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Thursday, August 29, 2019

Calgary is not Montreal

Which is why we visit at least once a year.  Just got back to cattle country from five days at the Hotel Bonaventure, my favourite of all I have visited.  When I worked for Maclean-Hunter in the late sixties and early seventies, we used to stay there on trips from Toronto.  Sitting in the lobby bar (where else?!) I could still see my publisher, John Downey, across from me.  Long dead, he was a non-stop smoker/drinker, but a great journalist, and taught me everything I know about the publishing business.  He also bought me a lot of clothes and spoiled me rotten....just....because.  He was a great guy, RIP. 

The Bonaventure is a fascinating place.  It is two floors of hotel atop eight or so stories of convention halls and features an inner courtyard of ponds, waterfalls, streams, ducks and fish surrounded by magnificent trees and foliage.  I have always wondered how they hauled all that up there in 1967, when it was built?  What an undertaking and one that would never be duplicated today.  But it is unique.  You cannot believe you are atop a convention centre in downtown Montreal.  Feels more like a country inn surrounding a natural pond. 

Sitting at the bar, as I always do, the bartender told me that the water doesn't freeze so the ducks stay in the pond all year 'round.  The fish, however, are moved to a tank.  He also told me that during migration season, ducks flying over often land and take up residence while other permanent residents will sometimes fly off with their wild cousins and new boyfriends never to be seen again.  When they die, they are given to butcher shops.  Hey, here today, dinner tomorrow!

One day at lunch at the Sofitel -- another place we always frequent -- a very distinguished and handsome gentleman entered and sat next to us.  Listening to our conversation, he joined in and we discovered he had worked for the Quebec government in Ottawa during the tumultuous Levesque days, when separation was all around.  B and he shared stories, secrets and rumours of that period, when B worked in the Privy Council Office in federal/provincial relations.  Why their paths had never crossed beat me?!

They both agreed that without Alberta and Toronto -- i.e., $$$$ -- there would be no Canada.  He also agreed with me when I said that for Legault to brag about Quebec's having balanced its budget was pure BS.  It was balanced thanks to transfer payments from Alberta!

Hotel guests were primarily French/French, British and American.  In fact we met no other Canadians.  There is a beautiful pool on the roof, where people lounge all day long.  I would never get into such a pool, bathers flopping in fully greased up and all.  Definitely a "yuck" for me.  One thing I did find jarring were young French girls going topless.  Even though they weren't more than eight or ten, you could see little breasts budding and it alarmed me.  Ah, the French are so annoyingly "French".

Also alarming was how fat many guests were and wouldn't you know it, the women all wore bikinis.  Even walking through the lobby!  Please.  And everyone drinks all the time.  As for shoes, all depressingly ugly.   

One evening we were dining at the hotel bar/restaurant and in barged about 10 "Ugly American" young men.  Our table was next to the bar, but they paid no heed and just boorishly stood around with their asses in my face, laughing and roaring at how amusing and clever they were.  We finally de-camped to another spot.

As a common, garden-variety wine drinker, I nonetheless loved reading some of the wine descriptions.  "Dry, fruity with a final note of berries"...."Very pleasant finish with a slight lemon flavour," read a couple.  Must have been written by the same gang that writes greeting cards.

I did enjoy speaking French again and was pleasantly surprised that it was all still there, even after eight years in the Prairie wilderness and many years since my retirement from the bilingual public service.

Montreal, we will be back.
When the menu in Calgary says, "Montreal smoked meat," this isn't what you get.  This was in 'Reuben's'.  Unreal!

Who walks into the lobby of the Bonaventure with smelly takeout and sits their ass down right next to the restaurant and eats?!  What a nerve.

Me somewhere....

The Sofitel for dinner.

What did I say about "French" women wearing bikinis?

Birks is now a hotel and restaurant, but they have retained the marvellous bas relief.

Our friends at the hotel.


PEI oysters, fabulous!
 
Entitled Americans with their asses in our faces.
  





     

Wednesday, August 14, 2019

Now you know.....

....that my dishwasher is "on the blink", as my late uncle used to say about everything that stopped working.  This is why my drain board is in this shape:
 

I remember growing up, doing dishes by hand was the way we did it all the time.  In fact, when my late mother moved to a condo with a dishwasher, she refused to use it.  We had no dishwasher at the cottage when our kids were growing up either, so they broke out into teams and took turns.  There is an art to doing dishes by hand and it's all come back to me. 

Bought a 'Bosch', on the recommendation of one of my swim buddies who works at 'Home Depot'.  "Whatever you do, don't buy an LG or a Samsung," he warned me. 

So I didn't.  Ah well, $1,200 later and all's well that ends well.   

 



 

Monday, August 12, 2019

Gordon Fairweather.....

.....is turning in his grave, as Trudeau announced another $27 million in legal aid funding for refugee claimants.  When formed 30 years ago, the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) was a quasi-judicial entity mandated to determine if a claimant was, or was not, a refugee as per accepted UN criteria.

"This process is not to be lawyer-driven," said Mr. Fairweather adamantly at the first member-training session held in Ottawa.  What a laugh that all seems today!  The reason I know all this is because B was the first Director of Training for the IRB and responsible for the edification of all members.  And although political appointments by Mulroney, they were not made without merit because each member had relevant background and experience.  No one was a flake -- well, maybe one or two.  But I digress.

The other driving principle was that there was to be no appeal.  Were a claimant rejected, he/she was out of the country.  I remember when B came home one day and reported that one claimant had arrived with a lawyer.  He was dismayed.  Well, that was the beginning of the end and it's been all downhill for Canada since and uphill for the lawyers and refugees who have dined out on that folly since. 

So, folks, now you know.  I mean, why have an IRB with competent members if the courts ultimately rule on decisions?  Just another dumb political move. 

 

Sunday, August 11, 2019

A "green thumb" at work......

Daughter's garden in Cochrane, AB:

If you want good wild flowers, buy Canadian Tire's seeds and just toss them into a little soil.  This will be the result.

Veggies too

 
When they moved in a couple of years ago, the front yard was just bare grass and dirt.  Very impressive today.     


Yes, no surprise there

In the face of all the "Missing and murdered Indigenous Women" brouhaha, just thought I mention a little, teensy article I spotted buried on the back pages of either 'The Globe', or the 'Calgary Herald'.  As we all know, natives have been pushing to police their own tribes and bands for ages.  They finally were given the right a number of years ago. 

But guess what?  Guess who have been charged with the sexual assault and rape of two native women in custody in Quebec?  Two native officers.  Need I say more?  If you look at the RCMP stats, it's clear who's abusing and killing native women.  Their own people.

Sorry, but them's the facts.

Sunday, August 4, 2019

Sadly, yes..........


The Lights are Going Out All Over Europe

As a Dutch Member of Parliament with decades of exposure to the facts about which he speaks in this commentary, a rare man of courage whose life has repeatedly been threatened in order to silence his warnings to the West.  He is well-known for his criticism of Islam and the Quran.
 

       In a generation or two, the US will ask itself:  “Who  LOST Europe?”

       Thank you very much for  inviting me.  I come to America with a mission.  All is not well in the Old World.  There is a tremendous danger looming, and candidly I will admit that it is very difficult to be optimistic in the face of apathy, ignorance, mass media brainwashing, and fear among those who know the very threatening facts and the dangers of speaking out and of trying to make a positive difference for future generations in the Free World.

       We might be in the final stages of the Islamization of Europe.  This is not  only a clear and present danger to the future of Europe itself, it is a threat to America and the sheer survival of freedom and Western culture.  Truly, the United States is the last bastion of Western civilization, facing an Islamic colonized and subjugated Europe.

       First, I will describe the situation on the ground in Europe.  Then, I will say a few things about Islam.  To close, I will tell you about a meeting in Jerusalem.

The Europe you know is changing.

       You have probably seen the landmarks.  But in  all of these cities, sometimes a few blocks away from your  tourist destination, there is another world.  It is the world of  the parallel society created by Muslim mass-migration.

       All throughout Europe a new reality is  rising: entire Muslim neighbourhoods where very few indigenous  people reside or are even seen.  And if they are, they might  regret it.  This goes for the police as well.  It’s the world of  head scarves, where women walk around in figureless tents, with baby strollers and a group of children.  Their husbands, or slaveholders if you prefer, walk three steps ahead.  With mosques on many street corners. 

       The shops have signs you and I cannot read.  You will be hard-pressed to find any economic  activity.  These are Muslim ghettos controlled by religious fanatics.  These are Muslim neighborhoods, and they are mushrooming in every city across Europe .  These are the building-blocks for territorial control of increasingly larger portions of

       Europe , street by street, neighbourhood by neighbourhood, city by city.  There are now thousands of  mosques throughout Europe with larger congregations than there are in churches.  And in every European city there are plans to  build super-mosques that will dwarf every church in the region.  Clearly, the signal is:  We rule

       Many European cities are  already one-quarter Muslim: just take Amsterdam , Marseilles and  Malmo in Sweden .  In many cities the majority of the under-18  population is Muslim.  Paris is now surrounded by a ring of Muslim neighborhoods.  Mohammad is the most popular name among boys in many cities.

       In some elementary schools in Amsterdam the farm can no longer be mentioned, because that would also mean mentioning the pig, and that would be an insult to Muslims.

       Many state schools in Belgium and Denmark   only serve halal food to all pupils.  In once-tolerant Amsterdam   gays are beaten up almost exclusively by Muslims.  Non-Muslim women routinely hear ‘whore, whore’.  Satellite dishes are not pointed to local TV stations, but to stations in the country of origin.

       In France, school teachers are advised to avoid authors deemed offensive to Muslims, including Voltaire and  Diderot; the same is increasingly true of Darwin .  The history of the Holocaust can no longer be taught because of Muslim sensitivity.

       In England sharia courts are now officially  part of the British legal system.


Many neighbourhoods in France are no-go areas for women without head scarves.  Last week a man almost died after being beaten up by Muslims in Brussels , because he was drinking during the Ramadan.

 

(How many mosques are in the UK?

The UK, home to about 2.8 million Muslims (3 per cent of the population) has around 1,500 mosques or prayer rooms, only 16 per cent of them purpose built. Jun 13, 2018)

       Jews are  fleeing France in record numbers, on the run for the worst wave  of anti-Semitism since World War II.  French is now commonly spoken on the streets of Tel Aviv and Netanya , Israel .  I could go on forever with stories like this..  Stories about  Islamization.

       A total of fifty-four million Muslims now live in Europe .  San Diego University recently calculated that a staggering 25 percent of the population in Europe will be Muslim just 12 years from now.  Bernhardt Lewis has predicted a Muslim majority by the end of this century.

       Now these are  just numbers.  And the numbers would not be threatening if  the Muslim-immigrants had a strong desire to assimilate.  But  there are few signs of that.  The Pew Research Centre reported  that half of French Muslims see their loyalty to Islam as  greater than their loyalty to France .  One-third of French Muslims do not object to suicide attacks.  The British Centre for Social Cohesion reported that one-third of British  Muslim students are in favour of a worldwide caliphate   Muslims demand what they call ‘respect’.  And this is how  we give them respect.  We have Muslim official state holidays.

       The Christian-Democratic attorney general is willing to accept sharia in the Netherlands if there is a Muslim  majority.  We in the Netherlands have cabinet members with passports from Morocco and Turkey .

       Muslim demands are supported by unlawful behavior, ranging from petty crimes and random  violence, for example against ambulance workers and bus drivers,  to small-scale riots.  Paris has seen its uprising in the  low-income suburbs, the banlieus.  I call the perpetrators settler’s.  Because that is what they are.  They do not come to integrate into our societies; they come to integrate our society into their Dar-al-Islam.  Therefore, they are settlers.

       Much of this street violence I mentioned is directed exclusively against non-Muslims, forcing many native people to leave their neighborhoods, their cities, their countries.  Moreover, Muslims are now a swing vote not to be ignored.

       The second thing you need to know is the  importance of Mohammed the prophet.  His behavior is an example  to all Muslims and cannot be criticized.  Now, if Mohammed  had been a man of peace, let us say like Ghandi and Mother Theresa wrapped in one, there would be no problem.  But Mohammed was a warlord, a mass murderer, a pedophile, and had several marriages - at the same time.  Islamic tradition tells us how he  fought in battles, how he had his enemies murdered and even had prisoners of war executed.  Mohammad himself slaughtered the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza.  If it is good for Islam, it is good.  If it is bad for Islam, it is bad.

Islam, a religion of war, not peace.

       Let no one fool you about Islam being a religion.  Sure, it has a God, and a here-after, and 72 virgins.  But in its essence Islam is a political ideology.  It is a system that lays down detailed rules for society and the life of every person.  Islam wants to dictate every aspect of life.  Islam means ‘submission’.   Islam is not compatible with freedom and democracy, because what it strives for is Sharia.  If you want to compare Islam to anything, compare it to communism or national-socialism, these  are all totalitarian ideologies. 

       Now you know why Winston Churchill called Islam ‘the most retrograde force in the world’,  and why he compared Mien Kampf to the Quran.  The public has wholeheartedly accepted the Palestinian narrative, and sees Israel as the aggressor.  I have lived in this country and  visited it dozens of times.  I support Israel .  First,  because it is the Jewish homeland after two thousand years of  exile up to and including Auschwitz.  Second because it is a democracy.  And third because Israel is Western values’ first line of defence.

Israel.

       This tiny country is situated on the fault line of jihad, frustrating Islam’s territorial advance.  Israel   is facing the front lines of jihad, like Kashmir, Kosovo, the Philippines , Southern Thailand, Darfur in Sudan , Lebanon , and  Aceh in Indonesia .  Israel is simply in the way.  The same way West-Berlin was during the Cold War.

       The war  against Israel is not a war against Israel .  It is a war against the West.  It is jihad.  Israel is simply receiving the blows that are meant for all of us.  If there would have been no Israel , Islamic imperialism would have found other venues to release its energy and its desire for conquest.  Thanks to Israeli parents who send their children to the army and lay awake at night, parents in Europe and America can sleep well and dream, unaware of the dangers looming.

       Many in Europe argue in favor of abandoning Israel in order to address the grievances of our Muslim minorities.  But if Israel   were, God forbid, to go down, it would not bring any solace to the West.  It would not mean our Muslim minorities would all of a sudden change their behavior, and accept our values.  On the contrary, the end of Israel would give  enormous encouragement to the forces of Islam.  They would, and rightly so, see the demise of Israel as proof that the West  is weak, and doomed.  The end of Israel would not mean the end of our problems with Islam, but only the beginning..  It would  mean the start of the final battle for world domination.  If they  can get Israel , they can get everything.  So-called journalists volunteer to label any and all critics of Islam as a ‘right-wing extremists’ or ‘racists’.  In my country, the Netherlands , 60 percent of the population now sees the mass immigration of Muslims as the number one policy mistake since World War II.  And another 60 percent sees Islam as the  biggest threat.  Yet there is a greater danger than terrorist attacks, the scenario of America as the last man standing.  The lights may go out in Europe faster than you can imagine.  An Islamic Europe means a Europe without  freedom and democracy, an economic wasteland, an intellectual nightmare, and a loss of military might for America - as its allies will turn into enemies, enemies with atomic bombs.  With an Islamic Europe, it would be up to America alone to preserve the heritage of Rome , Athens and Jerusalem .

       Dear friends, Liberty is the most precious of gifts.  My generation never had to fight for this freedom, it was offered to us on a silver platter by people who fought for it with their lives.  All throughout Europe , American cemeteries remind us of the young boys who never made it home, and whose memory we cherish.  My generation does not own this freedom; we are merely its custodians.  We can only hand over this hard-won liberty to Europe ‘s children in the same state in which it was offered to us.  We cannot strike a  deal with mullahs and imams.  Future generations would never forgive us.  We cannot squander our liberties.   We simply do not have the right to do so.

       We have to take the necessary action now to stop this Islamic stupidity from destroying the free world that we know.

       Please take the  time to read and to understand what is written here, please send it  to every free person that you know.  It is so very important.

Saturday, August 3, 2019

Another one

So, yet another mass mall shooting in the States.  Is anyone surprised?  The NRA has ensured every American can get his/her hands on big, big automatic weapons.  So, if someone is pissed off, hey, let's hit a mall -- or a school, or a church, or a mosque -- and kill a bunch of people.

The usual lamentations are all over the airwaves.  They will lead to nothing.

My stepdaughter married a Texan.  Sadly.  She has two children who are always vulnerable because they live in Houston.  But she will never see that reality because her head is up her a-- at all times. 

I feel sorry for the grands and for B, their grandfather, who has to sit on the sidelines and wonder and worry.    

Friday, August 2, 2019

Hasn't happened yet

I have not picked up a magazine or newspaper and read an editorial not crying out for editing.  Just for fun, flipped through 'Avenue' today and here's what I found:
 


 
Not sure you can see what I red-penciled, but there were many unnecessary words.  Many, many.  Things such as, "diversity of all kinds."  Why do you need, "of all kinds"?  You don't, you're talking about "diversity" for Gawd's sake.  Or how about, "...Calgarians are very lucky indeed..."  You don't need, "very" and "indeed". 
 
Or, "One of their findings has been....."  You don't need, "of their", just "One finding is..."  The editorial begins with, "For ten years now....."  You don't need, "now".  It just gets worse and worse. 
 
I don't care what anyone says, an Ontario education in the fifties and sixties taught proper English and grammar.  My ruthless Maclean Hunter editor, the late Jean Portugal, also showed me how to write and where to cut.  May that great lady Rest in Peace.  (Elayne, Faye and Bob, are you with me?)