Today's thoughts

Reading the morning papers, several photos caught my eye.  Here they are:

Quebec separatist party cabinet.  Still insecure after suffering defeat on the Plains of Abraham in 1759 and still planning for a referendum they will lose.  Quite a long time to harbour a grudge.  Get over yourselves.

This is what Carney is doing in Turkey, pushing LGBTQ-RSTUVW-blah-blah rights.  With a trans daughter, is that his agenda?  Nero fiddles while Rome burns.

Canada's precious and much in-demand mineral wealth can't get out of the ground.  Many thanks to the Indigenous.

Bombardier, the recipient of billions from Canadian government, is rushing to expand in the U.S.  Whaaaaat??!! 

These photos perfectly capture what Canada is mired in: Deadlock, insanity and industrial paralysis.

"Well, that's the limit."

When my Mother said that, you knew you were in big trouble.  The other giveaway was when she slowly uttered, "Oh. My. God," in a slow, low voice, a timber she never raised.

For some reason, my algorithm delivers delightful tales of old life in Appalachia and Ireland to my facebook feed.  Although my adoptive family were decidedly Canadian English (I am genetically 100 percent Irish and it shows) from the Ottawa Valley, they used many expressions from these societies, all of which I relate to.  Another favourite was, "If you don't stop whining, I'll give you something to really cry about."  She would not abide whining.

I also relate to the lifestyle of my Grandmother, Mother and Aunts, who cooked like it was the Depression-era thirties.  They canned everything -- even at our cottage in sweltering July, when the woodstove would be cranked up to make raspberry preserves, raspberries my Grandmother had sent us to pick in neighbouring famers' fields.  Never mind half of them never made it back to the cottage, because we'd eat them, there was always enough for a few jars of her delicious nectar.

We also ate a lot of root vegetables in winter.  Salad in February?  Forge that.  And for dessert, always canned unless in season.  We also had bread pudding and fruit cobbler, two dishes I still make regularly.  I also remember dandelion salad and apple crisp, the latter of which I continue to make every Fall.

Whenever my Mother prepared a turkey, she always boiled the innards, called "giblets", and we ate them for lunch with bread and butter.  I loved kidney, heart and neck -- as well as head cheese (look it up, it's not cheese) and tongue.  And there was nothing like turkey soup, made from boiling the carcass, picking it clean, discarding the bones, adding back the meat and throwing in whatever you had handy -- a sort of "clean out the refrigerator" soup.  

I burst out laughing when I started to see expensive broth being sold in supermarkets.  Really?!  Broth is something you make yourself; you don't actually buy it.  In fact, made a pot of chicken soup the other day.  My grandchildren love mine because I add tortellinis, very exotic in their world of lentils and quinoa.  One of the dumbest and wasteful sights I have ever witnessed was watching my Texas son-in-law throw out an entire turkey carcass!  "You won't like this, Nancy," my step-daughter said, as I watched in horror and alarm when he tossed it in the bin.  I didn't.

A big ham, bone-in, also makes delicious soup and was another favourite in our home.

Sundays were always devoted to visiting the family plot to pay respects to my Grandfather and Great grandparents.  Rain or shine, we went after Church.  When I lived in Ottawa as an adult, I used to pack a picnic -- including cocktails -- and the whole family would gather on our plot.  Afterall, we were landlords in Beechwood Cemetery, so why not?! 

Typical of a visit with my Grandmother.  She always dressed up to pay respects to her departed family.

Grandma sewed many of our clothes and knitted some of the most beautiful sweaters I've ever owned.  Yes, my family hails from strong, gentrified stock.  I am very lucky they adopted me.
      

I almost lost my lunch

Watching Carney and his wife arriving in Turkey was just too much for me.  Why is he there?!  Why is she with him?!  And what exactly is he going to do in Turkey?  Seriously, what?!

This is his 27th trip abroad, but he has yet to visit Upper Rubber Boot Saskatchewan!  And to drag that harridan along is just a bridge too far.  I mean, if you're going to tag along, try and look a little less down-at-the-heel and more like a Mila Mulroney.  Don't look as if you just grabbed the first rag in your closet, dragged a comb through your hair and put on the ugliest shoes you could find.  Try and be a little glamorous!

But she can't because she is about the dowdiest, slouched-over woman I have ever seen.  When I first saw her, I actually thought she was his mother!  But then, he too has absolutely no sex appeal whatsoever.  

While I'm at it, what exactly is sex appeal?  It has nothing to do with looks, it's a quality that's difficult to define.  Take Charles Bronson: He was as ugly as sin, but very sexy.  So was James Coburn, ugly, but sexy.  

And then there were gay actors who were sexy, like Dirk Bogarde, for example.  As I said, sexy is hard to figure out.  Carney is passable, but completely bereft of that illusive quality.  And as for his wife, forget about it. 

Mother Carney.  Could she be any more unattractive?

This is a short blog, but I had to get it off my chest.  Please deliver us from this disaster of a prime minister, who acts unilaterally without any regard for the will of Parliament, before it's too late!  

Why is she in the U.S, a country she obviously hates?

 Re-printed from 'The Catholic Register'................

October 19, 2026   Left-wing pundits love inventing new terms to describe their latest cause, and one that has become increasingly popular over the past decade is “intersectionality.” It was coined in 1989 but it went nowhere until the 2010s, getting a big boast in the 2020s when the Black Lives Matter riots took place. It is typically used to describe how different, but related, factors or identities overlap, the result being the creation of a new reality. While it is typically invoked to describe how multiple forms of oppression blend together to produce a new dynamic, the idea that different but related issues yield a new outcome is a useful analytical tool that can be used to explain the behavior of Rep. Ilan Omar. The intersection of her personal and professional foibles produces ugly fruit. Omar is under investigation for financial wrongdoing and lying about her biographical statuses, past and current. To say she is suspected of being a fraud is one thing, but it is quite another when this intersects with her history of bigotry and duplicity. Quite simply, her character is on the line. Trump will deal with her if she is illegal. As we at the Catholic League have demonstrated through the years, Omar is anti-Christian, anti-Jewish and anti-American. In early 2019, I called for House sanctions against the Somali freshman for demonizing innocent Catholic young men associated with the Covington Catholic High School incident following the March for Life in Washington D.C. She falsely accused the students of racist taunts and yelling, “it’s not rape if you enjoy it.” It was later revealed that the boys were innocent of all wrongdoing, but all she did was delete her libelous tweet.  Earlier this year, Omar said, “I think my faith as a Muslim is very important,” but apparently not important enough for her to abide by Islamic teachings on abortion, marriage, the family, sexuality and gender ideology. Also in March, she justified the church invasion that took place at Cities Church in Minnesota: protesters engaged in Nazi-like tactics interrupting the service. She was right to note that there was a “clear violation of the Constitution,” but she misidentified the victimizers and the victims by claiming the arresting officers were the guilty ones. In 2019, Omar showed her hatred of Jews by charging them with showing “allegiance to a foreign country.” This was hardly the first time she sported her anti-Jewish colors. She previously accused a Jewish lobbying group of paying congressmen to be pro-Israel, saying, “It’s all about the Benjamins baby.” She also has a history of falsely claiming that Israel is guilty of apartheid. After she left her slaveholding country, Somalia, to come to the U.S., she condemned America for its “unjust” practices. Last year she called the U.S. “one of the worst countries” in the world. Her anti-Americanism is so rabid that in 2019 the best she could say about what happened on 9/11 was that “Some people did something” that day. That’s right: Muslim extremists, just like her, bombed America, killing 3000 innocent men, women and children. It will be up to the courts to decide whether she is guilty of multiple accounts of fraud and other crimes. But the court of public opinion—at least in reasonable circles—has already rendered its verdict: She is guilty of smearing innocent Americans and trashing our country. Indeed, she is a recidivist. The intersection of her personal and professional failings makes for a sick stew.

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And just like that

For anyone complaining about health care in Alberta, here's a bulletin:  I just called SaveOn about flu shots for homebound folks because B had a fall and can't do stairs at the moment.  

"Yes, we can come to you," said the pharmacist.  And in less than 40 minutes, a charming pharmacist (she's also a swim buddy) showed up at the door and gave us both COVID and flu shots.  Just like that!

All done and dusted for this season.

How impressive!!  

I had called Shoppers, because their website advertised this service in big, bold letters, but the pharmacist there had no clue what I was talking about?  I actually had to direct him to the website that advertises it.  "Oh, I didn't know we did that?" he said, adding that they don't offer off-site shots at all.

Duh!  "Well, perhaps you need to let your owner know that it's on your site, but you don't actually offer it," I helpfully suggested.

That's when I called SaveOn and over she came.  As I said, anyone who complains about health care needs to move to Ontario to encounter real health care conundra.  That province is an unholy mess!

So, B and I have had our shots and it took less than an hour from phone call to jab.

p.s.  Don't move here because it'll ruin what we have.    

You never know.....

...who'll turn up on a service call.  My computer wouldn't synch, so I called 'Cochrane Computers' and a guy named Tony popped over.  

As I always do -- it's the old journalist in me -- I started interviewing him.  "I'm from the Tobacco Plains Nation," he told me, a reserve in the East Kootenay valley which abuts onto Montana.  Boy, did he sure know a lot about the Indigenous file -- including all the illegal (just my opinion) actions of chiefs across Canada.

We watched footage I had posted online about the Cowichan reserve, which showed a disgraceful dump with garbage strewn everywhere.  He knew all about it, but then he showed me footage of Tobacco Plains and that was a different story.  It was clean and beautiful.

We started talking money, my favourite subject on this file, and he knew a lot about that too -- including vast corruption, which he acknowledged exists everywhere.  I referenced the 1969 White Paper, written by Pierre Trudeau and Jean Chretien.  Remember that?  It recommended all Indigenous leave their ghettos (the paper used that word back then) and integrate into Canadian society.  

Well, at that all Hell broke loose!  The chiefs called it "racist" and a move that would make their people the lesser equals of every other Canadian.  The reality was that they refused to give up their perks.  Tony agreed and assured me it was still happening today.  

He also said, however, that he is the only native he knows who will speak honestly about the corruption.  Our old friends Tanya Talaga and the always-hysterical Pam Palmeter, certainly aren't two of them.  I am acquainted with a few status natives out here, who have left the reserve and are very successful, thanks to their moving.  All say they can't say anything.  So until the Indigenous themselves start speaking out, nothing will change.

When the White Paper was trod upon, an angry Pierre Trudeau told the chiefs, “Okay, then stay in your ghetto”. He withdrew the paper and initiated the Indigenous Policy, basically unchanged for the last fifty-plus years, namely: Send money and don't touch the Indian Act.  As I have said, the chiefs claim they want to change the Act, but they don't.

The chiefs turned their backs on real reform.

Pierre Trudeau got one thing wrong when he angrily told the chiefs that they could stay in their ghettos.  The chiefs are not in ghettos at all.  They enjoy generous tax-free-salaries and expense accounts.  Life is good for them and for the many other people who feed off this system -- a system Indigenous leaders like William Wuttunee and Calvin Helin sardonically – but accurately – called “The Indian Industry”.

The question must still be asked: What if those chiefs in 1969 had at least agreed to consider Trudeau’s plan and work with him to address their legitimate concerns? Would we now live in a country where more indigenous people had integrated into the mainstream, while keeping those parts of their Indigenous identity that mattered most to them?

They didn't want any part of it, so we'll never know.  But as I always say, it's all about money.  So when Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak et al start raving about protecting pristine land, don't buy it.  

Interesting look at education in the U.S.

 

Re-printed from 'The Catholic League'............ October 7, 2026   Under President Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ), the FBI labeled mainline Catholics who opposed abortion, gay marriage and gender identity as “domestic terrorists.” Now, in a new document released by the Trump administration’s DOJ, “The New Report to Expose the Weaponization of Government Against Parents in Schools,” we learn how the Biden administration’s DOJ branded conservative parental rights groups “domestic terrorists.” The nexus is unmistakable: Biden’s DOJ declared war on religious conservatives. Yet the evidence that this Report presents shows that they were never the “domestic terrorists” they were made out to be. Once parents found out during COVID that sexually inappropriate books were being assigned, and racist presentations were being made in the classroom (ala critical race theory), they not only objected, they organized. The privileged elites who stack the school boards were taken aback. They counted on a subdued, obedient crop of parents who took the “Teacher Knows Best” approach. They were startled when the parents proved to be disobedient, showing up at meetings to register their objections. The educrats quickly contacted their allies in the Biden administration, asking them to come to their rescue. They were not disappointed. It didn’t take long before the political elites sided with the education elites against the masses, namely the parents. They were accused of violence, when there was none, and for disrupting meetings, when there was little to none. What got the goat of school board members was having to respond to some uncomfortable questions, effectively putting them on the defensive. That’s called free speech. We now know that the National School Boards Association (NSBA) had been partnering with the DOJ to provide “talking points and push back on critics regarding critical race theory (‘CRT’) and transgender policies that are creating ‘hostile situations for school board members.’” That was in July 2021, and in September it sent a letter to Biden describing these parents as participating in “domestic terrorism.” Once this hit the press, parents pushed back, and within weeks the NSBA’s board of directors apologized. This should have put the brakes on this fascistic response by the elites. It didn’t. Indeed, it escalated. On October 4, 2021, the “Garland Memorandum” was issued. This was the infamous memo by Attorney General Merrick Garland that claimed that a nefarious cadre of parents had emerged—they were objecting to offensive fare in the schools. According to the Report, the memo was draconian. “The Garland Memorandum, and its suggestion that such protests could constitute federal criminal activity, including domestic terrorism, was the product of pressure by the White House and high-ranking Department of Justice officials to find a reason to suggest that such protests could be federal crimes regardless of the initial skepticism.” Fortunately, there were honest attorneys working in Biden’s DOJ, and they dutifully warned their colleagues that in most cases there was nothing going on at these meetings other than robust discussions. They admonished them to back off lest they inspire MAGA-type revolts. Unfortunately, they were in the minority. The Report concludes that the Garland Memorandum disregarded “constitutional precepts,” creating a “chilling effect” on First Amendment rights. Those who wrote the Report cannot be blamed for not inquiring into the religious background of the protesting parents. That was not their charge. But it is the charge of the Catholic League. News reports estimate that Christians constitute 70-80 percent of these conservative parental rights groups. We know from other media stories that Orthodox Jews and practicing Muslims have also been vocal in their opposition to what has been going on in the classrooms. At issue are attempts to sexually engineer our students and to indoctrinate them in racist propaganda. In other words, led by Christians, parents are fighting for their rights against the militant secularists who dominate education, and who work in senior positions in the federal government. They are no more “domestic terrorists” than the man on the moon, and attempts to label them as such are obscene and un-American.

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