Tonight we watch, and listen to, the original – and unaired – Bonanza theme song as sung by the Cartwrights themselves in the pilot episode. It’s all a bit….off-kilter, somehow.
Don’t worry about Dan Blocker’s horse; I’m sure he was fine after a little liniment and a rubdown.
The comments thread is open, as always, for your Reader Tips.
Interview With Fred Siegel
Ed Driscoll;
I’ve really been enjoying Fred Siegel’s new book, The Revolt Against the Masses, which is almost a sort of sequel to Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism. It certainly compliments Jonah’s book as an excellent parallel history of the rise of Progressivism, with an emphasis on how that ideology allows its believers to acquire an instant superiority complex on the cheap. The chapters on the left during pre-World War II America are particularly fascinating.
Go here for the audio and transcript.
Things You’ll Never See On The CBC
Dark Clouds on the Horizon (via email);
January 30, 2014
Someone recently told me we had until the end of January to say “Happy New Year” so, I might be stretching it but, with one or two days to go, I wish you the best in the coming year; lots of sunshine in your lives and plenty of smiles.
I couldn’t imagine a better start to the year than the Sochi Games! Whenever I walk down the hall, wherever I happen to be, the energy is palpable. And the most exciting thing is, in just a few short days, that energy will be felt on every main street, coffee shop, living room, sports bar and smart phone in the country. We should all take pride in knowing that we are bringing those Games home as Canada’s Olympic Broadcaster.
Sochi will be followed by the NHL Playoffs, the FIFA World Cup and, to cap it all off, the launch of a new Strategic Plan. All of that is good.
But I also see dark clouds on the horizon. On Monday, I informed the Board that we are projecting significant financial challenges: a weak advertising market across the industry, lower-than-expected schedule performance in the key 25-54 year-old demographic on CBC Television, lower than expected ad revenues from Espace Musique and CBC Radio 2, and the loss of the NHL contract (and its anticipated ripple effect on our ability to sell the rest of our television schedule next year and beyond) have combined to create an important revenue shortfall for the whole of CBC/Radio-Canada, starting with the next fiscal year. These challenges are in addition to the last year of reductions announced from the Deficit Reduction Action Plan (DRAP) in 2012, the elimination of the Local Programming Improvement Fund (LPIF) and another two-year government-wide salary inflation funding freeze.
We are working hard to confirm the bottom line. However, it’s clear that tough and more fundamental decisions will have to be made to establish a longer-term, sustainable, financial model for our corporation. This will be a central priority of our strategic plan beyond 2015. We can’t be resizing the public broadcaster every second year.
We’ve been through this before. Doesn’t make it easier though.
I wrestled with the timing of this particular message. But, while I fully admit the timing is not ideal, as we prepare for the Games, I have always believed that you need to know, and always promised to be as frank and direct with you as I can be. In that spirit, I promise to have updates for you as they become available.
In the meantime, let’s continue to show Canadians what we’re made of.
Cheers.
Hubert
We Don’t Need No Stinking Giant Fans
Bosch Rexroth is just the latest in a series of setbacks the wind energy industry has seen over the last months. Germany’s solar industry has already collapsed and wind energy is just the latest victim in Germany’s rollback of renewable energies. Spiegel here writes that Germany’s solar industry has shedded half its jobs in the last two years alone!
Is There Nothing That Obama Can’t Do?
If you’re a Denver Broncos fan who watched in horror as your team disintegrated during the Super Bowl on Sunday, then you’ll have some idea of how Obamacare’s proponents will feel as they read this report.
Yes, it’s that bad.
Don’t Blame Karl Marx, Blame the Idiots Who Believed Him
Only a madman’s illusions de grandeur could result in killing more people during peace time than Nazi’s did purposely during war. You can compare similar people’s implementing Marxism vs. freedom (the Koreas, East vs. West Germany, Cuba vs. Caymans, etc.). And you can look to see what happens when countries abandon socialism in pursuit of capitalism (China, Vietnam, the Baltics). But the real issue isn’t what a “moron” or “psychopath” Marx was. It isn’t even the devastation and poverty his cancerous and flawed “theories” has wreaked upon the world.
It’s the scary fact as to just how receptive humans are to such a stupid, and ultimately, dangerous and evil ideology.
“Organic” Is The Latin Word For “Grown In Pig Shit”
A fool and her money, no longer parted;
Instead of continuing to wonder, I decided to dig into the literature and talk to toxicologists, horticulturists, risk experts and nutritionists to find out whether the chemicals in conventionally farmed foods could truly pose a risk to my child. What I’ve discovered has totally surprised me…
The Children Are Our Future
The Loser Generation: Going on 30, Living With Mom and Dad
Global Test
Unhappy Meal
Part of the issue with the word “serve” isn’t just that it’s sexist, it’s also linked to all the invisible work we take for granted and often don’t appreciate – from slavery to the waiters we don’t like to tip.
A leftist husband frets about the mealtime patriarchy.
The Sound Of Settled Science
The planet has a carbuncle;
Since our planet emerged from the debris which formed the solar system, some four and a half billion years ago, a lifetime supply of primordial carbon has been locked away in the mantle — against its will. Partnering with oxygen and smuggled as a dissolved gas in liquid rock, it breaches the surface at our planet’s volcanic airways: CO2, then, has been seeping into the planet’s atmosphere for as long as there has been one.
Until the end of the 20th century, the academic consensus was that this volcanic output was tiny — a fiery speck against the colossal anthropogenic footprint. Recently, though, volcanologists have begun to reveal a hidden side to our leaking planet.
We Don’t Need No Stinking French Fry Grease
Via Karenstan;
Government data has shown that over 50,000 orangutans have already died as a result of deforestation due to palm oil in the last two decades. Experts say that if this pattern of destruction and exploitation continues, these intelligent acrobats of the jungle will be extinct in the wild within 3 to 12 years (as early as 2015). It is also thought that their jungle habitat will be completely gone within 20 years (approximately 2033).
h/t Rob H.
Baby Boomers
One way to end school shootings…
Reader Tips
I think most of us have days where we just don’t give a rat. In Valencia, Spain, though, they have a special day where citizens not only give a rat, they throw them at total strangers. On the street.
There’s a lesson in there somewhere.
h/t
The comments thread is open, as always, for your Reader Tips.
If true….
Perhaps this senior administration official could explain the NSA?
“Nation states are generally not interested in [personal identification information] for its own sake,” the official said. “Given that, we would be surprised to see a nation-state capability applied in this matter. But we are doing a thorough review anyway.”
Obamacare, the fastest means to identity theft in existence.
It’s so horrible living in Canada.
This Hitler-Bush fascist Harper regime.
Harper/CPC haters
We have Canada's back
1.Least Corrupt http://t.co/OBgYKQhtvK
2.Most Respected http://t.co/M4F1JHesRb
3.Lowest Debt/GDP
— Manny Montenegrino (@manny_ottawa) February 3, 2014
Snatching At Defeat
On almost every contemporary issue there is a populist, middle-class argument to be made against elite liberalism. Yet the Republican class in charge seems ossified in its inability to make a counter-argument for the middle class.
It’s almost as though people are sending them a message: Not only is the GOP losing a fundraising war to the Democrats, it is also losing a fundraising war to the Tea Party element of their own party.
Riding Mass Transit Is Like Inviting 20 Random Hitchhikers Into Your Car
Excluding the reasons unfit to print: Why The World’s Largest Experiment In Free Public Transportation Failed.
h/t Anthony K.
Notes From The Fringe
Off to pay the Wizard, the Wonderful Wizard of Woonerf….
Free Marc Lemire!
Like the Norwegian Blue parrot, Section 13 is just resting. Like the Black Knight, its repeal by Parliament is just a flesh wound. Though it has been hoisted on the cross, its supporters may still, like Brian, always look on the bright side of life. Section 13 might be doomed, but it is good law. So sayeth the courts.