Alex Murdaugh is the most famous man in America.

I have to admit that, prior to the last month or so, I’d never heard of the guy, accused of killing his wife and son at the family kennels in June of 2021.

That’s some serious business, that.  Murder is bad enough.  Murdering your wife is worse still.  Murdering your wife and son, the worst.

Best keep an eye on China.  And know that China’s probably keeping an eye on you.

The first statement is 100% true.  The second is 100% maybe.  The concern is 100% real.

First, let’s differentiate between the CPC, or Communist Party of China, and the people of China, aka the Chinese.  For the balance of this article, when referring to the Chinese, the reference is to the CPC and not the people.

China is a strategic adversary, a polite way of saying that they’re one day likely to be a strategic enemy if they’re not there already.  And by this we’re not talking about an economic rival, but rather a potential military threat.  Not to our home shores, although images of hordes of Chinese balloons floating through our skies were given sustenance recently with the shooting down of a Chinese “weather” balloon, and perhaps a couple of others as well.

Aubrey Graham is like most of us in a lot of ways.

He had jobs and pursuits growing up, dabbled in a few things here and there, earned a paycheque doing different things until finally settling into something that now, looking back, he’s been doing for sixteen years and counting.

He’s done okay for himself these sixteen years, finding himself, at age 36, wondering where it will all lead.  And lucky enough to say that, financially anyways, he appears to be set.  So set that he’s actually thinking about retiring from his day job.  To do what after?  Not really sure about that, but if anything, Graham has always demonstrated an ability to stay busy and productive, if that’s what he wants to do.

Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds is in the news again.

The Vancouver-based actor has been busy in the past couple of years, doing the things that he seems to do best, which is to make people laugh and be happy.

This is not a story about Reynold’s involvement in the proposed purchase of the Ottawa Senators NHL franchise, although that’s a big deal, especially with the team sitting forty minutes down the road from us here in Renfrew.

What this is about is Reynold’s assisting in the design and marketing of a t-shirt to commemorate Canadian hero Terry Fox in advance of this year’s annual Terry Fox Run.

CBC Television and BET Plus got together to produce an eight-part series called The Porter that centres around the plight of Black railway porters working the Chicago-Detroit-Montreal line back in the 1920’s.

The series has been nominated Wednesday for nineteen Canadian Screen Awards (CSA), a very impressive achievement for the historical period piece.

And then it got cancelled.

“Like, who are they to tell us?”

Not an uncommon reaction of Ukrainian soldiers when Canadian troops arrived to take over their training. Initially skeptical, the Ukrainians adapted quickly to a more western style of combat, command, and control.

A lot of these Ukrainians were and are combat veterans, some fighting for over five years in Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region. Mostly, but not officially, against Russians.

They were basically ordered to change their combat mindset, and that’s where the Canadians came in, along with the British, the French, the Belgians, and others.

Previously, Ukrainian soldiers were almost identical to Russian soldiers, both having a shared connection with former Soviet military doctrine and tactics. They were often fighting against each other using identical tactics, thinking, and using more or less the same weapons.

Two things Canadian soldiers drilled into their Ukrainian counterparts stuck with many as being critical.

The Canadian approach to casualty management has been recognized by Ukraine as a difference-maker, saving many lives on a personal level for the soldiers, but a strategic level for the army.

Secondly, the development of an entire command layer that doesn’t exist in the Russian army, that being the non-commissioned officer class. For western armies, sergeants and other non-coms were the meat and potatoes of the command structure. They had tactical license and could decide on-site to take a certain action. This contrasted with Russia’s super-top-down doctrine that demanded that higher authority be consulted before making a move.

Ukraine surprised us a year ago with how well they fought the Russians off. Their national resolve is nothing short of inspirational.

We, like others, have helped Ukraine’s military get stronger with weapons. We’ve done stuff that gets no attention, like the half-million winter kits for Ukrainian soldiers, the very latest in winter combat clothing and accessories.

But perhaps the most noticeable addition we’ve made to this whole thing is the training that our troops have provided theirs.

Ukrainian soldiers have proven especially adept at using our tactics with western weaponry to achieve superior battlefield results.

So, rather than it being all over in a couple of days, like a lot of the Russian big-boys were hoping, here we are one year out.

And we, like our allies, continue to train Ukrainian troops.

Even his own people hate him.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, they all hate him. That has to mean something right there.

Newly-minted House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy has trouble gaining respect from a lot of people, and that situation extends deep inside his very own Republican caucus.

It only took fifteen rounds of voting, but McCarthy is now the very thing he most desperately wanted to be, Speaker of the House.  And now, after getting rid of the Big Orange One, at least for now, we have another American demagogue thrust upon us.

Pîhtokahanapiwiyin, a Plains Cree chief known as a peacemaker, will be reunited with two of his most cherished possessions after 138 years. The Royal Ontario Museum has announced that it will return a saddle bag and ceremonial pipe to his ancestors.  The museum had been sold the pieces in 1924 and 1936 respectively. 

Also known by the name of Poundmaker, this leader of the Plains Cree died at Blackfoot Crossing, North-West Territories, in July of 1886.  Prior to his death, he had spent seven months of a three-year sentence at Stony Mountain Penitentiary for treason.

His role in the Riel Uprising, or North-West Rebellion, was often portrayed inaccurately by Canadian historians in the period and in the years following the rebellion.  It may well be that Canada sent an innocent man to prison.

In April of 2018, Renfrew town council voted, with one dissenting vote, to sell the iconic downtown post office building to Rob Thompson Hotels for $100,000.

Rob Thompson Hotels are in the business of retro-fitting heritage type properties so they can be rented out as boutique hotel space.  It’s a good idea for a property the town couldn’t afford to maintain, especially in light of the approximately $1.285 million in repairs needed to just get the place up to code.

The NEW START treaty was signed a decade ago between the United States and Russia.  The treaty limited both sides in the number of nuclear warheads available and the number of missiles available to transport them to targets.  Yes, it’s a very important treaty between the world’s two primary nuclear powers.

Vladimir Putin just pulled Russia out of the deal.

Should we be alarmed?  Yes, of course, any time a major nuclear power pulls out of an agreement like this, we should all take note.  But to be honest, if Putin wanted to use nuclear weapons in any capacity for any purpose, he wouldn’t let the niceties of a treaty hold him back.  It’s not like the guy has ever passed an integrity test.

Putin’s all boo-hoo because his gamble that the west wouldn’t respond to his invasion of Ukraine has proven to be a major miscalculation.  His miscalculation.  Yes, aided and abetted by self-serving cronies, but ultimately his.  So he wears the embarrassment of his military’s primitive and shockingly inept pursuit of the war.  And this guy doesn’t wear embarrassment well.  In fact, he will never wear it at all.