Flashback: “Of all the biolabs in all the towns in all the world, she walks into a brother of a Liberal Prime Minister“.
November 8, 2023: Reader Tips
Tonight we feature Broken Arrow (1950).
Your tips, especially those about our broken society, are very welcome!
Highway robbery
Maybe now that the national Transport minister has become a victim of armed robbery, the ANC will try to do something about South Africa’s appalling crime situation. But I’m not holding my breath.
Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga has told of how a pre-dawn ambush on Monday – in which she and her bodyguards were robbed after stopping on the N3 near Heidelberg – had left her terrified that she would be shot at any moment.
Police confirmed that Chikunga and her protectors had stopped to change a tyre, punctured after objects were seemingly placed on the road.
Nazis Running Rampant In Canada
Apparently Bernie Faber and his AntiHate.ca group, are too busy tracking down Nazis and don’t have the resources to worry about anti-Semitism.
Y2Kyoto: Dry Is Wet
Roger Pielke Jr: We know that as climate changes, the impacts are getting worse. We’re seeing more and more flooding going on as a result.
Everybody knows this — it is conventional wisdom.
Not only is the conventional wisdom on flooding wrong, data show that flood impacts as measured by direct economic losses have actually decreased by about 90% since 1940 as a proportion of U.S. GDP. The United States is in fact more resilient to flooding than it has ever been. The reduction in flood impacts is an incredible story of success sitting out in plain sight that is completely ignored, in favor of stories that instead tell us that down is up.
The figure below shows U.S. annual flood damage as a proportion of GDP. In 1940 flood losses amounted to a 2023 equivalent of about $50 billion per year, and in 2022 they totaled about $5 billion, a reduction of over 90%.1
You Will Eat At Home and be Happy
Toronto Star- Canadian restaurants struggle to survive as survey finds diners turning away from skyrocketing menu prices
A staggering 51 per cent of restaurants in Canada are operating at a loss, compared to only 12 per cent before the pandemic, according to Restaurants Canada. And one of the main reasons may be found in a new report released Tuesday by Dalhousie University showing Canadians tightening their belts and not dining out altogether due to shrinking portions and ballooning menu prices.
And more than 68 per cent of Canadians noted a reduction in portion sizes at restaurants, a phenomenon known as “shrinkflation,” with 77 per cent now opting for more affordable dining establishments due to price hikes.
“Suspected Arson”
Because you wouldn’t want folks jumping to conclusions.
Related: The progressive need to pair antisemitism with islamaphobia after entirely antisemitic incidents is deranged.
They’re just not that into Saskatchewan anymore…
Crescent Point Energy increases in size by a third with purchase of Montney player Hammerhead Energy Inc. for $2.55 billion. The company is in the hunt again, but its focus is Alberta, not Saskatchewan.
This is significant news. I’ve been saying for a while that Crescent Point has lost interest in Saskatchewan, and any day now we can expect the company to sell off its assets here. Note that both Shaunavon and Weyburn have rinks called “Crescent Point Place” and the lounge at the Estevan rink is similarly named. I pointed out in the story the company for a brief time was Saskatchewan’s largest oil producer. They did over 20 acquisitions (actually closer to 30, I believe), most of them in Saskatchewan, creating many millionaires and making a lot of people rich. But these days it is readily apparent their interest is elsewhere. The only references to Saskatchewan were, at the top of the list of highlights, that this deal “Transforms company into a Montney and Kaybob Duvernay focused E&P with complementary long-cycle assets in Saskatchewan.”
Also noteworthy – with this announcement they are increasing the Alberta proportion of their capital expenditure to 80%, up from the 70% from just a few weeks ago. It wasn’t that long ago, it was more like 95% in Saskatchewan.
So if you want to know why our drilling rig count is down so much, why $80 to $90 oil doesn’t have activity shooting up in this province – here’s your answer.
Also, Guilbeault says no more carbon price carve outs on his watch, as Tory motion fails.
And some nutjobs attacked a painting, in London, again. But since there’s glass over paintings now to protect them from paint, these folks used hammers.
If someone’s going to make billions in the lithium world, maybe we in Saskatchewan should put some of that in our pocket. One of the three active lithium explorers in Saskatchewan is moving closer to commercialization. This is a video I did showing what’s going on. Lots of cool shots of earthmovers.
Tuesday On Turtle Island
Woke Britain: Poppies removed from cenotaph. Support for Israel is Islamophobic. A veteran is punched.
Global Warming Scam News: The climate propaganda. And the Just Stop Oil lunatics are at it again (CBC).
Dementia Joe’s America: How the left portrays the 50s. DC rioters vandalize statues. Team Biden takes on Islamophobia. The invasion continues. Will Biden drop out? The Nashville trans shooter.
Religion Of Peace News: Why do academics support Hamas? While terrorists tweet, I was censored. The Hamas Nazis (JW). Gaza Palestinians scream Allahu Akbar (JW).
Blackie’s Canada: A haven for terrorists. Don Cherry was right. Champagne is a funny guy. More Liberal corruption.
Your morning meme. Bonus meme. A cartoon.
Your Moral And Intellectual Superiors
NBC News.
The Sound Of Settled Science
The “cycle of abuse” gets a stick in the spokes.
The sexually abused-sexual abuser hypothesis posits that persons, especially males, who are sexually abused as children are at particular risk of sexually abusing others later in life. We tested this hypothesis by prospectively examining associations between maltreatment and offending in a birth cohort of 38,282 males with a maltreatment history and/or at least one finalized offense. We examined these associations within the context of the wider birth population. Proportionally few boys were the subject of official notifications for sexual abuse (14.8% of maltreated boys, and 1.4% of the birth population); proportionally very few of these sexually abused boys (3%) went on to become sexual offenders; and, contrary to findings typically reported in retrospective clinical studies, proportionally few sexual offenders (4%) had a confirmed history of sexual abuse.
November 7, 2023: Reader Tips
Yikes, Kate, sorry I forgot to schedule this one.
This evening we present Twelve O’Clock High (1949). For those who can’t view this video, here’s another one from the same year entitled Bunco Squad.
Your high or low tips are always welcome here!
Tunnel vision
Interesting to note that the mainstream media professes this much angst over a drug whose effectiveness and side effects might be problematic, while the safety and effectiveness of another drug that we’ve heard so much about over the past two years warrants little else besides relentless cheerleading.
With limited research on its effectiveness against pain, some experts worry the U.S. may be repeating mistakes that gave rise to the opioid crisis: overprescribing a questionable drug that carries significant safety and abuse risks.
“There’s a paucity of options for pain and so there’s a tendency to just grab the next thing that can make a difference,” said Dr. Padma Gulur, a Duke University pain specialist who is studying ketamine’s use. “A medical journal will publish a few papers saying, `Oh, look, this is doing good things,’ and then there’s rampant off-label use, without necessarily the science behind it.”
Tory slush fund
There’s only one reason why certain projects need cut-rate financing courtesy of taxpayers: they are chronic money-losers that no private investor would otherwise bother with. It’s unlikely that anyone in Ford’s cabinet considers that the previous avalanche of borrowing is precisely why we are sinking into recession in the first place, and that the fall won’t be arrested with more debt tsunamis.
Ontario is proposing to launch its own infrastructure bank — with an initial $3 billion in public funding — in order to help foot the bill for long-term care homes and transportation projects, as slowing economic growth has the province sinking deeper into the red.
The Ontario Infrastructure Bank, announced Thursday in the province’s fall economic statement, would be an arm’s-length agency enabling pension plans and other institutional investors to help fund what the province says is an infrastructure deficit.
A Wake-up Call for All Smug Canadians
A dude from Ottawa shares his thoughts about the current state of Canada. Is he wrong?
Breaking… Trans Shooter’s “Nashville Manifesto” Leaked
A leaked manifesto reveals the Nashville trans school shooter had a violent hatred of the “little crackers” with “white privilege” that were murdered.
First obtained and released by the Louder with Crowder conservative Rumble show, the three-page handwritten document shows Audrey “Aiden” Hale meticulously planned their last moments and the mass school shooting at The Covenant School on March 27. Three young children and three school staff were killed before Hale, 28, was shot dead by responding police.
The manifesto, written in a spiral notebook, has various screeds and thoughts scrawled down by pen.
“DEATH DAY,” Hale wrote on one page with the drawing of a target reticle and a pistol, along with the date “3/27/23.”
“The day has finally come!” Hale wrote. “I can’t believe its [sic] here. Don’t know how I was able to get this far, but here I am. I’m a little nervous but excited too. Been excited for the past 2 weeks.”
Hale continued: “There were several times I could have been caught especially back in the summer of 2021. None of that matters now. I am almost an hour & 7 minutes away.”
“Can’t believe I’m doing this, but I’m ready,” Hale wrote. “I hope my victims aren’t.”
Hale later prayed to God in the manifesto to help her in the mass shooting. “(God let my wrath take over my anxiety) It might be 10 minutes tops. It might be 3-7. It’s gonna go quick,” Hale wrote. “I hope I have a high death count.”
Hale then wrote, “Ready to Die nana” and signed it “Aiden,” Hale’s trans name.
Yes, it’s legit: Metro legal looking at how images were released from Covenant documents
There Goes the Narrative
Steven Crowder has released some of the pages of the deranged Nashville school shooter. Analysis here.
Temporary relief
I’m all for tax cuts, but I really can’t see the point of cutting gasoline taxes for a period of six months. Does the Manitoba NDP believe that the trend towards rising living costs is going to reverse by then? I’d like to know what crystal ball they’re looking at.
In any case, 14 cents per liter in gas tax revenue is roughly what the Manitoba government devotes to road maintenance and construction. If Wab is anything like his predecessors this move leads me to believe that they’re going to cut the highways budget. They always do.
The tax cut is to remain in place until inflation subsides, although the government has not yet determined how low inflation would have to fall before reinstating the tax. The tax holiday would last at least six months, Sala said, and could be extended depending on economic circumstances.
Don’t Worry, It’s Transitory
I have two customers who own major trucking companies–one on the east coast and one on the west coast. I’m sure you’d recognize their names.
They both told me last week they can’t fill their trucks with freight and they are not even making enough money to pay for the fuel. They say freight volume is down over 50%.
Consumer spending has fallen off a cliff. We are headed for some trouble.
Via email, from a contact in the industry;
It’s as bad or worse than 2008.
The market overall is horrible. Freight volumes have plummeted, especially since May and they haven’t come back.
LoadLink is an online system trucking companies and brokers pay for to post extra loads they don’t can’t move themselves, or look for loads when they need one. Freight brokers are also on there. When I post a load on there within 3 minutes my phone and email lights up. I posted a load the other day and one caller wanted to run a truck 1200 miles empty from Texas – usually a very busy area – to get it because his truck had sat a week already.
Vancouver has always been the busiest area for trucks in Western Canada. Normally on any given day there will be 200 loads on LoadLink looking for a truck to move it to the prairies. This past summer there weren’t any loads available at times and as high as 2,200 load postings of open deck trucks looking for loads to the prairies. It has since stabilized somewhat since then, but still far from good.
The bankruptcies and layoffs are everyday. Freightwaves.com covers them well. They are out pacing 2008. Freightwaves.com is the best source to get a pulse on the industry.
All my customers are cutting back and laying off. Caterpillar’s orders are down so shipments are down. Everyone is slow.
Trucking is always the first into and the first out of a recession and right now we are in a horrible recession. There is no end in site. In past recessions there would still be upticks for the summer construction boom; the sawmills would be scrambling to find trucks, steel I-beams, construction equipment moving. etc. This year the mill in Meadow Lake had a waiting list of 71 carriers – all with multiple trucks – looking for loads. One sawmill customer of mine in BC closed down. The economy is collapsing.
Stateside: “It isn’t just in the trucking world. It is also in air freight and in the rail industries.”
“This is why they’re on the streets of this city and others, marching.”
“It’s not because they love fellow Muslims. It’s because they hate Jews.”