It has been a whirlwind indeed, and I have not had time to sort my thoughts, let alone my pictures, such as they are. We are (or probably were by the time anyone is reading this [anyone? At least realism is setting in, ed.] back in Ottawa, eldest offspring in tow, and now boat to be in tow as she and hubby are off to fetch the tow truck … as in the truck that will do the towing. We hope no tow trucks are involved as we take our caravan to the cottage, van with kids and dog, truck with parents and boat, but I did renew our CAA membership before hand, including long distance towing, just to frustrate the gods in their choices of ways to toy with their peeps.
But to tide you over until we get to Sunday at the cottage when the 60th wedding anniversary is over, and I can chill for two seconds, here is a picture of my favourite Quebec place name which also gives you a pretty good idea of yesterday:
And just so you will know I am still alive, me in the morning yesterday, leaning over to help include Mouse, at Les Jardins de La Republique provincial park in New Brunswick:
But now back to the races, or in my case the hobbles … and hope to be Bacq soon. I miss myself.
I hope you have a fruitful Friday …
Yes, very tough these days to just up and flee even with seemingly minimal attachments.
not only did i post the lighthouses going in the wrong direction that your tour went, but i was also mispronouncing Miramichi.
i did flee last weekend to Minneapolis Minnesota. it is a very clean, healthy city with low unemployment. one has to wonder if the governor of Wisconsin Scott Walker has ever visited there.
this article is excellent. hope you will give it a read. good night all.
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/deep-state-america/?mc_cid=c
I think Joe Jackson isn’t cheesy, maybe a little too pop sometimes, but I am fine with cheerful music in general. He isn’t a favourite to be honest, but I do like him at times.
Lovely trails, and absolutely called for photos. And it is so too bad what GM and the government have wrought with their insane belief in the auto industry as a backbone of America. Canada wasted much money on the same scheme but we didn’t have the major plants go idle in the same way. I wish you could escape but dang it is unfair that you should have to.
I didn’t for some reason get an email today until just now … I thought you were all just having a lovely snooze.
Daughter gone home, quiet descending.
This is difficult for me to put up here, but I didn’t make this blog to hide from reality.
Hmnnnn …. link won’t show …
http://gut.bmj.com/content/53/11/1566.full?sid=a798cbea-9c1b-430f-9b65-fcd20d5a0b14
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3538402/
yikes Xty. another setback. but you are better off knowing. maybe you can moderate dose?
man that painting last night is bad. i sort of stole it anyway. i think i will try to fix it up and repost it.
Gosh I somehow missed a few comments and didn’t see the article about deep state America until this morning, and without frankly having read more than the intro (and I will finish it after this comment) it totally touches on something I have been mulling over about how we are misdirected into interests and concerns all the time by strange and often very intentional processes and people, which I wanted to relate to a comment from a conservative podcast (yes, even some self-identified Republicans worry about this shit, and at least they are noticing even if they hold some very entrenched, inherited ideas and I am turning into a ranting communist) about how America is governed by an elite, that holds the same self-perpetuating values, in both main parties.
And good morning.
In the comments on that article people mention this book as the source perhaps for the term “deep state”, or seem to feel he should have at least been credited, and given that he is a Canadian, I thought I would give him a shout out:
The American Deep State
Wall Street, Big Oil, and the Attack on U.S. Democracy
PETER DALE SCOTT
This provocative book makes a compelling case for a hidden “deep state” that influences and often opposes official U.S. policies. Prominent political analyst Peter Dale Scott begins by tracing America’s increasing militarization, restrictions on constitional rights, and income disparity since the Vietnam War. He argues that a significant role in this historic reversal was the intervention of a series of structural deep events, ranging from the assassination of President Kennedy to 9/11. He does not attempt to resolve the controversies surrounding these events, but he shows their significant points in common, ranging from overlapping personnel and modes of operation to shared sources of funding. Behind all of these commonalities is what Scott calls the deep state: a second order of government, behind the public or constitutional state, that has grown considerably stronger since World War II. He marshals convincing evidence that the deep state is partly institutionalized in non-accountable intelligence agencies like the CIA and NSA, but it also includes private corporations like Booz Allen Hamilton and SAIC, to which 70 percent of intelligence budgets are outsourced. Behind these public and private institutions is the traditional influence of Wall Street bankers and lawyers, allied with international oil companies beyond the reach of domestic law. With the importance of Gulf states like Saudi Arabia to oil markets, American defense companies, and Wall Street itself, this essential book shows that there is now a supranational deep state, sometimes demonstrably opposed to both White House policies and the American public interest.
https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781442214248/The-American-Deep-State-Wall-Street-Big-Oil-and-the-Attack-on-U.S.-Democracy
the goal certainly would appear to be a Deep State World. the lust for power is as old as man. the only debate really is just how organized are these sociopaths? as they gain more power, they are becoming more brazen, to the point that guys like me who have been discussing this stuff for years no longer are necessarily considered whack jobs. but remember that there really are conspiracy theory whack jobs… unfortunately many of them useful idiots, actually unknowingly helping the sock puppets that have an agenda to discredit anything other than the world view that the control freaks want to project. this is a known “PR” strategy. some of these would be nutters are actually paid to post crazy talk on social media, using a sort of reverse psychology to plant seeds of doubt.
let’s see where this subject goes. i could resubmit some stuff that wasn’t well received at the time i posted it. (at the time everything was awesome!) 🙂
i also could retrieve some stuff from the old place yet. it was because of the teanut PR campaign over there that i first became aware of all this stuff.
sorry for the ramble. i have to run out of the house otherwise i would clean this up a little.
thanks for the reply Xty.
Yes, and without naming names, I was somewhat suspicious of the news feeds at the Swamp, easily as pernicious as the “news” that hubby’s phone assaults us with unbidden. And that stupid DOTS forum … where to even begin … who was discrediting whom?
What a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive.
And I think even people not in power fear change and accept their lot … one of the chief messages of organized religion is to be satisfied with your crappy lot here on earth and it seems to work for both the elite and the subjects.
the internet held so much promise. both ways.
you would not believe where i found this link. they seem to have a new PR angle.
http://kochnews.com/?gclid=CN6o3N6jnMcCFQiDaQodULANWQ
when fear and hate doesn’t quite do the job, tease them with a little hope. oh such a clever segue to…
all i know is if and when (enter messiah here) really does come back, he’s gonna show up pretty pissed off. 🙂
But but but .. the Koch’s are such good environmentalists – did you see their lovely youth squads cleaning up rivers? Dang but you are cynical! They were wearing nice, light blue, t-shirts, the colour of clean water. And they use words like Mountain. Sold me right away. And camping gear too. What wholesome folk.
even if they paid thousands of dollars per kid (child actor), this PR stunt got some serious bang for the buck, especially when compared to some of the Koch’s other philanthropic efforts. sadly there is about a million chances to one that the Kochs paid these kids even one penny over the prevailing minimum wage. but whose the one being cynical here?
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/feb/14/funding-climate-change-denial-thinktanks-network
I didn’t need a sarc tag, did I?
nope. should have followed with a 🙂 . my sense of humor is bone dry. gets me in trouble all the time.
have you ever heard of the evil black goo? i’m telling you, the remaining DOTS posters are “stark raving mad”. i cannot believe i even looked into it. at least the NSA has now surely updated my status to “harmless nutjob” after i clicked a link that led directly to David Icke’s website. (and also for perusing DOLTS) 🙂 🙂 🙂
speaking of odds… today was the fourth time in the last 10 days that we had a 90% chance of rain. yet in weeks now nary a drop. flipped four tails in a row. it must be something like BTFD! guess i’ll go out and water now.
the article isn’t especially new and insightful so at least and especially read the ‘everything is not awesome’ comment by anonymous (xingu), and the comments after. i totally agree. it is not good at all to pretend everything is OK. i just have not been able to explain why that’s the case very well…
http://www.theautomaticearth.com/2015/08/deflation-debt-and-gravity/
Evil black goo? Other than crude oil which is clearly a government plot to destroy the world, I can’t imagine what they are on about now. It was the planning to have a sharp screwdriver to puncture gas tanks of modern cars that really got me aware of the immense stupidity of the those folks – what normal human doesn’t have a screwdriver around?
We watched a documentary about James Brown last night and for some reason the real tragic horror of segregation and slavery whacked me really hard. I hope IRB gets what he deserves. It was Stephanie who protected his racism I think, because she had it in for black men – remember that crazy story about the bouncer who kicked her out of a club? But Turd too – amazing.
it’s Occam’s razor again. one doesn’t need bizarre and sensational conspiracy theories to explain reality, if willing to do dig for facts, read other viewpoints, do some critical thinking. instead the ignorant go for the easy denial of science, the hapless victim approach. and they do have plenty of help, as i mentioned above. don’t even waste your time with the black goo thingy. it is so ridiculous that the story must have begun as some sort of April Fools joke that took on a life of its own once loose in the right-wing-nutosphere.
Troubles in paradise as always, but doing my best to wean and stay calm. Both of which are 50/50.
And right now it is the wrong 50. But it will pass …
Good morning. Always loved Radar Love. Just epitomizes radio for me. I think the first song I remember hearing on the radio was Give Me Some Lovin’ by Traffic – I was in hospital (imagine that) recovering from a laparoscopy searching for that darned entrapped nerve and not finding it, it turns out. I just checked and it makes total sense – album came out in 1971, I was born in 62, and had that operation when I was 12. Oh and I finally have a new word of the day. Teleonomy. Something I need more of.
Brain feeling a little better, belly coming along, smoking down by at least two-thirds if not more. Might get away without total abstinence which would reeeeealllllllly be nice.