EDITORIAL SAYS EGYPT'S MORSI MOVES FROM TOO LITTLE TO TOO MUCH POWER - WHY THE WORDS ARE MEANINGLESS - LIKELY TRUTH OF MORSI'S DISMISSING TWO SENIOR OFFICERS

POSTED RESPONSES TO AN EDITORIAL IN TORONTO'S GLOBE AND MAIL

The Globe editorials in recent years have become noted among thinking and informed people as right-wing hack work, a la Margaret Wente or John Ibbitson.

But this one is truly breathtaking for its brutal stupidity.

Too much power?

For an elected government?

As opposed to a military junta?

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Further analysis is appropriate here.

This move may well have been  an orchestrated shadow-play to boost the democratic claims of the new government.

It may well have been part of an agreement worked out with Washington.

The removal of a couple of generals - out of hundreds in the junta - can be regarded as token.

This notion is re-inforced by two important observations.

One, the entirely inappropriate statement by the Pentagon that it will continue its relations with Egypt's military hierarchy.

Can you imagine a more inappropriate statement in diplomatic terms, yet it raised no red flags?

Two, Israel has shown not nearly the same reaction it had during the original anti-Mubarak revolution, a time when many prominent Israelis made terribly anti-democratic, anti-human rights, and pro-dictatorial public statements.

Israel's knows that this little stage play was part of the deal, so it isn't concerned.

After all, you do need some stability in Egypt.

The huff-and-puff of this unthinking piece is just part of the stage setting for the shadow-play.

JOHN IBBITSON BLUBBERS ON ABOUT CANADIAN SENATE "REFORM" - A MEANINGLESS CONCEPT - THE AMERICAN MODEL IS ANTI-DEMOCRATIC - REAL DEMOCRATIC REFORM IGNORED BY HARPER

POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN BY JOHN IBBITSON IN TORONTO'S GLOBE AND MAIL

Senate reform?

Just what is that meaningless phrase?

Harper has always appealed to the worst instincts in Western Canada with this pseudo-issue, effectively telling them that if they don't like the results of government by a democracy in which they are a minority, he will offer something to temper it.

He's not really concerned with democracy per se, or we'd see serious ballot reform, so that we didn't get 39.6% "majority" governments, an insult to the spirit and ideas of democracy.

But he is concerned with jerry-rigging the Senate so that we have an even less democratic system.

The United States Senate - the most anti-democratic, special-interest oriented, and money-driven part of the American government - is his mental model.

No modern person in his right mind would copy the American Senate.

It is a disastrous institution, unelected yet powerful most of its history (until 1913) and, now, elected only in a very marginal sense of the word and more powerful than ever.

An American Senator, on average, spends two-thirds of his or her time scrambling for money.

They are elected for six-year terms, but only one-third of them are up for election at any one time - a provision which saves them from public disapproval in the heat of any election.

They also work with a 60%-rule so that a super-majority is needed at any time to bring a vote.

Each state has two of them so that a Senator from California represents 17 million people and a Senator from New Hampshire or Alaska represents about 300,000.

Yet each Senator has the same immense power to overrule democratic measures implicit in the body's definition.

They override Presidential appointments of every description, treaties with other countries negotiated by the elected President, legislation passed by the House of Representatives. They enjoy a great many other powers and can literally paralyze the American government.

It is a patrician, anti-democratic, and right-wing institution in almost every aspect.

Indeed, there is a long history of seats virtually being passed on to heirs, much like the rich ministries of American televangelists.

Our Senate is not elected, but it has very little power and serves largely as a sinecure for party politicians.

It should either be abolished or left alone.

But anything along the lines of the American Senate would be an abomination.

Electing two houses in a representative fashion is a huge additional expense that is entirely a waste and an invitation to the growth of special interest campaign fund growth.

Electing a second house in a non-representative fashion is just that, non-representative and would assure a decease in effective democracy in Canada.

A DISHONEST COLUMN SAYS UNITED CHURCH WOULD SHATTER ITS CREDIBILITY BOYCOTTING ISRAELI SETTLEMENTS - JUST THE OPPOSITE IS TRUE - ISRAEL AND SOUTH AFRICA

POSTED RESPONSES TO A COLUMN BY SHIMON FOGEL IN TORONTO'S GLOBE AND MAIL

Nonsense propaganda.

A boycott would be a moral and ethical beacon in the world.

And churches like the United have always stood for genuine moral and ethical issues right here on earth.

It was just such acts, by scores of individual groups, which marked the beginning of the end of South African apartheid.

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"If I am not mistaken, Israel was also the last country to disassociate itself with Apartheid South Africa."

Yes, but further than that, Israel had a history of close association with the apartheid regime.

Israeli regarded the Boers as people in a very similar situation to themselves.

They had agreements concerning technology and strategic materials.

And many have long known that Israel had a role in South Africa's becoming a minor nuclear power.

That fact has never been dealt with by the press, except the recent release of a letter signed by Shimon Peres (political father of the Israeli nuclear arsenal) by South Africa's government.

Of course, it was all denied by Israel.

But we know there was a top-secret project to remove South Africa's nuclear weapons associated with the change in government.

The late Dr Kelly in Britain knew all the details of the operation and how the fissionable materials were disposed of, and that fact alone may have caused his murder disguised as suicide.

We also know that Israel's only atmospheric test - likely done in association with South Africa - was a typical intense flash spotted by a spy satellite.

That, too, was under-reported by the press.

SOME POINTS OF INSANITY WITH OUR PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS - AN EDITORIAL ON ONTARIO TEACHERS' POSITION WITH BOTH FALL SCHOOL APPROACHING AND BY-ELECTIONS FOR THE GOVERNMENT PUSHING THEM FOR CONCESSIONS

POSTED RESPONSES TO AN EDITORIAL IN TORONTO'S GLOBE AND MAIL

"Most teachers have never lived in the real world spending their entire lives from age 5 to retirement in a classroom. They are the most pampered whining class of people in our society."

Well said, indeed.

A pointed truth.

It is time for an Ontario Premier to show enough courage to take the teachers' union on.

The courage to take a strike would re-establish the proper relationship of government and government employees.

A strike would not only be extremely helpful in this way, it would not last very long.

When the teachers realized that their next vacation in the South of France or Cancun, Mexico, was imperiled, or payments on the two fully-equipped SUVs wouldn't be met, the strike would end.

We have no better example of a huge ship without anyone at the helm than Ontario’s public schools.

McGuinty has done nothing but throw money at teachers to buy votes, giving them, last time round, a generous multi-year increase when most of society, the people who pay the wages, was being sent into an economic tailspin.

The arrogance of teacher-spokespeople is simply breathtaking. Here is a job in which the bulk of practitioners have a general BA - often with not-stellar academic performance - plus a pretty meaningless certificate from an anti-intellectual teachers' college.

The truth is that  - except for specialists in science, math, and languages - most teachers could be replaced almost instantly by people without the certificates, and if we included retired experts and highly-motivated people only, we would see a startling improvement in our kids' schools.

In economics we would say that the next best opportunity for the bulk of them is as clerks and salespeople at wages a fraction of what they receive and with no gold-plated pension and no working effectively 8 months a year.

We need a sense of reality here, as society is facing great waves of turmoil and insecurity from the world economic situation.

And the harsh truth is Ontario schools on average are not terribly competitive in the world.

McGuinty's past giveaways have achieved not much beyond enriching and indulging the teachers.

All the tests by which we supposedly measure improvements are poorly conceived and in the control of teachers to tweak and adjust and mark.

They are not objective, and they are completely unsatisfactory measures of performance.

The very measure of the teachers' poor attitudes is precisely this almost insignificant sacrifice McGuinty is asking. It does barely begins to change the many things needing change, yet they whine and reject like the worst students in their classes. 

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"Wow, continue to be astounded by the depth of teacher hatred in the general population.

"To be fair, teachers are very well compensated for their work, not sure they are over compensated, though.

"Summers off? Well, maybe they should be in PD training or refresher courses for 4 or 5 weeks in July or August.

"Pensions? Yes, but they do contribute about 10% of their pay to their pension, or, looking at it another way, they pay half their pension contributions. Their pensions are not paid by the government, but through the pension board, which invests their money. Done a pretty good job of investing so far, it looks like.

"Teachers' unions? The Charter guarantees freedom of association. it is right under the Charter to form a federation and have that body negotiate on their behalf. It's all legal.

"So, it's a good job, if you like doing it.

"Don't know anybody in it for the money, though."

Hatred of teachers?

That is simply wrong.

Rather, it is hatred of abuse and arrogance and hypocrisy and the fact that teachers do not clearly perceive those demonstrated qualities are major parts of the problem.

To assume that it is hatred of teachers reveals the same warped perspective that generates this entire issue.

Refresher courses in what?

The courses now offered by their administration for advancing them on the pay-scale are appalling in their content. They run from childish to anti-intellectual with surprisingly little hard new information and demand for learning, and the reason for that is simple: they would be flunking hundreds of teachers regularly otherwise and still sending them back to their jobs - an impossible bind.

They pay half their pensions? That's not an accurate way to measure it, but even if it were, what a deal, double your money, guaranteed. Try getting that deal anywhere.

Teachers' unions are indeed the exercise of a right, but all rights can be abused and have limits, even freedom of speech.

The key point you ignore is that the teachers' union, rather than genuinely trying to improve education and conditions, consistently works to extract more money by the threat over all parents' heads of striking. And while they work to fleece the public, they use weasel words which fool absolutely no one but themselves. They also consistently defend the indefensible, poor and even ignorant teachers.

That last line of yours is very telling.

You either do not know anything about the people with whom you work or your head is in cloudcuckooland.

It is easy to spot teachers whose only drive is their own career and pay advancement. Loads of them.

And when your next best employment is a store clerk - true, I'm sorry, for many of them - the money counts hugely.

They, and you, only pretend it doesn't.

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"Think about teachers the next time your child is in a play at school, taking part in a Christmas concert, going on a special field trip, being part of a sports team, being a member of a school band or participating in a talent night. I am not looking for accolades but the harsh words and misleading comments are hurtful. I think you should all homeschool your children since we as teachers are all so stupid and wouldn't be able to get a job in the real world."

Sorry, but that is a perfect example of the special pleading that make so many despair at teachers' lack of understanding on these issues.

If you do those things, it is only what parents expect in return for your handsome remuneration.

You don't seem aware at all that anyone who takes pride in their work anywhere does equivalent things.

It actually is a bit stunning that you don't realize that your preconceptions and special pleadings are strong evidence of the cloudcuckooland that so many teachers reside in.

The hard truth is many, many teachers never do more than they absolutely have to. I've seen them, and I've heard their smirky remarks.

They are ready to go home at 3 PM, and they do. You can see them by the score doing so.

You say you are not looking for accolades, but the drift of your comment is precisely to seek accolades, not just for yourself but all teachers.

But all teachers do not deserve accolades any more than all auto mechanics or all cooks. Many just barely function in their jobs, others are getting away with murder, and the public is well aware of those things, yet we have to read the special pleadings and the whining about the least change in work conditions.

If you had any exposure to the lower middle-management world of private industry, you'd know that overtime and evening or weekend work are completely the norm.

Expected by management, but earning no special remuneration or, often, no special praise.

And the salary and benefits of an Ontario elementary teacher, one up in the pay scale, are quite comparable to that hardworking class in private industry (In excess of $80,000 per year plus immensely rich benefits).

And people in private industry start with two weeks of vacation, maybe building up to 3 or 4 after some years.

And if they regularly took another 20 or so days off as sick days (sick days whose cost is literally double given the need for substitutes) - as many Ontario teachers do - their careers would likely come to an end.

They won't get your pension either.

Your last thought is both ridiculous and offensive.

People should teach their own kids just because they have criticisms of how things are in the schools and how teachers present themselves in public?

It's a childish and petulant statement.

And, sorry, but just plain ignorant.

JOHN BAIRD MAKES QUICK PHOTO-OPS IN MIDEAST, HANDING OUT CASH AND EXPRESSING HIS HORROR AT 150, 000 REFUGEES - THE MOST HYPOCRITICAL TOUR EVER MADE BY A CANADIAN FOREIGN MINISTER - IRAQ'S REFUGEES?

POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN IN TORONTO'S GLOBE AND MAIL

I wonder if Gorilla Boy, as her perambulates around for cameras, knows that the American invasion of Iraq produced more than 2 million refugees.

America pretty much refused to take the people it made homeless.

But Assad's Syria took the largest number of them.

Some heartless tyrant.

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To understand why John Baird has well earned the epithet, Gorilla Boy, see:

http://chuckmangrotesques.blogspot.ca/2012/02/baird-john-in-full-form-sadly-typical.html

JOHN BAIRD - AKA, THE JUNK YARD DOG AND GORILLA BOY - CANADA'S FOREIGN MINISTER UNDER HARPER - TO TOUR MIDEAST TO BOOST CANADA'S SYRIA ROLE - WHAT SYRIA ROLL?

POSTED RESPONSES TO A COLUMN IN TORONTO'S GLOBE AND MAIL

Boost Canada's role in Syria?

What role?

We have none so far as the people of Canada know.

Is Gorilla Boy planning something of which we haven't been advised?

Stay out of other people's civil wars.

Even when they have been deliberately engineered by the United States and Israel.

But, of course, the genuine authors of this war are the people who have extraordinary influence in this most un-Canadian of governments, and that's the real reason he's going.

His job is to add to the phony western clamor the U.S. orchestrates to protect its nefarious investment in creating terror.

Saying anything else is just blather.

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Our country has never been at so low an ebb in world affairs as it is under this extremist government.

A nasty loudmouth is our foreign minister and a servile American wannabe is our prime minister, and in every international forum - from climate change to war - Canada has lost the prestige it had by vigorously serving the wrong side.

THE MYTH OF CHINA'S RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE

POSTED RESPONSES TO AN EDITORIAL IN TORONTO'S GLOBE AND MAIL

"Human rights" is a Western concept that has no importance or meaning in Chinese thought.

'Or in Islam, for that matter.'

Only partly right.

"Human rights" is a modern concept, having no long history in Europe.

Every state which reaches general prosperity and modernity comes to gradually embrace the concept.

Even in a place like Saudi Arabia, there is a growing implicit recognition.

So, too, China.

It took Europe a very long time to evolve the concept, through centuries of absolutism and religious violence.

The United States borrowed all the concepts in its founding documents from Europe, but it was a very long time until it lived up to them.

Dr. Johnson talked contemptuously of "drivers of negroes speaking of liberty!"

And we see today that ignorant fear, re-inforced by government's special interests, can start making what we thought were well-established freedoms start disappearing under ghastly legislation like The Patriot Act.

Again, where is the concern for rights in a place like Israel with its 4.5 million people with no rights whatsoever and suffering constant abuse?

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The person writing this is simply ignorant of China.

China is not intolerant of religion.

Religion often in the past - as the Catholic Church of the sixteenth century - has been used by outsiders as a means of gaining power in a state.

The Chinese understand this, and much like French kings or Henry VIII's England, they are against such efforts.

Outfits like Folun Gang fall into this category.

While I'm sure it has some sincere followers, the organization unquestionably has been driven by secret CIA funding.

And if we are going to speak of religious intolerance, may I remind you that the United States has virtually declared war on Islam, the religion of more than a billion people?

It murders literally thousands in Afghanistan and, with its drones, in Pakistan and Somalia and other places.

And not one of its victims was involved in 9/11.

Saudis, the folks helping engineer the violence in Syria, very much were.

And what of Israel's 4.5 million victims, the Palestinians, people of many faiths actually, including significant numbers of Christians?

ON THE DEATH OF GORE VIDAL - RESPONSE TO A SECOND-RATE COLUMNIST WHO SAYS THAT VIDAL LIVED TOO LONG

POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN BY JOHN IBBITSON IN TORONTO'S GLOBE AND MAIL

Surely, this is the dumbest column in a long line of dumb columns.

Ibbitson's blind right-wing hate must have reached an intense pitch to produce it.

Even in old age, Vidal was one of the best raconteurs on the planet.

He was brave in what he said, and said it so wittily.

Just listen to Michael Enright's CBC Radio interview with Vidal on Sunday Edition (repeated Aug 5).

Vidal's reputation will live in the brilliant-critic tradition of Orwell, Jonathon Swift, Dr. Johnson, or Voltaire.

His literary talent wasn't as large as some of those great people, but his speaking to truth and razor wit were the equal of any of them.

Unlike Mr. Ibbitson, who will be forgotten with his last droning column.

COLUMNIST SAYS ONLY NATURAL FOR RELIGION TO AFFECT POLITICS - BUILDING AN ARGUMENT ON ONE FEEBLE PLATITUDE - RELIGION IN FORMAL POLITICS HIGHLY DESTRUCTIVE AS U.S. EXAMPLE SHOWS

POSTED RESPONSES TO A COLUMN BY LORNA DUECK IN TORONTO'S GLOBE AND MAIL

This is dishonest stuff.

First, it starts with a truism, faith affects politics.

Yes, just as temperament, age, literacy, and a host of characteristics. So what?

So long as the faith part remains just a part of personal motivation, there can be no argument.

But accepting that does not mean that expressions of faith should become part of national politics or have a role in policy or laws.

That is gigantic leap from a feeble truism.

We simply have too many faiths and shades of various faiths to allow that to happen without unpleasant consequences.

Just look at some of the debates and controversies in the United States over the last few decades of the Religious Right entering formally into politics.

Almost all of it has been a vast waste of resources and human effort for no gain, full of hysteria and screaming and even violence.

Freedom of religion absolutely includes freedom from religion in the public sphere.

Any politician who makes an effort to disturb our delicate balance deliberately to make some little political gain - very much what Harper has done - is someone to shame and disapprove of.

Otherwise, we end up with vicious morons like Huckabee or Gingrich making outlandish statements and proposals, getting campaign funds for doing so, and only scattering dragon's teeth in society.

Harper and Baird and Kent have already started down this damnable path, a path which vitiates democracy and rewards special interests.

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Of course, Jesus said to render unto to Caesar what is Caesar's, and he condemned the Pharisees for their public pretentious prayers, saying prayer was a private matter between God and God's creatures.

But that hasn't stopped so-called Christians from trying to railroad over others time and time again.

HARPER'S "OWN THE PODIUM" PROGRAM HAS MADE IT EASIER FOR CANADIAN ATHLETES - SOME NOT-SO-PRETTY TRUTHS ABOUT THE MODERN OLYMPICS - MONEY AND POLITICS

POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN IN TORONTO'S GLOBE AND MAIL

"Own the podium" is a genuinely stupid expression, not in keeping even with Olympic ideals.

Naturally, money and resources dedicated to any object, however trivial, can give results.

I wonder how many Canadians care enough about things like rowing or badminton or trampoline to even walk down the street to see someone playing?

Not a lot, would be my guess.

With all our genuine needs as a society - everything from bridges and roads in need of replacement to medical needs - the dedication of large amounts of taxpayers' money to sports is of doubtful merit.

As for the Olympics themselves, the constant repetition of country names, flags, and anthems is in direct contradiction to genuine sports ideals.

It is supposed to be a competition of individuals in an international atmosphere, not a mock war between nations. Indeed, this modern emphasis owes a great deal to Hitler's Berlin Olympics in 1936.

Indeed, that is when truly barbarian concepts like the quasi-religious running of the Olympic torch had their beginning - stuff straight from Dr. Goebbels' mind.

One thing Canadians might learn from this waste of money in search of momentary drum-crashing national prestige, the same principles are now being applied to politics by Harper.

He works tirelessly towards the American system, which is one where vast amounts of private money from special interests are collected to finance campaigns.

It's precisely what has turned a democratic institution into a plutocracy.

 

 

  

AN EDITORIAL SAYS TORONTO'S POLICE CHIEF BLAIR AVOIDS EASY ANSWERS ON GANG VIOLENCE - FACT IS THAT BLAIR IS A TOTALLY INEPT AT HIS JOB

POSTED RESPONSE TO AN EDITORIAL MIN TORONTO'S GLOBE AND MAIL

Blair is, quite simply, the most inept police chief we've had.

He totally blew it on the G-20, and never had even the grace to apologize.

He totally blew it on many other occasions, including importantly the time officers wore their uniforms to a demonstration at City Hall, against his direct orders.

All the offenders got was a light slap, instead of the dismissal they well deserved for an act which had great overtones of threatening our civil government.

Blair doesn't even speak with much thought, his is always a rapid expulsion of clichéd words, a torrent which seems intended to overpower listeners and avoid exchange.

He does not represent our best values, and the fact that he now uses terms from liberal values to protect his inept performance is not praiseworthy.

He should resign.