50 Replies to “December 20, 2018: Reader Tips”

  2. I would have thought that the engagement the ironclads USS Merrimack (later known as the CSS Virginia) and USS Monitor during the American Civil War was far more important.

    When those two vessels fought each other (March 8 – 9, 1862), wooden naval ships immediately became obsolete. (There were some exceptions to that, however, such as the American PT boats.)

    1. Except that Turbinia was the first use of the steam turbine, which spilled over into every other aspect of life and is still used today for most power generation.

      1. True, but ships made from iron or, rather, iron alloys, are still with us as well. Perhaps the vessel that started it all was the Great Eastern, which was designed by one of the most greatest engineers in history, Isamard Kingdom Brunel.

        One aspect of the American Civil War that’s often overlooked is that it was, perhaps, the first time in which war was conducted on an industrial scale. Companies changed from what they were producing during the time before Fort Sumter to making goods for the military. The techniques used to mass produce war materiel eventually led to the types of manufacturing we see today.

      2. It took them 50 years to realize that the aircraft carrier had rendered the battleship obsolete. Maybe longer. They still haven’t decided if helicopters have made tanks obsolete…

        1. Actually, it took less time than that. Just over 115 years ago, in 1903, the Wright brothers demonstrated powered flight. A bit over a decade later, aircraft were used in combat.

          During the mid-1920s, Billy Mitchell took on the American military to demonstrate that airplanes could be used to attack capital ships. He was successful with that, but he was court-martialled for it.

          Less than a generation later, Pearl Harbour was attacked and the Americans engaged the Japanese in the Coral Sea and at Midway Island. In all of those, aircraft carriers were involved and, during the latter two battles, the carriers were never within sight of each other.

          1. what never seems to be obsolete is the notion in the heads of senior military that a given conflict regardless of the time lapse, will play out precisely the same as the previous.
            all scripted or something.

    2. Hey, if you want to stop something, make it a government monopoly. Ontario hasn’t got enough pot to sell in more than 25 outlets across the province. Pot, a previously widely available product.

    1. He’ll be the one blamed for food shortages in Britain in April. Not the true culprits—the globalists and their German stooges.

  9. The CBC reports that Groper’s favorite country China, is giving our military planes and vessels a hard time off the coast of North Korea. I guess they are still pissed that we kicked Chinese ass in the Korean war. Just as important, our military warns us about China’s plans to invest, open ports, and use Canada’s northwest passage. Conflicts could occur as China inserts itself into our north. But don’t worry, Justin is buying those old jets from Australia, and we have those new arctic patrol ships that have no weapons. And don’t miss today’s collection of Ford is Hitler stories at the Toronto Star.

  11. Decades of Canadian public policy developed by Laurentian elites has irreparably damaged the province of Alberta. It is time for Albertans ( and potentially other westerners ) to take control of their destiny, to develop a rational and pragmatic plan to exit Canada.

    Alberta has better reasons to Albexit than Britain did for Brexit
    https://business.financialpost.com/opinion/jack-mintz-alberta-has-better-reasons-to-albexit-than-britain-did-for-brexit?video_autoplay=true

    1. Alberta has a simple problem that cannot be solved through separation. It is landlocked on all 4 sides, 3 by Canada and 1 by the USA. The only possible way Alberta could get its oil out to the world without needing Canada and the USA would be to separate with Saskatchewan and Manitoba and ship oil through Hudson’s Bay (which is not open all year round). The only way Alberta can increase its oil exports (and at a higher price per barrel) is through pipelines, one to the east and one to the west. Any other talk is a waste of time (for Alberta).

      2. “Landlocked” Alberta would be a roadblock between Laurentian Canada and it’s Pacific coast. Road and rail routes would have to be built around it through the northern territories (impossible of Saskatchewan and Manitoba go with Alberta) or traffic routed through the U.S.A. The trans-continental railway was a condition required by B.C. to join Confederation and would not be less important to them now, without effective links to the east B.C. might as well become an “independent” country, (effectively a vassal state of China, since the populace will think themselves too good and too enlightened to become horrible Americans.)

        Alberta’s “simple” problem would be a quite complicated one for Canada.

      3. So join the United States, build a pipeline heading south, and watch once proud French Canadians drop dead from hunger and cold in a pitch-black Montreal as the loonie goes to zero and American farmers stop shipping anything worth eating north.

        1. I thought joining the US was an option until I see the Mueller fiasco where half of Americans, the Democrats, forego Democracy and encourage treason with an FBI coup d’etat.

        2. You likely won’t find support for joining the US for one simple reason. Joining the US would require ending Medicare (which the provinces already pay for anyway), if you try to keep Medicare as a part of the US, you will have a state filled with migrant sick people moving in, while the healthy and productive move away until they too are old and sick and return home.

          As long as someone is going to kick off the splitting up Canada race, why do we assume that provincial borders are sacrosanct? Much of Ontario is disgruntled with being ruled by Southern Ontario (Toronto). If the people were amenable to joining, pushing the acceptable border only slightly east to Thunder Bay would provide access to the Great Lakes shipping, and by that route into the Atlantic. I suspect that a similar situation hold in BC between Northern BC, and the money laundering real estate hubs in Vancouver and Victoria where the land is so expensive that no real productivity can make a profit after rent.

          Canada is so mismanaged, with official policy seemingly being that Canadians are an inconvenience to the government, that the only thing holding it together at this point is inertia.

      4. Wrong Steve. Alberta is not landlocked. It is the gateway for all eastern Canada’s products that ship through Port of Vancouver and Prince Rupert. In fact the Sanctimonious Socialists of BC have gas pipelines crossing Alberta. So really Alberta is in the cat bird seat. Shut off all rail and road transport of goods east and west. Shut down all oil to BC, Shut down BC’s gas pipelines transiting Alberta. I take it your not from Alberta? Ever beem to Alberta? Canada would start collapsing very very fast. I would put the boots to the Frogs and TROC them, like they boot the boots to Alberta. UDI NOW. .

        1. I’ve been to Alberta. Love the Province. That is why I commented. Alberta is land-locked. Pretend you have the power but you do not. Shut off the oil (and processed products) to B.C. and watch B.C. switch to other sources. It is a port-rich Province. Good luck with the boots. What Alberta needs is help from the Federal Government to build pipelines that allow Alberta oil and other products to move to the markets that will pay the highest price.

    1. So then the “real” excellence about his reporting wasn’t accuracy, but in the ability to fabricate a false narrative.

      If someone came up with a name for that they could run with it all the way to the White Hou …. oh wait.

  14. I am happy to see that you linked to a video by Lindeybeige. He is one of the people who makes youtube great. He is always intelligent, always entertaining and he covers a wide range of topics. I have been subscribed to his channel for years.

  17. JOHN ELLIS: Meet the Left-Wing Troll Who Creates Fake News to Expose Conservative ‘Stupidity.’ “‘Say what you want about me being a monster. I’m pretty proud,’ Christopher Blair said.”

    https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/316285/

    MND: And he’s proud of getting people fired after being exposed for their stupidity after swallowing the troll’s fakery.

  18. Remember when we had a real PM who could weave through the progressive garbage we were being fed, the guy who warned us we couldn’t go back to the old Grit crony ways of overtax and misspend?

    Can’t wait to read his book; a teaser, v.v. the populist (not ethno-nationalist, you got that identity fascists?) movement in France.

    Sorry about the cut and paste, couldn’t find suitable link for this article buried (this from his FB) in the Telegraph’s website.

    “The rise of a new wave of populism is disrupting politics across the western world. Unconventional parties, candidates, and ideas are challenging traditional assumptions and galvanizing public debate. With political change occurring at a dizzying pace, it can be difficult to discern its meaning and direction. The recent political crisis in France does, however, shed considerable light.”

    As I note in my recent book, Right Here Right Now, in countries where populism is having large impacts, the political spectrum itself is being re-shaped. The older dynamic of Right and Left (market vs state, traditionalism vs progressivism) is being replaced by new poles best called, for lack of better terms, populism and elitism.”

    France is the country that has gone furthest down this path. Its president, Emmanuel Macron, came to office through his new party, En Marche (yes, same initials), claiming to break free of the older Left and Right. For this reason, he has been labelled a “centrist” by conventional media commentators.”

    The problem with this characterization is that it ignores how the spectrum has been upended. In the new configuration, Macron cannot be properly viewed as a centrist. His government represents the extreme, elitist pole of the new spectrum. Its combination of policy preferences – aggressive supply-side economics, deepened technocratic European federalism, uncompromising social progressivism – might as well have been written by World Economic Forum attendees in Davos.”

    Only such an ideology can explain a program that simultaneously proposes “growth-oriented” tax cuts, that directly benefit the wealthy and corporations, and higher “sin” taxes, in the form of carbon taxes, that seek to punish ordinary working people and their families. The result has been the widespread “gilets jaunes” (“yellow vests”) protests. The fact that overwhelming public support for these has not diminished even as their violence has increased should be a stark warning about the limits of this disconnected, elitist agenda. ”

    We need to understand how extreme Macron’s proposals really are. His government’s policy would have targeted household consumption of petroleum products with very steep tax hikes. They amount to 24 cents per litre for diesel fuel and 12 cents per litre for gasoline, rising higher as time goes on. That French gas prices, at nearly six dollars US per gallon (over two dollars Canadian per litre), are already among the highest in the world, simply did not seem to matter. Neither did the evidence that for most people, especially rural and modest-income households, use of these products is neither a luxury nor an indulgence, but an unavoidable and inflexible part of their daily expenditures.”

    Notwithstanding, the French government ploughed ahead with technocratic certitude. That the yellow-vest movement, described as a “jacquerie” (or “peasants’ revolt”), appears to have won ought to be a warning to carbon-tax proponents elsewhere. Carbon taxes are both bad policy and bad politics. The evidence from France is that unmodified elite tax preferences can be perilous for governments – indeed, for social order itself.”

    The further problem for France is that its newly-polarized political spectrum does not offer a better choice. On the other end stands the Rassemblement National, with its toxic mix of ethno-nationalism and protectionist-socialist economics. Just as Macron’s policies are now fueling French populism, only the dangers of Le Pen’s growing support allowed the rise of En Marche in the first place. French voters are as understandably reluctant to embrace a flawed and immoral alternative as they are enraged by the fruits of technocratic arrogance.”

    The lesson from this unedifying episode is that it is incumbent upon pragmatic conservatives to fill the gap between these two poles of extreme populism and extreme elitism. This must involve adapting conservative insights and ideas to the contemporary challenges facing low- and middle-income households. Conservatives must get back to basics – including tackling populist issues such as rising house prices, exorbitant energy costs, unbalanced trade relationships, and declining employment opportunities for working people. Generating inclusive growth in a globally competitive market economy should be the objective for modern conservatism.”

    France’s recent political crisis exposes the limits of the new populist/elitist political configuration, the deep unpopularity of carbon taxes, and the need for a conservatism on the side of working families. These are lessons that leaders around the Western world should heed.”

    Imagine that, our current “policy analysts” don’t get it? Shudder at the thought. Merry Christmas everyone.

    1. Harper should email the above to Scheer. Think he would get figure it out?

      Christmas cheer will be a little thin looking ahead what with all the carbon tax related price increases on virtually everything in the new year.

  19. It’s time to stop marginalizing the Christians in polyamorous lifestyles, for example. We must institute ‘Holy Throupling’ to fully sanctify their love.

    All we had to do was shout “bigot” at people for a few years and, voila, now we pretend that a 6 feet 4 inches tall man rocking breast implants, size 16 pumps, and a five o’clock shadow is the paragon of female beauty.

    The same trick will work with regard to incestuous relationships.

    But don’t worry. It doesn’t matter if our pews are empty. You see, building the First Church of Wokery isn’t our way of doing evangelism. It’s our way of doing therapy. And it won’t bother us a bit if no one shows up on Sunday morning, as long as we’ve successfully convinced ourselves that our doctrine is pure and our hearts are acceptable to our Father in Heaven. Or Mother in Heaven. Or however God identifies.

    If only we had some way to find out Zir preferred pronouns.

    http://thefederalist.com/2018/12/20/church-englands-transgender-baptisms-blaze-trail-3-blasphemous-rites/?utm_source=The+Federalist+List&utm_campaign=6679b28b6a-RSS_The_Federalist_Daily_Updates_w_Transom&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_cfcb868ceb-6679b28b6a-84055819

  20. Chalk another one up for our self-appointed king ( or is it queen?)
    Saudi Arabia is now 1.5 Billion in arrears for payment to General Dynamics land systems for their contract to supply armoured
    vehicles. All this because his highness got all excited about the assassination of some Muzzie reporter.
    As a result, GDLS is contemplating moving all production to the US in order to faciitate the completion of the contract. This leaves Canada out in the cold, resulting in thousands of jobs being lost due to supply chain components.
    Government, being the guarantor of this project is on the hook for, the so far, 1.5B

    1. Government, being the guarantor of this project is on the hook for, the so far, 1.5B

      Nope. The taxpayer is. In other words, you and me.

  22. fwiw, I just commissioned an artwork ‘Ships of Wood and Men of Iron’ to recognize the immeasurable contribution and sacrifice of the recent centuries in pursuit of commerce, trade, development and all that which endowed us of the best std of living since the dawn of the species.

    the fellas are battling a storm to wrap the sails to prevent capsizing or breaking the mast. a common event.
    there are still 10,000s of wrecks at the bottom. I saw a huge one 15-20 kms whatever SE of Pt Stanley on lake erie sitting upright.
    those guys clung to the mast till daybreak and were all rescued.
    many weren’t.

    1. Back in the day, commenting about the non-binding ‘Kyoto Accord’ Jean Chretien was a better scientist, he once said: “Plant more trees!” The Liberals don’t even remember what some of their own have said in the past, and now they want to be fascist about taxing carbon and scrutinizing a scientist M.Ps’ comments to students. That is the height of arrogance.

  24. Democrats employed deception and social media influence campaigns in the Alabama Senate election.
    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/19/us/alabama-senate-roy-jones-russia.html

    “When Election Day came, Mr. Jones became the first Alabama Democrat elected to the Senate in a quarter of a century, defeating Mr. Moore by 21,924 votes in a race that drew more than 22,800 write-in votes.”

    A margin of victory of 0.17%. This campaign could have easily made the difference.

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