Category: Uncategorized

NORTH KOREA’S KIM JONG UN ORCHESTRATES HIS OWN BEAT-DOWN

Kim Jong Un, leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and owner of the world’s worst mullet, is back in the news, not that he ever really left it.

And before going on, I’d just like to point out that any nation that feels the need to have the word democratic as part of the official name of the country is more than likely to be the farthest thing from democracy one could find.  And when the word people is also thrown in there, you can bet that the “people” are the last folks consulted when it comes to national policy.

When it comes to national policy, North Korea doesn’t have one beyond keeping the Kim family in power, as they’ve been since the creation of the place back in the late 1940’s.  In fact, the Kims are considered demigods, descending down from a sacred mountain in the nation’s north to benevolently rule over their adoring people.  At least those people they haven’t shot, poisoned, blew up, or starved to death.  Those types of people were killed or allowed to starve and represent a couple of million out of a population 26.2 million.  The rest of the population keep their mouths shut and their heads down, unless they are part of the chosen ones who facilitate the tragic and dark comedy of their Dear Leader.

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ANNIVERSARY BEST WISHES TO MPP JOHN YAKABUSKI

As I, like everyone else, navigate my way through the month of October, I periodically gaze in wonder at the picturesque majesty of nature, especially as it presents itself right here in the Ottawa Valley.  We are truly blessed with a landscape that is unsurpassed by any other place in the province.  Other places have their beauty as well, to be sure, but I don’t need to go out anywhere seeking anything better than what I have right here at home.

What an introduction for a story about a politician.

I just stumbled across the realization that my local MPP, John Yakabuski, is celebrating, or ought to be celebrating, his twenty-first year in office as our riding representative at Queen’s Park.  I shouldn’t have needed a reminder of that, and I regret that I did, but here I am now.

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HOMELESS: DOING A BETTER JOB AND SAVING A WHACK OF CASH WHILE DOING IT.

I did a video story earlier in the week regarding homelessness in Renfrew and the surrounding area, a story that had elements of criticism, as well as praise, within it.  I followed that up with an article giving credit and encouragement to some of the stakeholder groups or agencies (in this case police) that have made meaningful and positive contributions to the effort around homelessness.

Today, in what will likely be my final kick at this can, I wish to offer solutions, not of my own making, but crafted by folks living in other parts of North America and involving the very same issue.  I don’t want to come across as exclusively critical of the efforts, or non-efforts that I see as I learn more about this topic.

So I want to throw some ideas out there for an alternative approach, ideas not originated by me, but noted by me as having some real honest-to-goodness potential.  Unlike some politicians that are exclusively critical, I’d like to show up with some ideas about how to make things better.

One effort, in Austin, Texas, is operated by a group that identifies as Mobile Loaves and Fishes.  If you’re Christian, you may recognize the key element of that title from something you may have experienced in Scripture, a story we’ve all heard many times along the way.  The story of Jesus feeding the assembled masses who gathered to hear him along the shore of the Sea of Galilee.  The Mobile part of the title alludes to the fact that this group operates mobile food trucks as well as the community I’m talking about.

I’m not here to talk about the food truck.  But I will speak to their Community First! Village concept, something now in operation and humming along rather nicely.

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SUPER MOON DELIVERS A SMALL BONUS

Tonight was the night of the the biggest Super Moon seen in the sky since 2007, and as driving towards Arnprior, it absolutely beamed in the night sky in clear conditions.

Also known as a Hunter’s Moon, the Super Moon will be up and at it for most of the week, but dependant upon the amount of cloud cover above where you happen to be. In fact it’s tomorrow, October 17 that will feature the moon appearing to be at its largest, so that makes tomorrow’s moon the true Hunter Moon for astronomy purists. The full moon will be at its perigee of orbit around Earth, meaning that the full moon seen will be at its closest to the planet it orbits around. That’s us!

But that’s not all. Other events will be taking place up there, including the possibility of making a sighting of the comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas, something not seen with the naked eye all that often. If you miss it, not to worry. It’ll swing back this way again in some 80,000 years, so plenty of time to prepare for your next viewing attempt. I can’t remember an easily visible comet in the sky since Hale-Bopp back in 1997, and before that Halley’s Comet in the mid-1980’s. Both were impressive, once-in-a-lifetime events.

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“THERE’S NOTHING ON MY BELT THAT WILL SOLVE ADDICTION / HOMELESSNESS”

In preparation for a piece I did yesterday on local homelessness, I came across a CBC documentary (PROJECT PURPLE) that outlined the effort being made in the Pembroke area to tackle the homelessness / addiction crisis that has made that Ottawa Valley community a hotspot for drug overdose and all the attending problems associated with dealing with the homeless.

Within that documentary was a clip of Inspector Steph Neufeld, Commander, Ontario Provincial Police Pembroke Detachment.  And what he said was like sweet music finally reaching the ears of an audience starved for meaningful and humane action to a crisis that is upon us and may well get worse should we continue to follow the boilerplate responses of the past.

Inspector Neufeld has it completely right on so many points, but what jumped out at me was the profound statement made by a ranking police officer.

“There’s nothing on my belt that will solve addiction.  There’s nothing that will solve homelessness.  But do we have a part to play to support our members?”

And as he continued, it was clear that the answer was “yes,” and further, that it must be a community effort, involving several agencies working in concert, and in a manner that is novel, innovative, inspired, and effective.  In other words, sometimes you have to step beyond the lines, or, if you will, get out of the box.  As in, if it ain’t working, fix it.

And by fixing it, we mean taking new approaches that free us from the straight jacket of prior, and often failed models of response.

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CIVILITY IN PUBLIC DEBATE AND POLITICAL DISCOURSE: CAN WE FIND THAT HERE IN CANADA?

A little over a week ago, two American candidates from bitterly opposed political parties took to the stage and faced one another in vice-presidential debate.  Republican J.D. Vance and Democrat Tim Walz were going to square off, both having made previous statements of “I can’t wait to debate that guy!”

As the American television audience (and Canadian) of some 43 million tuned in, everyone was a little nervous, in that these things in recent years have devolved into a theatre of the absurd, almost exclusively due to the participation of one Donald J. Trump, America’s 21st-century iteration of a snake oil salesman.  To put it mildly, expectations were low for things like propriety, respect, and a constructive, polite discussion of issues and opposing approaches to dealing with them.

And then it happened.

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A QUICK TIMELINE ON THE SO-CALLED CARBON TAX

Do you want facts or slogans?

Facts pay you money. Slogans cost you money. They say “money talks.” Can it speak loudly enough to bust through the wet blanket of misinformation thrown down by Slogan Boy, aka Pierre Poilievre, aka O’l Whiny Pete?

Will people vote with their heads or through their assholes? I’ll have to let you answer that for yourself.

Following is a brief summary of the carbon tax. No, I’m not calling it the “Climate Initiative” like the Liberals would prefer because that just muddies the water. A tax is a tax is a tax, and I’m not afraid of the word. Everything costs money, and we know that. And now it’s the turn of climate change.

Or, you can be a Conservative, which gives you two options: you can lie through your teeth or stick your head in the sand. It’s a really good look for a person with no self-respect.

Anyways, if you want the plain facts, here they are:

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