Misplaced priorities

So says Bjorn Lomborg, professor at the Copenhagen Business School about society's obsession with climate change (whatever that is?).  "If we prioritize climate change above our duty to tackle poverty, health, education and nutrition, most of the world's young will never forgive us," he writes in 'The Globe and Mail'. 

He also calls out the ridiculous Greta Thunberg, saying that her claims are fundamentally misguided.  "Yes, global warming is real and human-caused, but her vision of climate change as the end of the world is unsupported," he says.  "Plentiful energy, mostly from fossil fuels, has lifted more than a billion people out of poverty in just the past 25 years.  This is not 'evil' -- it is quite the opposite."

Yes, correct.  And we now know that Al Gore is financing the lost Thunberg, by the way.  Of course he is. 

"Ending global fossil-fuel by 2028 is a flawed plan because green energy is simply not in a place in its development where it can take over what fossil fuels leave behind.  A hard by-hook-or-by crook transition would cause a real, global catastrophe, sending most of us back into back-breaking poverty.  That's why developing countries, especially want more fossil-fuel power, not less; they want to lift more people into comfortable lives."

Are you listening Elizabeth May?  Definitely not.

For most of humanity, getting rid of fossil fuels is not an option.  So, once again, be quiet, Greta, and go home.  And here's a bulletin for our kids someone sent me via email (no idea who wrote it, but it's dead on):

To all the school kids going on 'strike' for Climate Change:
You are the first generation who have required air-conditioning in every classroom.

You want TV in every room and your classes are all computerised.
You spend all day and night on electronic devices.
More than ever, you don't walk or ride bikes to school but arrive in caravans of private cars that choke local roads and worsen rush hour traffic.
You are the biggest consumers of manufactured goods ever and update perfectly good expensive luxury items to stay trendy,
Your entertainment comes from electric devices.
Furthermore, the people driving your protests are the same people who insist on artificially inflating the population growth through immigration, which increases the need for energy, manufacturing and transport.
The more people we have, the more forest and bushland we clear and more of the environment is destroyed.
How about this...
Tell your teachers to switch off the air-con.
Walk or ride to school. Switch off your devices and read a book.
Make a sandwich instead of buying manufactured fast food.
No, none of this will happen because you are selfish, badly educated, virtue signalling little 'princesses', inspired by the adults around you who crave a feeling of having a 'noble cause' while they indulge themselves in Western luxury and unprecedented
quality of life.
Wake up, grow up and learn to research facts and think for yourself and not blindly accept the words and thoughts of others - I don't think you formulated this action plan all by your self - suspect you may have had some influence and  'guidance' from
those you trust ....a word of warning, be cautious of the influence of the 'left' because there may be a time in the future that you will be the ones left out...

 

Amen.

Why not tomorrow?

All those running to win the election are promising absolutely ridiculous zero carbon targets.  Twenty years?  Thirty years?  Might as well be tomorrow.  Not going to happen.  The entire world runs on the automotive industry and the oil that fuels it. 

It's not just the car makers, it's all the support industries that feed and rely on it.  Think about it, it's all of us.  One of my sons works in retail automotive and his business is expanding like crazy.  He travels all over Canada opening new stores and trust me, they're not going to close in the communities in which they are situated.  Is the world going to shut down in 20 or 30 years so emissions can be eliminated?  No.  Do people actually believe this and do politicians actually believe they do?  Seems so.

And the money, the billions they are all promising to hand out, all the while cutting taxes, is ludicrous.  We already have billions in debt and deficit, so it's only going to get worse.  Right now, no one trusts the inept and crooked Trudeau, no one has warmed to the beige Scheer, no one likes the hysterical May and no one wants Singh (for a lot of reasons).  Where does that leave us?  I predict many voters won't because they can't bear to. 

I will and so will my children because it's a civic duty we have drummed into them.  The whole thing is a crap shoot.      

Hilarious

Of course, it's completely non-politically-correct, but B said the other day, "Blackface matters."  I nearly drove off the road.  As I said, costume party hijinks mean nothing to me, nor should they to anyone else.  Trudeau, with all his incompetence, was simply showcasing his narcissism by showing up in blackface. 

I don't care, people.  Get over it.  There are bigger fish to fry in this country and election.

The other person I have no time for is that ridiculous Greta Thunberg.  What the h-ll is she doing traipsing around the world giving everyone sh-t?!  Obviously, her parents are behind all this because what sixteen-year-old would dream this publicity stunt up all by herself?  Poor old Maxim Bernier was pilloried for saying she was disturbed, but she bloody well is.  She's another one who should be quiet (was going to say "shut up", but am trying to be fake-polite) and get back to school.

The root causes....

....are the parents.  All the talking heads blabbing about the partial gun ban are completely missing the point.  One young woman-of-colour said youth gun violence was the result of the cutbacks to social programs aimed at young men, who then join gangs and kill one another.

No.

As I just said, the "root causes" are the parents.  Period the end.  Does it occur to no one but me that the parents have been delinquent here?  If you're a responsible, law-abiding parent, you would make sure your kids didn't buy guns and join gangs.  It's the same with the natives.  They all blame "the government" for the sad state of Indian reserves, but it's the families living there and their leaders who are the root cause and the problem.  G-d knows "the government", i.e., you and me, give them lots of money because they insist on staying there...to get the money, by the way....but they completely mis-manage it causing their people to live in squalor simply because they insist on managing the money themselves.  Duh!   

Remember Tina Fontaine? (See "With their faces hanging out," Sept. 24, 2014)  Everyone and their brother -- including her parents, who were living in the same city at the time and went on tv  -- blamed "the system".  What was she doing in care in the first place?  Ya, right.  That was a rhetorical question.

Now celebrity native Jodi Wilson-Raybould has penned an OpEd piece in 'The Globe and Mail" which made my eyes bulge.  "The key reason I ran for office was the desire to help create the legal and political space for Indigenous peoples to be self-determining, including self-governing," she writes.  Really?  No society can be self-governing and self-determining while pocketing billions from an outside source.  How could you miss that obvious truth, Jodi?  Ah, but Jodi only speaks "her truth," sorry I forgot.      

Frankly, I can't think of another group funded by the taxpayer that gets off as scott-free as the natives.  Accountable to no one, they also expect to follow none of the rules the rest of us do -- like generate their own wealth, defend their borders, raise an army, raise their own children, etc., etc., etc.  In other words, they're not actually "nations".  It's all getting a tad tiring, but I did expect a little more intelligence from Wilson-Raybould. 

Seems all natives spout the same complaints.  Do none speak for themselves?  I guess if they don't go along with Perry Bellegarde and his gang of merry men they wouldn't dare say it out loud in the public thoroughfare.

And don't even get me started on Cindy Blackstock.................!!  (See "She's done it again," Sept. 8, 2019)

Shut up

That's what Andrew Scheer, Jagmeet Singh and Justin Trudeau need to do about this ridiculous "blackface" thing.  So the guy went to an Aladdin-themed costume party dressed as Aladdin with his face blackened.  Who cares?  I couldn't give a sh-t.  I have been to a number of costume parties dressed as a football player and any number of other bizarre identities -- including a winding road with signs stuck all over me -- but that doesn't mean I am insulting football players or road signs.  B has also gone dressed as a woman, but that doesn't mean he is demeaning women.  WTF?!

And while we're at it, let's have a talk with the makers of  'Aunt Jemima' syrup, or 'Quaker Oats'.  Seriously.  All the blather about "cultural appropriation" needs to stop. 

The media has gone berserk, as was to have been expected.  If they wanted to have said anything, Scheer and Singh should just have said, "The pictures speak for themselves," and then shut up.  The moral indignation of Scheer and the offense-taking of Singh are ludicrous.  These people claim to be able to lead Canada, yet they are stuck on costume-party highjinks.  Get over yourselves.  And, by the way, Trudeau should just shut up too.  He apologized (frankly I would not have grovelled as much as he) and now needs to move on.  (Note:  I am not a fan of Trudeau and have no time for him.)

Sadly, the majority of indignant talking heads the media is interviewing are visible minorities.  Kind'a colours (sorry) their opinions, in my view. 
______________________________________________
But what I really want to talk about is Sidney.  We frequent a local establishment in Bowness run by a most charming and gregarious young man.  Watching him walk around, I went out on a limb and asked him yesterday if he had every studied ballet?  I knew this was a weird question, but the way he walked struck me.  He strode with authority and purpose.  Guess what?  Yes, he had been part of a ballet company for 12 years.  I knew it!  He was amazed, but I always remember what my own ballet teacher said many years ago, "Girls, you can always tell a ballet dancer by the way they walk."  That is Sidney.  His back is ramrod straight and his head held high.  "I can just see you strutting onto stage," I told him.  Here is he is:

   

    

The family just got bigger

It seems my late ex-husband had another child no one knew about.  Turns out he had had an affair with a young lady after we broke up and fathered a daughter.  I met the woman back then, but had no clue!?  This "baby" is now 34 and looked up her brother and sister (my kids) and eventually contacted me.

I was delighted!  But he must not have been because he refused to sign on as the biological father.  I also contacted the mother and ex-girlfriend and we have exchanged very informative emails.  She told me things I had no clue about and I her. 

The other daughter is married with three lovely young children, so Bob actually had three kids and five grands.  Amazingly, this unknown daughter ended up in the same profession with the same talent as her father.  The apple doesn't fall far.....and all that.

So, the circle is squared.  She has also been in touch with Bob's brothers, at least one of whom has welcomed her into his life.  We are all thrilled -- at least I am.  As an adoptee, I know how important it is to find your roots.  This woman still has her birth mother; sadly, by the time I found mine, she had died a year earlier.  Ah well, at least I know from whence I came. 

Kevin and David

Out the other night, B and I met two young men.  We always sit at the bar because that's where you meet people.  We sat in between the two, one 37, the other 34, and started to chat.  They had not been talking to each other, but when both started engaging with us, everyone joined in. 

Naturally, I started calling them on their BS, which was legion.  They wanted to talk politics, women, children....the works and the more I set them straight -- I thought -- the more they liked it.  B just sat there laughing.  He's heard it all before.  David had just returned from Fort Mac, where he had earned $10,000 for a week's work, so he insisted on paying our bill.  I tried to argue to no avail. 

Folks, that's what happens when to chat to people at the bar.  I learn more that way than any other.      

Still true

Someone sent this to me, so true today!  I love #'s 3 and 4:
_____________________________________________________

 

Will Rogers, who died in a 1935 plane crash in Alaska with bush pilot Wiley Post, was one of the greatest political country/cowboy sages this country has ever known. Some of his sayings:

  1. Never slap a man who's chewing tobacco.

2. Never kick a cow chip on a hot day.

3. There are two theories to arguing with a woman. Neither works.

4. Never miss a good chance to shut up.

5. Always drink upstream from the herd.

6. If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.

7. The quickest way to double your money is to fold it and put it back into your pocket.

8. There are three kinds of men:

The ones who learn by reading.
The few who learn by observation.
The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence and find out for themselves.

9. Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.

10. If you're riding ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and then to make sure it's still there.

11. Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier'n puttin' it back.

12. After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring.
He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him.

The moral : When you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut.

  ABOUT GROWING OLDER...

First ~ Eventually you will reach a point when you stop lying about your age
and start bragging about it.

Second ~ The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for.

Third ~ Some people try to turn back their odometers. Not me; I want people to know why I look this way. I've traveled a long way, and some of the roads weren't paved.

Fourth ~ When you are dissatisfied and would like to go back to youth, think of algebra.

Fifth ~ You know you are getting old when everything either dries up or leaks.

Sixth ~ I don't know how I got over the hill without getting to the top.

Seventh ~ One of the many things no one tells you about aging is that it's such a nice change from being young.

Eighth ~ One must wait until evening to see how splendid the day has been.

Ninth ~ Being young is beautiful, but being old is comfortable and relaxed.

Tenth ~ Long ago, when men cursed and beat the ground with sticks, it was called witchcraft. Today it's called golf.

She's done it again

But in a bad way.  Cindy Blackstock, executive director of the first nations child and family caring society, has just secured a $2,600,000,000 payday for native children taken into care after January, 2006.

Yep, that's two billion six hundred million bucks for about 54,000 children.  It's insane!  The Human Rights Tribunal said the federal government discriminated against Indigenous children living on reserve by failing to provide funding for child and family services.

Really?  Canadians give natives between $10 - 17 billion dollars every year.  This is money transferred via The Indian Act for on-reserve natives -- on-reserve so their leaders receive money.  How can so many kids be neglected?  Because they live on a reserve, where there is nothing to do and virtually no work for the parents who get involved in dangerous lifestyles that impede their ability to take care of their children.  That's why.

"This is a major victory for fairness and justice," squawked the ever-bellicose, fact-allergic AFN chief Perry Bellegarde.  "It's about the safety of children and their right to be with their families," he opined.  Does anyone really think these kids would have been taken into care for no reason?  It's all about money and since looking after foster kids costs a bundle, it's not done for no reason.

Native leadership complains constantly about conditions on reserves, yet does nothing about it.  What do you think these kids will do with their payday boondoggle?  Go to university?  Not enough of them have a proper education to do so even with all the special programs and incentives afforded them.  No, most drift back to the reserve when legally able and what hope have they there?

Canada is a country of human rights, charter rights, apologies, payouts.....and on....and on.  We never really accomplish anything meaningful to the world.  We used to, when the National Research Council was adequately funded and Canadian scientists developed lucrative patents sold all over the world.  My own late father was head of the rubber lab there and responsible for about 250 patents that made billions for the country.  If you want to know how important synthetic rubber is to the world, google it.  Now we're a country of people who do each other's laundry.

Natives need to get off the reserve and integrate into mainstream society.  But they won't.  Folks, this is an insoluble problem.     

The elephant in the room

With all the columns and opinions about why the NDP is in the toilet, no one mentions the obvious:  Jagmeet Singh wears his religion on his sleeve, so to speak.  Governments are secular institutions, not religious, and the essential principle of the "Separation between Church and State" is sacrosanct. 

Citizens must not know the religion of a political leader or public servant when accessing a public service, i.e., a service paid for by the public.  Google it, it's all there.  Such services are to be dispensed objectively and without any indication of what religion the employee holds.  That is why the historic crucifix in the Quebec Assembly has been removed.  It's also why the bill passed by Quebec bans the wearing of hijabs, niqabs, kirpas and burkhas by teachers, nurses, driver examiners....you name it.  They cannot be worn.   

With the NDP leader, this is not the case.  We know his religion and we should not.  Did everyone skip that class in high school?!  And it has nothing to do with one religion or another.  Church and State must be separate.  Until very recently, Quebec was run by the Catholic Church, which also, for all intents and purposes, ran the government.  No longer.  But in spite of this, Singh has doubled down on his religion by appearing in ads with his hair exposed and donning a turban.  The whole campaign will be dominated by the fact he is a Sikh.

How dumb and undemocratic.  I told you a while ago that he was elected leader of the NDP by Sikhs who joined the party just before the leadership convention, got him elected and then buggered off.  Too bad they didn't fill the party's empty coffers before they headed for the hills because the party is bankrupt. 

Singh may not even win his seat and I predict the NDP will not even get official party status in this election.  Traditional NDPers like Charlie Angus and Nathan Cullen are effed.  Cullen isn't even going to run, along with scores of others.  In fact, the NDP can't even find candidates in half the ridings. 
_______________________________________

Speaking of politicians, I agree wholeheartedly with British PM Boris Johnson, who vows to leave the EU without a deal.  Everyone is up-in-arms and Parliament is in chaos, but Johnson knows he will never get a deal with the EU, so why bother.  Theresa May tried three times to get one through and failed, so there is no way he will succeed.  Whether there is a snap election or not -- I predict "not" because the only thing worse than Johnson would be Jeremy Corbin -- Britain will have to negotiate bilateral trade deals with every EU country.  That's what's going to happen.