39 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  1. Highly recommended: William M. Briggs (“Statistician to the Stars”) notes Stephen Bloom’s appalling, almost unbelievably condescending attitude toward Iowa (where Bloom has been teaching recently), Iowans, and, by extension, rural white Americans in general. (h/t David Thompson)
    Highly related: David Ross’s review in Libertas Magazine of the documentary “Page One”, which Ross describes as “a sleek, self-important infomercial for the New York Times.”
    Excerpt:

    “…the mainstream media, and the Times in particular, has done everything conceivable to hasten its own demise. The postmodern Times is a cavalcade of inaccuracy, omission, myopia, flagrant political bias, outrageously lousy writing, latent snobbery, and superficial urban sophistication. All the shallowness of the modern elite university has come home to roost at the Times…”

    (h/t American Digest)

  2. In the early 80’s a friend watched a documentary about the dismantling of the oil rigs in Moose Jaw. The oil rigs were moved overnight to Alberta because of the threat by Tommy Douglas to take them over. Is this documentary still available?

  3. “No objective truth but simply narrative.”
    In Commentary Magazine, Peter Wehner quotes from this report in the Politics section of the New York Times:

    “Winning a full-year extension of the payroll tax, (Joshua R. Earnest, Obama’s deputy press secretary) said, will still be a top priority. He noted that House Republicans were now also arguing that it should be extended for a year, after some initially opposed extending it at all.”

    Wehner:

    “Come again? On December 13, the GOP House passed a full-year extension of the payroll tax cut – and was promptly criticized by – you guessed it — the president. Obama favored a much shorter, two-month extension. House Republicans, under intense political pressure, eventually agreed to the two-month extension. Now the White House is declaring a full-year extension is a ‘top priority.’ Yet as recently as three weeks ago the opposition to the president’s ‘top priority’ came not from House Republicans but from Obama himself.
    “We are now reaching the point in which the president is running a truly post-modern campaign, in which there is no objective truth but simply narrative. Obama’s campaign isn’t simply distorting the facts; it is inverting them. This kind of thing isn’t unusual to find in the academy. But to see a president and his campaign so thoroughly deconstruct truth in order to maintain power is quite rare. The sheer audacity of Obama’s cynicism is a wonder of the modern world.”

  4. Re: Gigliola Cinquetti!
    She was a great performer. In the 60’s, my Dad bought me a Sanyo all band radio. In -30F weather, I built a rooftop antenna. On cold winter nights, I listened to her and dozens of other French, Italian and Spanish performers from all over Europe. Sad that few of those records were availabe in Western Canada.
    Thanks for bringing back fond memories.

  5. kdl: Re: Tommy Douglas and the drillers.
    I had a book back in the 80`s, if my memory serves me right it was named, “The Wildcatters.” It was a hands on history of the 40’s and 50`s, and how seismograph crews and wildcatters had drilled all over SW Sask. The author wrote about what you`re saying.
    I recall an older gent telling me a story that his Dad had several power plants in small towns all over SW Sask. In the 40’s and early 50`s, the privately owned power company replaced the old diesel one lungers with more modern 4-6 cylinder engines.
    Douglas and the CCF wanted total control over electrical generation, thus they seized all the gensets in those towns. The owners were paid a menial sum for their equipment to make way for Sask. Power. This would have been betwen 1950-54. I heard it was at this point that the private exploration and oil companies were afraid to have the same thing happen to their equipment, thus they all headed for Alberta.
    I`ve seen bits and pieces on this topic in local and rural papers over the years. Wish I could tell you more.

  6. Glad it brought back memories, Plainzdrifter. When I was a kid back in the sixties, when the airwaves in Alberta were less crowded, I used to lie in bed at night with my ear pressed against the radio, gently tweaking the nob searching for the stations between the stations. On a clear night I could get Salt Lake City, and Colorado, and places like that — might as well have been other planets, that’s how exciting it was at the time.
    Just for you, special delivery, here’s a much lovelier tune from Ms. Cinquetti.

  8. I have asked this question before and have had a few good replies. But I need to ask it again.
    Is there a left wing blog equal to SDA?
    By that I mean informative, intelligent and a blog that can debate issues reasonably.
    I agree 99.9 percent with Kate and her views but would like to hear the other side( the lame trolls commenting here rarely offer reasonably insight or debate)
    Thanks. And 25 million. Cool.

  9. Jeff K — I tried following one of those left wing blogs for a while — Rabble, or Daily Kos. They do not discuss,they simply spew venom. I could not believe how much one-dimensional thinking and anger the posters displayed. It was not an edifying experience. Good luck in your hunt.

  10. “…the mainstream media, and the Times in particular, has done everything conceivable to hasten its own demise.
    M.S.M. demise?? not likely… it panders to a very shallow but affluent audience who see themselves as liberal intelligentsia.

  11. M.S.M. gives them false intellectual rhetoric that they can parrot to others of their kind at wine drinking parties. Their ‘intelligence’ is miles wide and millimeters deep.

  12. They know a few ‘talking points’ about a vast spread of topics. However when engaged in conversation the lack of depth and actual understanding soon becomes apparent and then they quickly skip to another subject. The M.S.M. doesn’t sell news, it sells fake intellectual entertainment.

  13. Kate,
    can you set the trigger word filter to work on preview?
    it took three tries to get the message posted, in pieces till I found the trigger word c-o-c-kt-a-i-l, i.e. the drink

  14. Ha! The professor’s name is “Stephen” Bloom — not “Orlando” Bloom! Orlando Bloom is that actress with the wispy mustache who plays in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” flicks.

  19. Why did the chicken parts cross the road?

    The Calgary Fire Department is currently cleaning up a mess of chicken entrails splattered across two lanes of northbound Deerfoot Trail.
    At 4:00 p.m. a semi trailer carrying chicken remnants collided with back of another vehicle around Peigan Trail.
    Though the semi was covered, the chicken parts sloshed out from the top of the container when the driver hit the brakes before the collision.
    Two lanes of traffic are covered for about 500 metres and crews will be cleaning up the smelly mess until around 6:30 p.m.
    “Thankfully it wasn’t in the middle of the summer or it would have been incredible,” said battalion chief Larry Fisher of the stench.
    “There weren’t any injuries, it’s just a mess.”

    I am so glad I was not driving that truck!

  20. re. Gigliola Cinquetti:
    Amazing performance. I was astounded by her singing in 3-part harmony while flawlessly accompanying herself on the hoola-hoop.
    Awesome! One for the ages!

  21. Jeff K @ 12:13 AM: “informative, intelligent, left wing” is an oxymoron.

  22. Socialism: Ich Bin Ein BigFrau Pimp.
    Socialism is a religion of the stomach and the Brain.
    …-
    “‘If you don’t take a job as a [*], we can stop your benefits'”
    “A 25-year-old waitress who turned down a job providing “sexual services” at a brothel in Berlin faces possible cuts to her unemployment benefit under laws introduced this year.
    Prostitution was legalised in Germany just over two years ago and brothel owners – who must pay tax and employee health insurance – were granted access to official databases of jobseekers.
    The waitress, an unemployed information technology professional, had said that she was willing to work in a bar at night and had worked in a cafe.
    She received a letter from the job centre telling her that an employer was interested in her “profile” and that she should ring them. Only on doing so did the woman, who has not been identified for legal reasons, realise that she was calling a brothel.
    Under Germany’s welfare reforms, any woman under 55 who has been out of work for more than a year can be forced to take an available job – including in the sex industry – or lose her unemployment benefit. Last month German unemployment rose for the 11th consecutive month to 4.5 million, taking the number out of work to its highest since reunification in 1990.”
    urlm.in/kpep

  23. Socialism: Ich Bin Ein BigFrau Pimp.
    Socialism is a religion of the stomach and the Brain.
    …-
    “‘If you don’t take a job as a [*], we can stop your benefits'”
    urlm.in/kpep

  24. Down and Downer With Mao Stlong* Lepolt.
    Mao’s Red central planning out to “lurch”.
    …-
    “Policy Change
    China Puts the Brakes on Foreign Automakers”
    http://www.spiegel.de/international/
    …-
    “City Subway Construction Decelerates in China”
    “A golden era for rapid transit expansion is ending abruptly in China’s cities, leaving railway builders and suppliers in the lurch”
    “An official involved in Line 4’s financing told Caixin that it’s tough to attract private capital to subway projects because “most public enterprises lose money. If we don’t have a model for earning money and repaying, the project has no appeal.”
    Subway operators in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen have financed projects by issuing debt after proving the underground railways will be profitable.
    How does each subway system turn a profit? Not necessarily through passenger ticket sales. Key sources of subway system cash in Beijing, said the Line 4 financing official, are government subsidies and real estate.”
    http://english.caixin.com/2012-01-06/100346469.html
    *Liberal Rae’s uncle Mo Strong.

  26. maz2 @6:16
    “Prostitution was legalised in Germany in 2002 because the government believed that this would help to combat trafficking in women.”
    So now that the government is trafficking women all is well, except for the women who don’t cooperate.

  27. Of Ontario’s Liberal-socialist McGuinty and Greenism.
    …-
    “Mr. Drummond calls for seismic changes; Mr. McGuinty plans to build more windmills.”
    “Ontario’s fiscal reckoning”
    http://www.nationalpost.com/todays-paper/Ontario%2Bfiscal%2Breckoning/5954945/story.html
    …-
    “Wrecked by gales again as windfarms get £300,000 to switch off…in high winds
    15ft-long turbine blades flew off three structures in 112mph winds
    Concerned villagers fear someone could have been killed”
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2083149/Wind-turbines-cope-UK-weather-3-blown-pieces.html

  28. Thanks, Plainzdrifter. That’s exactly what I’m looking for. The documentary evidently showed them moving equipment overnight, tearing down gensets in such a panic that metal parts were destroyed.
    I hope the video is still around

  29. Thoroughly enjoyed David Ross’s review of “Page One”.
    In essence the Times was hooked and filleted.
    All that remains now is to wrap the fillets (in newsprint of course) and throw them in the trash.
    Coming soon to a bankrupcy near you.

  31. If only you could bottle and sell ‘culture’:
    Quebec in jobs debacle
    ”
    You never have to look far to count the ways in which Quebec breaks with the rest of the country.
    Quebecers watch more television than Canadians in any other province, due to a thriving French-language broadcasting industry that regularly draws more than a million viewers for its top shows. They’re the least-stressed, play hooky from work the most, and traditionally have the lowest rate of homeownership.
    But Statistics Canada numbers released Friday show Quebec is also splitting from other provinces on job creation, registering another employment decline in December while the rest of the country was either up or flat. Quebec’s jobless rate stands at 8.7%, higher than that of the United States.”
    […]
    “Clearly this is disconcerting” because it is a recessionary reading, said Stéfane Marion, chief economist at National Bank Financial in Montreal. “The puzzling part of the equation for us is that there is a big divergence between Quebec and the rest of Canada that is very, very unusual. Virtually unseen before.”
    http://business.financialpost.com/2012/01/06/quebec-in-jobs-debacle/

  34. This is an old-ish story but I don’t remember seeing it anywhere before. I think it might be a mistake to send just older scientists with a projected lifespan of less than 20 years. Scientists tend to lean more libertarian and non-conformist than the general public- how would they survive without the constant supervision, rules and regulations of the political class? Who would be there to enforce the “no-one moves and no-one gets hurt” rules? No annual diversity and sensitivity training (shudder).
    Scientists on Mars in Permanent Colonies
    “Eminent physicist Paul Davies has a proposal for you: a one-way ticket to the Red Planet. As it’s typically conceived, a round-trip Mars mission would take about two years and cost at least $80 billion. But you could cut 80 percent of the expense, Davies says, by nixing the return and initiating a permanent Mars colony. The hard part, he says, isn’t subsisting in a hostile environment millions of miles from home but changing the Space Shuttle-era culture of timidity. That’s starting to happen, though: The NASA Ames Research Center teamed up with Darpa to put $1.1 million into a study of manned interstellar travel. ”
    http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/11/st_mars_davies/
    h/t newshat (twitter)

  35. FREE – what a ridiculous statement. Since they would be unable to staff their centres, are you calling for a shut-down of all their services?
    Column by Peter Henderson on http://www.openfile:
    CBC Ottawa and the Ottawa Citizen reported that 60 workers at the Salvation Army’s Booth Centre walked off the job on Friday afternoon. The striking employees, members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, are mostly front-line workers and kitchen staff. They are demanding higher wages and claim that workers in similar roles at other shelters in the city like the Shepherd’s of Good Hope are paid $2 to $5 more an hour.
    The Salvation Army announced that the centre, which includes a federal halfway house as well as a homeless shelter, will remain open during the strike. PSAC has said that they will not block patrons from using the shelter’s services. The Citizen characterized those who use the shelter as broadly displeased with the strike:
    However, many of the clients — among the city’s most disadvantaged citizens — were less than happy about the strike.
    David Duchesne, who has been frequenting the charitable organization since 2006, said he didn’t think a pay raise for the employees was warranted.
    “They don’t work that hard,” he said. “It seems that many just don’t care (about clients).”
    But the CBC quotes one man who supports the union action.
    “I don’t blame them,” said a man who only identified himself as George. “They should have equal parity with the Union Mission and the Shepherd’s of Good Hope,” he said. “They do exactly the same work just as well.”

  36. Mohammedanism.
    …-
    “Israeli Christian murdered; suspect dressed as Santa”
    http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2012/01/07/19213201.html
    …-
    “Islamic honor killing in Texas: “Santa” who murdered family on Christmas morning was Muslim who didn’t like his daughter dating a non-Muslim
    Aziz Yazdanpanah, a Muslim, didn’t like his daughter’s non-Muslim boyfriend and was exhibiting stalker behavior. “She couldn’t date at all until she was a certain age, but when he was going to let her date she couldn’t date anyone outside of their race or religion.”
    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2011/12/islamic-honor-killing-in-texas-man-who-murdered-family-on-christmas-morning-was-muslim-who-disliked.html

Proudly powered by WordPress & Skyrocket Themes

MENU

Navigation