Another outrageous handout

 How can this be happening?!  I see the shady hand of Cindy Blackstock in this.  Blackstock is the head of the Caring Society for First Nations Children and is obviously once again a key player in this giveaway.  Virtue-signalling Trudeau is handing native bands another $542 million for child-welfare services  -- millions more we don't have and the natives have already been given! This works out to approximately $1,355,000 per band -- on top of the billions they already receive!!!  

Reading through my previous blogs, I realize this is not the first time about the same numbers of millions have been handed Cindy-and-her-Merry-Band for the exact same thing:  Child welfare and education. 

What will that achieve?  Please tell me!  No one asks the question as to why a hugely disproportionate number of native on-reserve children have to be taken into care in the first place.  No one would dare ask.  Why is that?  Just once, I'd like to see a journalist actually follow the native money and go public.  Afterall, it's our money, yet only Stephen Harper had the nuts to ask for accountability, which Trudeau cancelled with the stroke of a pen before even taking off his coat when he first walked into the PMO.

And why has the native kinship program failed to care for children taken from their parents?  Natives demanded this program, but since it doesn't often work out, they've asked for more money!

What will that do?  Nothing.  Throwing more money at natives never works.  Never.  In fact, it is a disincentive.  Natives always claim they can't look after their own children because of a lack of funding.  That's complete bullsh-t.  Apparently, the good money now being thrown after bad is to, "support negotiations with provincial and federal authorities."  "Negotiations" always means "give us more money".

Natives need to move off reserve and join mainstream society.  They can still have their friendship centres and maintain their own culture -- just as hundreds of other ethnic groups manage very successfully.  But they will never move off the reserves because that's how the money flows to them, via The Indian Act.  They claim they want to reform the Act, but that's balderdash.  

It's all a tragedy for the children, Cindy.  Here's the headline from 'The Globe and Mail'.  Shame, shame.

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p.s.  Murray Sinclair is finally retiring from the Senate, but says he fully intends to keep bleating on about how hard-done-by natives are.  What did his "Truth and Reconcilliation Commission" achieve -- other than five years wasted and millions spent traipsing across the country, dredging up old wounds and and making sure ancient grievances remained fresh and fanned?  Nothing.  Volumes and volumes sit gathering dust in some store room, along with all the others.  He has one agenda:  Native history and how badly all natives were treated. 

In fact, all ethnics seems to have one agenda:  Race.  Before the CBC dumped actual journalists on the 'The Sunday Scrum', into which I used to tune regularly, and gave over the entire time slot to the incompetent Rosemary Barton, I watched faithfully.  At least one could hear some semblance of objectivity from John Ibbitson.  Unfortunately, it was at times accompanied by the bleeding heart of Susan Riley, for example and even worse podcaster Vicky Mochama (whoever she is/was) and Courtney Skye, from the Yellowhead Institute (another who's that?), the latter of which broadcast from her car, into which she could hardly fit.  

And speaking of the unspeakable, can anyone bear another second of Barton?  She, like the also CBC-trained Evan Solomon, can't shut up.  In asking a question, she first lays into the unsuspecting guest with an entire treatise of her own irrelevant opinion, obviously coaching him/her about what she expects as an answer.  As the guest tries vainly to answer, it reminds me of that scene in 'Uncle Buck' in which John Candy tries to explain himself on the phone to his girlfriend.  All we get from Buck is, "But....let me.....I didn't.....please.....come on...."  Doesn't stand a chance.  That's Barton to a tee.  Always laughing in the wrong places, plus a whole bunch of other inappropriate noise.  Gawd!

On 'Question Period' predictably, Vicky and Courtney ONLY talked about issues from the race* perspective, Vicky being Black and Courtney native.  The interviewer could ask a question about the price of tea in China, but inevitably the answer would veer into into the horrors of colonialism and residential schools.  Not once did these two ever say anything objective about any topic introduced.  Not once.  And that seems to be the issue with every public figure who isn't Caucasian.  They may start out trying to be objective, but they always slide into race, which in my world renders their opinions meaningless.  

But I digress.  All I'd like to say about Senator Murray is, thanks for bringing such a positive impact into the public thoroughfare.    

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*I am talking about their definition of "race", not mine.  As you know, in my world we are all one race, the Human one; everything else is cultural and personal.  

Could this be it?

 Could this be the end of the world?  I have now heard that mutations of this beast-of-a-virus have started to emerge, meaning that the whenever-we-get-it vaccine will be ineffective for these new strains.  

OMG!  We may be heading for a fate similar to the Aztecs and Incas, who mysteriously poofed from the face of the earth.  Some sort of virus probably killed them off too, but this may be much greater.  A very spiritual friend of mine said simply and calmly, "Something much bigger is going on, Nancy."  "The second coming?" I replied.  "Oh, he's definitely coming back," said my friend.

Frankly, I am starting to agree.  God has always had a plan and this may be the End Game.  Another friend said, "Stick to the stitching; God will handle the pattern."  He also said, "If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plan."

Exactly. 

Thrilled!

My seven-volume, hard-cover, full-colour, glossy blog journals arrived yesterday.  It's magnificent!  The publishers did an amazing job in layout and design and I am flabbergasted at the professionalism of it.  Here's one volume:

I know it was expensive -- $1,200 -- but it was so worth it.  Actually, I think I got a bargain!  It only took two-and-a-half weeks from when I ordered it, November 10th, and here it is printed, shipped and delivered.  Bite me McLelland and Stewart and every other traditional printer.

In fact, had I sent my blog to any of them, it would have been rejected.  

Started reading through it and was brought up short by how good a writer I am.  Frankly, I could not put it down.  Sorry to say, but I am a good and entertaining writer and am not going to be falsely modest about it.  I really wonder how far I could have gone in the journalism world in Toronto had I not moved to Ottawa with then-husband.  When I think that my contemporaries were Christie Blatchford and Margaret Wente, I think pretty far.  That marriage didn't last, but gave me two fabulous offspring, so that's what I focus on, not my lost career as a journalist.  But still......

These journals are my legacy and will ensure my grandchildren know there was more to grandma than muffins. 

Our fearless leader

 Tam in her usual pose:  "I have no idea what's going on?"

Under rocks

 University professors seem to love dwelling there.  Two such oddities wrote a column in yesterday's 'Globe and Mail' urging Canada to become a global leader in COVID-19 treatments.  Ha!  We can't even get the vaccine, let alone be a world leader.

These are not the days of well-funded research, as when Banting and Best developed the diabetes treatment, or when Jonas Salk came up with a vaccine for polio.  No, these are the days when every major drug manufacturer fled this country and Canada privatized the Connaught Labs.  

The fact that these firms are about making money meant they could not stay in Canada without financial subsidies.  But Canada, being Canada, didn't step up.  No, we threw it all over to the likes of Theresa Tam.  How'd that work out?

I have this sinking feeling that, in trying t re-order the world, Trudeau and his "Laurentian Elite" buddies lied to Canadians about how we'd have everyone vaccinated starting in November.  He must have known that was a blatant lie and on 'Power Play', Dr. Amir Attaran, a law and medicine professor at Ottawa U, said so out loud.  This expert also said that Canada actually has the capacity to manufacturer the vaccine right now and in citing numbers, said that Trudeau's claims to the contrary were "simply not true".  Google yesterday's 'Power Play' and be prepared to be shocked.

Frankly, I think the strategy is to just let the vulnerable die, such as old people.  That would certainly save a lot of CPP -- the funds for which are quickly drying up.  

   

Ludicrous

 Ottawa is going to pour yet more money down the drain in Afghanistan.  Another $270 million.  This has got to stop.  It's for reconstruction, health, education, women's "empowerment", human rights and security -- all things that don't exist in that tribal country.

When will the west learn that these countries have always been tribal, are tribal and will continue to be tribal.  I remember attending a dinner where the hapless Flora MacDonald was the speaker.  She'd just returned from running around from tribe to tribe in Afghanistan with sad little stoves to help the beleaguered women cook whatever their ruler-husbands permitted.  She had been on yet another one of those heartfelt missions, such as the ones Margaret Trudeau (the hippie who ruined Justin) used to take to help them drill wells.

It's all so useless.  People have been invading Afghanistan, as well as all the other "stans" for centuries, trying to conquer them.  All for naught.  And let's not forget the hundreds of souls who died in this pointless mission -- including 158 young Canadians.  

Is it to try and garner a useless seat on the meaningless UN Security Council?  Can't think of any other reason.  Here's what one of Trudeau's "sisterhood" ministers bleated about the new money:

"At this pivotal moment (haven't they all been?) it's important to show the people of Afghanistan that the international community is still with them throughout the "peace" negotiations between government and the Taliban,"  said international development minister Karina Gould.     

Except that since negotiations were supposed to have begun in September, they haven't actually started yet due to, "being embroiled in procedural tactics and delays".  Meanwhile, violence and killings in the country continues.

Now, I want you to sit down for this next bit:  Since 2001, Canada has given....wait for it.....$3.6 BILLION to Afghanistan!  Nothing has changed, so guess where our money must have gone?  That was a rhetorical question. 

 

Absolutely criminal

 Theresa Tam fails again.  Apparently, although Canada has purchased millions of doses of several vaccines, we are at the back of the queue to get them.  Other countries, such as the US, Germany and the UK, which have in-house capabilities will get them first from their manufacturers and we probably won't get any doses until March at the earliest.

This is a criminal failure of Health Canada, Tam and that ridiculous Hajdu.  And no one EVER points the finger at either -- especially Tam!?  Why is that?!  For her part, she sees no problem in the catastrophe she has created, yet refuses to even acknowledge her role in the mess?!  Just blithely goes along blaming and lecturing Canadians.

When they finally appear, the priorities will be old-age homes, people over 80, health-care workers and indigenous communities.  Indigenous communities?  These are the places where reports are surfacing of people deliberately flouting and ignoring masks, social distancing, etc., to the point they are even having large gatherings and parties!  Naturally, they are getting sick.  These offenders should be charged, not given priority to get a vaccine.      

A very polite adonis

 Just a word about a young man at the pool, I'll refer to him as "D".  He is absolutely gorgeous and the great thing about being my age is that I can tell him that with no qualms.  When you are younger, you wouldn't dare tell anyone of the other gender he/she was gorgeous!  The young female lifeguards envy me and my candor.

"I thought that was you," he said as I swam up at the end of the lane.  As we distance-chatted, I realized that what made this lovely guy so attractive was his politeness (or is that "politesse"?)  I also told him that too, congratulating his mother for how she reared him.  

At my age, for some reason you become invisible -- except to aggressive young men in cars or trucks tailgating you.  They see my white hair and just HAVE to get by me.  Otherwise, no one notices you anywhere.

_____________________________

On another note, I decided to turn my blog into a book....well actually with more than 1,700 posts since I began, it'll be seven volumes, hard cover.  Very professional-looking, putting my wisdom into book form will only cost $1,200.  Hahahaha!  But I think it'll be worth it so my grandchildren will know that I am more than an old grandma who makes muffins.  I am someone who has -- and had -- a very interesting life and career, someone with opinions and brains.  Otherwise, I will die and they will not have known me.  

More confirmation

 Robyn Urback, in today's 'Globe and Mail' listed a litany of how governments at all levels have been completely incompetent in heading off and fighting this virus.  Nevermind that Bill Gates warned us five years ago that the next big killer was going to be a virus, not a war, Theresa Tam, the WHO and everyone else sat on their hands and did squat.  Writes Urback:

"Nine months later and on the cusp of another lockdown, the mood is less of restless angst than it is (sic) of exasperation and anger.  Anger because of the failure of our leaders to hold up their end of the lockdown bargain.  The deal was that we would give up our lives -- businesses, friends, special occasions -- for a finite period of time and in exchange, governments would get their acts together in preparation for the second wave.  That did not happen in Canada."

You're bloody right it didn't.  

"Rapid testing at airports is still in the pilot-project phase and millions of belatedly procured and approved rapid tests have yet to make their way to the ground.  Manitoba even had to enlist the Red Cross to assist with contract tracing.  (Note: reminds me of when Mayor Mel Lastman declared an emergency and called in the army to clear snow a few years ago.)

"The dereliction of duty and responsibility on the part of governments might explain why, rightfully chastened, certain provincial leaders appear reluctant to enforce comprehensive lockdowns once more, even as cases soar."

I lay it all at the feet of every medical health officer across the country and every provincial and federal minister of health.  They are the ones with blood on their hands.  Frankly, it's criminal and Tam should have been fired and charged long ago.   

   

The last vestiges

 Quite a few years ago, I saw a book entitled 'Grammar is Important -- A Basic Course' in a second-hand bookstore.  Naturally, I had to have it.  First published in 1947 by Irwin Publishing, it is a handbook and lesson planner for elementary school teachers.  As the forward outlines:

"From many educational, social and business groups in all parts of the country has come the demand that students entering secondary schools have a good knowledge of English grammar, including correct usage.  A knowledge of English grammar is recognized as a prerequisite to satisfactory work in English composition and literature.  Its usefulness in social intercourse and in business goes without saying."

Ah, were it only thus today.

This handbook contained what the author deems only the basics, but were students today to grasp even half of what it contains, they'd actually be able to put a proper sentence together.  Each chapter focuses simply on one part of speech, for example verb tenses, classes of conjunctions, simple sentences or such current mysteries as subject, predicate, modifiers and sentence analysis.   

Up until the late sixties, you learnt grammar by the end of grade eight.  Entering high school, you were expected to know it, so it wasn't even on the curriculum.  Instead you began studying English literature.  Not today, as we all know.  Very few people can write properly.  In fact, the main reasons I was promoted and given tasks outside my specific area were because I could write.  

By my analysis, I think what happened is in the fifties and sixties we finished high school and then went to a trade school, or a university.  Those wanting to be teachers or nurses took other training; in the case of teachers, they went to Normal School (now teachers' colleges).  But starting in the early seventies, a few smartie pant'es decided to introduce teaching and educational courses in universities, where graduates got a B.A. in this discipline.  But by then, grammar had gone out the window in elementary schools, so even those with BAs in education were functionally illiterate.  What wonder is it that so few can write?!  

Here is that dear, little book:

   

Fascinating stuff

 Finished Barbara Amiel's memoir, entitled "Friends and Enemies" and was both impressed and surprised.  Impressed because of her crazy life, but surprised by many grammatical mistakes.

Yes, yes, I know.  I do harp on about grammar, but it is important to me.  Years ago, I came across a book in a second-hand bookshop with the irresistible title of "Grammar is Important".  Naturally, I bought it.   Published as a teacher's handbook in 1949, it is a resource that desperately needs to be given mandatory new life.  It is filled with progressive lessons for students, which go from the very basic to the very complex.

Anyhow, back to Amiel's book.  When I lived in Toronto, female journalists like the late Christie Blatchford, Margaret Wente and Amiel were my contemporaries.  They went on to great heights, but I married a guy who wanted to move to Ottawa to start a business and I went along, leaving my illustrious career behind.  Although I did very well, I always wondered what might have befallen me had I stayed in the heady world of journalism in Toronto in the seventies and eighties.  

In her book, many people she mentions I knew, hence I found it fascinating.  I always thought she was a b-tch, but frankly, she was just definite and went after what she wanted -- including rich men.  She had four husbands, but finally stuck with Conrad Black -- prison sentences and all.

Jarring to me were her grammatical errors.  She mixed up "fewer and less" and actually used the word "reoccur", which I always thought was "recur".  And of course, "till" for "until" was everywhere.  As to the 'past perfect'?  MIA most of the time.  Too bad Penguin Random House didn't pick this stuff up.  However, if you want a 600-page page-turner, buy it.

At the end, she actually includes long lists who she considers "friends" and those who are in the "enemy" category.  Friends include Brian and Mila Mulroney and John Turner; enemies listed are Stephen Harper, David Johnston and Beverley McLachlin, among dozens of others.  

All in all, she's quite the broad.  

What have I been saying all along!

 

Lucki's been another Trudeau disaster -- joining Freeland, Tam, Hadju, Monseff, Payette and all the other "woke" female appointments this phony feminist has made.  

Watching the service in Ottawa yesterday, she didn't even show up to lay a wreath.  That's unconscionable.  At this point, there are hundreds of official reports pointing out how the RCMP has failed to perform, but which Lucki has been sitting on for up to three years refusing to release them, as prescribed by law.

As for wreath-laying insults to our veterans, how about Payette strutting around like a useless peacock.  I guess because she's under investigation, she didn't bring her son as her official escort, as she has had the nerve to do every other time.  Can you imagine being a brave and proud veteran and having to be talked down to by a 12-year-old!?  Neither can I.

And speaking of irrelevant people, why did Sophie Gregoire-what's-her-name traipse up with the embarrassment that is our excuse for a prime minister to lay a wreath?!  Why was she even there?  Just trailing along to make the whole thing so tawdry.  

Boy, have we fallen badly.  

More

"They're not even from our community," said poor Joy McGregor, beseiged Slave Lake councillor trying to find a solution to the homeless natives who are taxing the community's resources.  "I know that sounds horrible and there'll be people that will be all over down my throat for it, but they have to be accountable," she unwisely continued.

Boy, was she right!

She was vilified by other natives, who stood up for the rights of homeless natives to stay homeless, drunk and drug-addled and live off others.  Poor woman.  "We need to work to get them home.  We need to stop being so nice to them.  We need to stop feeding them.  We need to stop doing these wonderful things," she logically continued.  

Wow!  Doomed and damned!  As an aside, B is on a site called The British Raj, because he and his family were part of it in India for 200 years.  Something innocuous he wrote triggered rage in a North American native, who screamed in CAPS at him about how the, "Whites stole all her people's money!!"  Gee, you learn something every day!  

But back to Ms. McGregor.  Pointing out that homeless natives were using a local college's phone-charging stations, stealing hand sanitizer and drinking it, the woebegone Ms. McGregor was attacked and pounced upon by her fellow natives.  

Hemmed in on all sides, she sadly issued an apology.  Too bad.  What did the Driftpile Cree Nation say?  Well, of course they harkened back to first principles:  "What is manifesting as homelessness and/or drug and alcohol addiction today is the direct result of our people's forced disconnection from our land, culture and community by Canadian colonization."  The old "C" word out in force again.  (Note:  How they can be disconnected from their land when they live on it stymies me?) 

"We raise these facts because we believe it is important that we begin with an understanding of the role colonial policies and practices have played -- and continue to play -- in creating the current situation and that we move forward with a shared responsibility for fixing the issues that have been created," the statement went on.

OMG!  The problem is that his statement, and countless others over decades, gives natives who choose that lifestyle a handy excuse to keep living it.  

Will they ever get off the same old song-and-dance?!  No.  As long as they stay on reserves to collect money and as long as they have nothing to do, nothing will change.    

   

Her only agenda

 With Biden elected -- at 77 years old! -- I was disappointed in Kamala Harris' speech.  What did she talk about?  Women.  And Black women.  And South Asian women.  Although predictable, I was hoping she would actually branch out into other areas of the US mess because it's a complete disaster and there are many other things that desperately need attention.    

But no.  She just focused on the fact that a woman had been elected VP.  Actually, no, Kamala, you weren't elected.  You ran for the nomination and lost.  This time you just trailed along with Biden.  And she's not actually "Black", like Michelle Obama.  She's a combination of East Indian and Caribbean, in other words, she didn't grow up in the "Hood".  Oh, and she lived in Westmount and went to the very tony Westmount High School.  So, no, she isn't an authentic American Black woman.  A drop neither in her blood, nor her upbringing.

Talking about how amazing it was for a woman to be a vice president makes it seem as if it had been impossible.  That is a put down to women.  Oh, and by the way, with Mitch McConnell and the Republicans ruling the Senate, Biden will be a eunuch and Harris irrelevant.  That's the way Washington works.

She may turn out to be fabulous and do many wondrous things, but I don't see her off to a good start.  And if she thinks bleating about being a woman is going to bring back and heal all those Trumpites, she's got that wrong.  That will just make those misogynists dig in harder.

Don't get me wrong.  I am one of the women who went to the barricades in the late sixties to fight for women's rights in the workplace to ensure we could come back to the office after having had a baby.  But I have never dined out on it and am not a member of the "sisterhood".  I am my own self-supporting woman and always have been; I don't need to be part of a movement to prove it.

That's why I also have no time for Jagmeet Singh.  His only agenda is race.  If women and people of colour are trying to make a difference, they need to dismount their one-trick ponies.

The other problem is Biden's age.  If something happens to him (highly probable), will Harris be able to stand up to the world's bullies like Putin and China's what-his-name?  Will they respect her.  Those were rhetorical questions.

Once again, the deep and angry divisions in family and friends in the aftermath of this election remind me of the credo in our house while I was growing up:  You never discuss religion, money, sex or politics in polite company.  And our family never did.      

NEP hysteria

 When the hated-in-Alberta Pierre Trudeau introduced the National Energy Program in 1979, Albertans went insane.  Frankly, living as I was in Ottawa, I didn't understand why?  Turns out, I had good reason to wonder.  

In a very informative letter to the editor in 'The Calgary Herald', a man named Tom Kerwin laid out a few facts:

• The 1973 OPEC price hike put the price of a barrel from $17.50 to more than $70 in today's money, creating stagflation across the Western world
• The expectation then was that it would rise to the equivalent of $350 in a few years

Mr. Kerwin points out that the NEP was a reasonable and coordinated approach to create a made-in-Canada price to ensure Canadians didn't freeze in the dark.  Remember all those tags on light switches, warning us to turn out the lights and conserve energy?  I do.  The intent was also to turn Canadians away from oil heating (didn't happen, of course), to break the stranglehold of American oil companies and give all Canadians ownership of the country's oil, as Norway had done.  

Naturally, the oil companies screamed because to accomplish this, the federal government increased its take from 10 to 24 percent.  To me, that was a very moderate increase to make the resource truly Canadian and distribute this national resource fairly for the benefit of all citizens.  Afterall, wasn't Alberta part of Canada, a province that just happened to have oil underfoot through no genius of its own?  

But, as I said, the oil companies went berserk and they are still berserk.  When we moved here and people found out we were from Ottawa and had worked for the federal government, they attacked us over the NEP as if we had held the pen in drafting it.  Editorials and columns still cry over it all.  

But Alberta is in a complete mess of its own making because, in spite of every government for the past 50 years talking about how they were going to diversify the economy, none has done it.  For Alberta, whither gas and oil, whither the entire economy.

Numbers have no colour

 Saw a very enlightening video of a guy named Brandon Straka, who started a campaign to encourage people from believing every lie the Democratic party puts out.  In this video, Straka was debating a young Black woman, representing the hoax of Black Lives Matter.  Straka said:

• Of the 328 million Americans, 41.4 million are Black, or 12.6% of the total population
• Only 9 unarmed Blacks were killed by police in 2019, or .000022%
• A police officer is 18.5 times more likely to be killed by a Black than a Black is likely to be killed by a police officer, and
• 93% of Black homicides are committed by other Blacks

Google it because that puts the lie to the hysterical BLM movement.  The Black woman had no comment.  As he said, numbers have no colour.  Someone must be making big money out of BLM and unfortunately, no one does any research into the real numbers.  

It's the same here with the Murray Sinclair's of this world spending millions and millions traipsing across Canada, holding hearings into "Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls".  The RCMP stats bear out the fact that most are murdered by members of their own families and inner circle.  Yes not once did anyone mention this inconvenient truth.  

It's a a big scam and I'm sick of it.