbed, vaccine passports, reconciliation, and planning his Christmas vacation,
    At least he isn’t thinking about wasteful shit like balancing the budget, monetary policy, getting tough on China, banning 5G, etc.
    Oh, and he is growing his Fidel beard. Beard back better, Blackie.
    Ok, I must stop, as I need to go puke now.

    1. Oh, and he is growing his Fidel beard. Beard back better, Blackie.

      He’s obviously never heard of the advice “Never cultivate on your face what grows wild around your arsacyclopentadiene.” (Arsacyclopentadiene is a molecule also known as arsole.)

      1. “Never cultivate on your face what grows wild around your arsacyclopentadiene.”

        Yes, it would further contribute to his narcissistic assoanine behavior.

        (This molecule gets its superb asinine name from the plant from which it is extracted, the gloriously named Narcissus assoanus!)

        1. I’ve been trumped again, and I gladly concede. Absolutely brilliant and it had me chuckling for a few minutes.

          Who’d have thought that Prinz Dummkopf would turn out to be a short yellow daffodil? (Now there’s a nickname he clearly deserves, eh?)

          2. BA and Nancy…
            You never fail to entertain.
            Thank you.
            I would almost think that you two have a crush goin’ on.
            In a good way, eh!?
            You make me want to listen to Sinatra and watch a classic movie, while toasting you with a thick, Amber whiskey.
            Cheers, SDA compatriots!
            Yup, I yam drinkin’ right now, but it is Friday, eh?

  24. Vaccine benefits?

    You may glow in the dark!

    “Strickler said she heard a doctor describe codes for ingredients in the vaccines, including the codes SM102 for luciferase, a glow-in-the dark enzyme produced in fireflies, plants and fish that is used in bioluminescence research. Depending on different chemicals that it is mixed with, luciferase will glow different colors.

    A bright blue luciferase was identified in a report in the journal Nature Scientific Reports in 2020, for example, and is only visible under UV lights of certain wavelengths.”

    https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/bombshell-pfizer-whistleblower-says-vaccine-glows-contains-toxic-luciferase-graphene-oxide-compounds/

    2. I’m so old that I remember that one needed to consume large amounts of ethanol in order to be well-lit.

  26. They lying.

    “John O’Looney and his colleagues noticed that for the first year, there were no surplus deaths at all and if anything, fewer deaths. Those who died supposedly from the coronavirus, O’Looney asserts, appear to have succumbed to a drug called Midazolam given to nursing home residents.

    The funeral home director is not alone in his suspicion.

    But after the vaccine was introduced to his area in January, O’Looney said that the calls made to his funeral home soared, going up “300 percent”. “I’ve never seen a death rate like it in 15 years,” he said. “Initially, [the deaths were] all exclusively care homes,” O’Looney said. But after the roll out of the mRNA injection, the deaths were no longer exclusively from nursing homes, and the ages of the dead varied significantly.”

    https://rairfoundation.com/bombshell-british-funeral-director-john-olooney-deaths-skyrocketed-300-after-covid-vaccine-video/

  28. It seems our elites’ main skill is do as they say but not as they do. On really serious stuff, like insider trading and sexual harassment.
    From horny generals to greedy judges. It reminds me of Seinfeld’s George Costanza having sex on his cubicle desk. “Was that wrong?”

    Elite misbehaviour is reaching pandemic proportions. WSJ: “Federal Judges or Their Brokers Traded Stocks of Litigants During Cases.”

    “Mary Geiger Lewis acquired Walmart Inc. stock. Charles Norgle Sr. reported nearly a dozen buys and sells of Pfizer Inc. shares. Charles Siragusa had two accounts that bought Medtronic PLC stock. None of that would be a problem, except for this: All are federal judges, and at the time of the trades, all were hearing cases involving those companies.”

    Federal law and ethics rules say judges must recuse themselves if they, their spouse or any minor children own even a single share of a company that is a plaintiff or defendant in a case before them.”

    Some judges, when contacted by the Journal, said they were unaware that brokers or advisers who managed accounts for them traded shares of the companies during the cases. But there is no exception for holdings in managed accounts. And federal law requires judges to inform themselves about their financial interests and make a reasonable effort to do the same regarding their spouse and any minor children.”

    The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts on Wednesday warned judges in a memo they are required to keep informed about their finances and maintain timely lists of parties that are off limits. Judge Roslynn Mauskopf, director of the office, wrote that judges may not rely on accounts managed by financial advisers to avoid their recusal obligations. “Up-to-date recusal lists are the most effective tool for conflict screening,” she wrote.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/federal-judges-brokers-traded-stocks-of-litigants-during-cases-walmart-pfizer-11634306192?mod=hp_lead_pos5

  29. Daily Mail is reporting that the man who stabbed the British MP is Somali. I wonder what religion Somalis are?

  31. An excellent article by economist Philip Cross has been posted at the National Post website. He explains that widespread shortages mean that the CPI understates inflation (he should know since he used to be the chief economic analyst at Statistics Canada).

    “Shortages imply that inflation is much greater than the official measures suggest. Statcan’s CPI rose 4.1 per cent in the past year. But it was designed to measure prices in an economy where goods and services are abundant, not a Soviet-style economy of rampant shortages. Shortages are de facto price increases. Higher prices, longer wait times, fewer product options and lower quality of service all represent an increased cost to consumers, yet only list prices are incorporated into the CPI. Furthermore, Canada’s CPI does not include used-car prices, which alone account for the current gap between our 4.1 per cent inflation rate and the Americans’ 5.4 per cent.”

    https://financialpost.com/opinion/philip-cross-welcome-to-our-new-economy-of-shortages-comrades

  33. If you are Unvaxxed. You are considered UNCLEAN. Arm Up and Prepare, we are in the same scenario as the Hebrews found themselves in Socialist Germany before the Holocaust under Adolph.
    The Demonization and Dehumanizing Phase of Genocide.
    This is being promoted and pushed by our elected Leaders and the MSM who do their bidding.
    Remember or perhaps watch a movie about the Holocaust and what caused it this weekend.
    Prepare to fight for your life. Many of the victims of the Socialists did not believe or think they would b gassed and roasted in ovens either.
    NEVER AGAIN IS HERE AGAIN.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/expert-calls-denying-life-saving-hospital-treatment-unvaccinated

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