Sloganism

That seems to be all Kamala Harris has to offer:  Feel good clichés and slogans.  Reminds me of Kim Campbell's disastrous campaign when she said, "An election campaign is no time to discuss serious issues."

That killed her -- that and her ineptitude.

I notice that many people are cheering and rooting for Harris, regardless of what she says -- which is usually nothing worth noting.  Many women, for example, will vote for her just because she's a woman.  Gender is no reason at all.  That's simply blind ignorance and being uninformed about issues.  

(Speaking of being uninformed, I have decided not to discuss politics with anyone who does not read national media, like 'The Globe and Mail'.  My first question will be, "Do you follow national media?"  If the answer is "no", I will not engage.) 

And that giggling and grinning!  Unbearable.  Try as I might, I cannot see her standing up to Putin or Xi because they will not back down when she giggles at them over a pile of nuclear weapons.

What is her slogan?  "A new way forward," or some other such nonsense.  And what exactly has she been doing for the last four years?  Wasn't she supposed to clean up the border?  Didn't happen, it's a sieve.   

The potential leader of the free world.  Help us all!

Here in Canada, all the polls are saying that Trudeau has no chance.  I thought that too, until I had a second thought.  People who say they won't vote for Trudeau also say they can't vote for Poilievre either.  I read letters to the editor from people who claim they can't support Poilievre, but won't vote for Trudeau.

What could happen is that these people will simply stay home and all the Trudeau-ites will come out and vote.  Gawd help us because that will mean Trudeau will get in!%#$%!!$%  I can't bear to even think about it, but it you are against Trudeau, please hold your nose and vote for Poilievre.  Please don't stay home!

I know it sounded insane.....

....but in some cultures, they do eat cats and dogs.  Trump's vilification for saying it was predictable, but I remember when I was a kid in Ottawa, there was a huge scandal because the Chinese restaurant on the little island off the Champlain Bridge was shut down for using cat meat in its recipes.

All true.

The French eat horse meat, something we find horrific.  Many Asian and South Asian cultures eat insects and other creatures because food is scarce.  The Chinese are the biggest consumers of cats and dogs, but the Swiss also consume their pets, although I can't imagine Roger Federer chowing down on fluffy the cat before a big match.  But, if you don't believe me, google it.  This what I found:

"A small percentage of Swiss population secretly eats cats, dogs, and horses. Eating cat and dog meat is part of Christmas celebrations. While there are no commercial slaughterhouses for cats and dogs, farmers kill the animals themselves.  'Unmentionable Cuisine,' a 1979 book on taboo food around the world by Calvin Schwabe, detailed the Swiss recipe for dried dog meat.  Swiss cantons of Appenzell and St. Gallen have a tradition of eating dog meat, preserving it as sausages, as well as using it for medicinal purposes."

Dinner in some cultures.

But, as I say, the abuse and horror aimed at Trump was predictable.  The mainstream media jumps all over anything Trump says, which is why I no longer watch it.  I now get my news from YouTube via people like Victor Davis Hanson, Thomas Sewell, Douglas Murray, Ben Carson, Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson, Larry Elder and others of their ilk.

Here in Canada, talking heads are falling all over themselves praising Mark Carney for being an economic genius.  Look at his impeccable resumé, they scream!  What they don't look into (because they are lazy) is the fact that his appointment as governor of the Bank of England was terminated after barely three years -- two short of the usual appointment.  He f-cked up in that job, but no one mentions that inconvenient fact.

Freeland and Champagne must be fuming that Trudeau parachuted Carney in over them because, speaking of effing up, both have botched their portfolios spectacularly!  Freeland has been minister of finance for four years, as well as deputy PM, and she is not only ineffectual, but also ruinous for the Canadian economy.

The gang that couldn't shoot straight HAS TO GO!

Insanity

 If you are sucked in by Kamala Harris, read this and educate yourself -- please.  (And while you're at it, have a listen to Thomas Sewell on YouTube.)   Re-printed from the Catholic League newsletter:

September 9, 2024

The delusional and woke Walz.

"Minnesota Gov. and vice presidential candidate Tim Walz has some very bizarre, even repugnant, ideas about education. He has been reluctant to talk about them, and the media have shown no interest in pressing him on this issue.

"Walz has had little to say about the rigors of the curriculum, but he has addressed a variety of side issues. One of them involves equity, diversity and inclusion, code words for combating racism by promoting more of it. He is responsible for launching a center at the Minnesota Department of Education to further this cause.

"The education gurus who are the key contributors to this radical agenda include Boston University professor Ibram X. Kendi—he believes all white people are inveterate racists—and Robin DiAngelo, the disgraced author accused of plagiarizing her University of Washington 2004 Ph.D. dissertation. Both have made millions hawking their ideology.

"Walz is also responsible for making Ethnic Studies a requirement for graduation.

"When I taught a college course on Ethnic Studies, I had the students learn about the Irish (the European example), Puerto Ricans (the Latino example), African Americans (the African example), the Japanese (the Asian example) and Jews (the Middle Eastern example). 

"This is not Walz’s idea of Ethnic Studies. His notion involves introducing students to lectures on oppression and “cisheteropatriarchy,” which roughly means the study of successful heterosexual males, though in the courses Walz favors it means these guys are responsible for oppressing the world.

"Walz is also interested in advancing the LGBTQ agenda, which has no intrinsic bearing on education. He earned the tag “Tampon Tim” when he ordered tampons be made available in every men’s bathroom in the state. Men cannot menstruate, which explains why tampons have never been placed in men’s bathrooms. But this doesn’t matter to Walz.

"His anti-science view is shared by Hillary Clinton; she commended him for his “compassionate and common-sense policy.” Also, Minnesota State Rep. Sandra Feist defended Walz by saying, “Not all students who menstruate are female.” She did not identify one person who has a penis, scrotum and testicles who menstruates. He doesn’t exist, except in their heads.

"Walz is so passionate about the LGBTQ agenda that effective in July 2025 he is going to mandate that all teachers affirm the sex of a student who falsely maintains that he is of the opposite sex. In other words, if Johnny thinks he is Jane and wants to be called she/her, or even they/them, then the teachers must oblige.

"As Joy Pullman, the executive editor of The Federalist, notes, this would effectively “ban practicing Christians, Jews, and Muslims from teaching in public schools.” They do not accept the anti-science view that one’s sex is a subjective determination.

"What makes Walz so dangerous is that he refuses to promote school choice, thus ensuring that most students are indoctrinated with his left-wing ideas about race and sex.

"Every poll taken in Minnesota on school choice shows that more than 70 percent favor it, and this includes a majority of Democrats. Moreover, 26 states have some form of school choice program—21 run by Republicans and 5 by Democrats—but Walz refuses to offer minorities (whom he claims to champion) the same opportunity to select the school of their choice that those who are more affluent already enjoy.

"The media are delinquent in not telling the truth about Walz’s education record. It’s a disaster, and so is the cover up."

Kyrgios was better

While the US Open Men's Final was playing, I tuned out and turned on a couple of the best-plays videos on YouTube of Nick Kyrgios.  Now, there's a tennis player!

He has beaten all the GOATs and I believe could have shellacked Fritz in that final.  He's now a commentator, and I love him in that role too, but he is a wonderful tennis player.  He has every shot in the book and goes for them fearlessly.

Nick being Nick

Today's game is all power slugging, until someone hits it out, or into the net.  That's not tennis!  Might as well be baseball.  BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG OUT!

It was galling to hear Chrissy Evert calling the match because she is the one who wrecked tennis.  She's the one who started all that baseline pounding.  She won many tournaments because she was accurate, but she was boring.

People seem to hate Kyrgios, judging by the nasty online comments they post.  But I guarantee you, if you watch a few videos, you'll be amazed and thoroughly entertained.  One of the best is "Nick Kyrgios being Nick Kyrgios".  It shows him in all his glory.

The women's game is actually worse, with all the screaming and hammering.  When I played -- albeit badly -- it was a game of finesse.  And speaking of finesse, if you want a lesson in that skill, ask B.  He was a nationally-ranked player back-in-the-day and played junior Davis Cup for Canada.  I kid you not.

I hated playing with him.  "Hit it to me," I'd say.  "Are you kidding?" he'd reply.  Didn't take long for me to refuse to play with him -- especially doubles, when he'd whisper curses after I had brilliantly flubbed a shot.  "How could you miss that?!" he'd say.

So, it'll be Nick all the way for me when I want to watch entertaining, fun tennis.

 

Always the same, old story

Whenever a British colony breaks away and becomes an independent country, chaos, authoritarian dictatorships and crime reign.  

On both sides of B's family, the British military figured prominently for 250 years.  One of his uncles was regimental garrison commander in the British army in Lagos, Nigeria, when there were only two states.  Britain ruled Nigeria from 1882 to 1960, but the country couldn't cope without them.  Six years after the Brits left, Nigeria overthrew the democracy that was created for them and instead of two, peaceful states, there are now 36, all divided along warring, tribal lines.

Another uncle was police commander in Kenya; one of his great-grandfathers the district commissioner of Allahabad in India.  B was born in Bombay, his sister in Calcutta.  These countries all worked when the Brits ran them.  Recently, the Indian owner of a restaurant we frequent said, "The only things that work in India are the things the British put in, railways, water navigation, government and education."

Now, just take a look at Zimbabwe, one of many examples.  When ruled by Britain, it was a prosperous country called Rhodesia.  Now it's a crime-ridden sh-t hole.

The once-proud passenger railway system, for example, has not run for two years and trains have been shut down and parked idly in train stations, decaying on sidings.  What have they become?  Brothels, drug dens, playgrounds for ragged, abandoned street children and rough shelters for the homeless.

A once first-class passenger train system in ruins.

You can thank its independence in 1980, when Joshua Nkomo became president.  He was followed by the ruthlessly corrupt Robert Mugabe and his successor Emmerson Mnangagwa.  Nothing ever changes when tribal rule takes over African countries.  Zimbabwe's economy has fallen into steep decline, largely because of state dysfunction under successive autocratic regimes.

Hundreds of factories have shut down, electricity and water systems have deteriorated and hospitals and clinics are hobbled by shortages of medicine and other supplies.  

"If I get a client, I just bring him here and get into any of the open passenger trains to do my business," says 24-year-old prostitute Lindiwe Zilawe, who added that she performs sex work daily at Harare's once-bustling train station.  "We just pay off the security guards and use the trains for free," she adds.  

Canada has given $1.2 billion since 2018 to Africa's francophone countries -- also war zones with carnage everywhere.  Why?  Mélanie Joly says it's to improve them.

Fat chance.  The money just goes into the off-shore bank accounts of corrupt dictators.  (I've written a number of blogs on the subject, See "Africa, a stupid continent," Nov. 17, 2017, and "In the vernacular," Jan. 12, 2018)  That's where your money is going if you give a cent to any African organization.  

_________________________

Speaking of messes, Afghanistan continues to fester in ruins.  Sally Armstrong, journalist and human-rights activist, wrote a depressing column the other day in 'The Globe and Mail' about a new 114-page document on morality recently released by the Taliban's supreme leader, Hibatulla Akhundzada.  It decrees that women must completely cover their bodies and faces to avoid leading men into temptation and vice.

The reality for women in Afghanistan.

It also states that women's voices are potential instruments of vice and will not be allowed to be heard in public.  The ban includes a prohibition of women singing or reading aloud -- even in the privacy of their own homes.  Does that mean your son must report you for humming a ditty at the kitchen table?!

Unreal!

"If women and girls could use their voices, they would speak of evil, of being ruled, judged controlled and abused by a collection of ignorant, misogynist men," writes Armstrong.  "While diplomats' and Western officials' attempts to negotiate with the Taliban are understandable, in reality, there's nothing to negotiate.

"Women and girls cause the Taliban extraordinary fear as they believe they won't be able to control themselves sexually in their presence.  Women have to be covered, denied the right to be seen and heard.  Why don't we call this for what it it," she writes.  "This is the behaviour of sexual perverts.  It is the behaviour of deviants and it is the behaviour of incompetents who have failed as patriots and leaders."

When I taught Business English at Algonquin College after I retired, I realized the hypocrisy of the whole mess.  The Muslim female students in my classes wore the Hijab, but were also plastered with makeup, bright nail polish and high heels -- all symbols of come hither sexuality.  They also had designated washrooms.  We were not permitted to use these facilities, but they could use the regular washrooms anytime they fancied.

The Pinecrest Pool was another example.  They closed the pool to the public -- in spite of your tax dollars paying for it -- for Muslim-women-only swim times.  In Calgary, where I used to swim, Muslim women could also enter the pool fully-covered, but G-d help anyone else who decided to wear a shirt or any other garment.  

In Afghanistan, the useless deployment and death of so many Canadian servicemen and women to protect the country from itself was a tragedy.

    

 

Swimming

"Wading into a cool lake on a hot summer day, stretching you arms out in front of you and diving in, then coming up for air and gliding through the open water.  It's always a transforming experience.  A new element.  A new world.  The mind freed by the meditative rhythm of each stroke, each breath."

That was the editorial in 'The Globe and Mail' yesterday.  I was surprised they would feature little, ole swimming, but they did.  They called it "the elixir of life" and said it was a pleasure every Canadian should be able to enjoy.

Spray Lakes pool, where I do my 40 laps (1K)

I agree.  As you know, I am a regular swimmer in both open water and pools, but many Canadians -- especially immigrants -- cannot swim.  This is hazardous in a country with so many lakes, oceans and rivers.  Every year, approximately 460 Canadians drown and those that survive cost the economy $200 million in rescues.

That should never be.  Swimming lessons abound everywhere and if you live in Canada and can't swim, take a few.  I grew up swimming and so did my kids.  I was a lifeguard and swimming instructor as a teen and loved the job.  I even saved a couple of kids at Brighton Beach, where I worked.  All in a day's work.

When I was nine, I nearly drowned -- or should I say, someone nearly drowned me.  It was at the beach at our cottage.  I was swimming and suddenly saw this wild-eyed girl coming toward me.  I knew she was drowning and I knew she was going to grab me.  She did and pushed me under.  I struggled up a few times, scratching her in the effort, but she was a teenager and much bigger and she prevailed.  

She was screaming and finally, as I knew I could not get up one more time and was going to die, someone pulled me up by the hair and into a boat.  I was hysterical and in shock and spent the rest of the day in bed.  

I will never forget that awful day 68 years ago.  But I kept swimming because that experience taught me that drowning would be one of the worst ways to die.  Absolutely terrifying.

Last year, starting my daily 1 K around it bay.

Swimming is physical, but it can also feel metaphysical.  For many swimmers, me included, the act of swimming is a tonic -- a restorative, a stimulant, undertaken for a feeling of vigor and well-being.  Until I can't, I will keep plowing through the water.

After my annual, 2K swim in Lake Windermere, B.C.