Banking on the Apalachicola

One of the reasons I've been so lax in regular updating has been the work that I've been doing on the British Fort at Promontory Bluff on the banks of the Apalachicola River in 1816. The nickname for the place was "the Negro Fort". It was destroyed by an elite squad of US Army officesores sent south from Georgia to officially protect supply ships but secretly designed to obliterate the facility. Almost done.

Dalliance of the absence

I should apologize for the long absence from the blogs. I've been taking the Farce Book hiatus. Its good communicating with relations, old friends, acquaintances, and neighbors. Not much unexpected has happened really. To that point the mundane, the expected and the opinions expressed by others mimic my interpretation. There was no urgency to replicate the mundane.

And I have been doing more work on the Ft. Gadsden/Negro Fort which was destroyed on July 27th, 1816. Its a simple topic about one of the single greatest immoral crime or war crime in the 19th century. Yet this War Crime occurred in a time where this brutal behavior ruled human morality. Whether the winner or the defeated little mercy demonstrates. Torture and death held hands with military action.

The worst crime occurred after the time of the actual event which gives a result far worse than the crime itself. Both American and British authorities swept the crime under blankets of obvious excuse, lies and inaccuracies. Economic health and the greed of the rich created a situation where the magnet of greed conquered all ethics. And the worst crime appeared, humanity as a whole forgot this terrible episode.

Off blog

I have been working on a special project which takes away from blogging. I am almost finished with that project. It will be published here and on other blogs.

A warning though. That blog entry will be long and for some tortuous. The ideas expressed in this work embrace a new approach to a century old question.

Leaving it to Beaver

Are the memories of the falling skyscrapers full of innocent peoples of all nationalities, cultures and religions plunging in mortal terror into the dust, so far. Those flying bombs were not just pointed at those towers, they were pointed at you, your loved ones. The very same evil persons who perpetrated that deed are the very same people who committed that act.

It doesn't matter that one is a pacifist or not. The terrorists are total evil. So long as they breathe or walk free, they are committed not to steal your land, or steal property. They don't grow or sell drugs. These aren't rapers. These are ruthless, callous killers. They are trying to kill you.

Canadians have a volunteer army. And they volunteer for the combat. And they are committed to that view. They are there, on the ground, doing the very best that they can.

Whether or not one agrees individually with the grand strategy of getting involved or not in Afghanistan was exactly the brightest thing to do is irrelevant now. Canada is a democracy. Which means, that outwardly we must be united regardless of our internal doubts or personal disagreement. The Prime Ministers put this country into history as supporting the action to bring those terrorists to account for their terrible deeds. This is a question of historical accountability.

At the moment, that job is not done. An action like this isn't on a schedule or timetable. It is task oriented. It could've taken an hour. It could've taken a week. A decade seems like a long time, but in history it is but a blink. In a thousand years from now in an electronic library some student scribe will be authoring an article on the character of the people known as the Canadians. What they write then will be about the action we take now.

People around the world watch how Canadians behave in the action to protect the Afghan people from these terrorists. It does nothing for global reputation, whether the observer is friend or foe, to see a country waive its commitments on the battlefield. Withdrawal from this particular theatre of conflict, whether by end of contract or simply leaving while the conflict burns, is a defeat. There is no middle ground. No grey area. If Canada leaves next year, it was a defeat. You want that title impressed on your children, or their children.

Every thing that Canada stood for or now stands for becomes tainted with the name of loser, coward, lukewarm. We become like so many European little powers like Denmark. All mouth. All vanilla. Not worth listening too.

Look I am in complete favour of leaving Afghanistan to the Afghans. These terrorists that bomb innocents around the globe in their quest to impose a twisted vision of a religious utopia on the rest of humanity also terrorize and cruelly oppress Afghans. Our troops remain willing and able. I say, ...stay and finish the damn job.

Check this out... Hibernating

With it being winter this blog will not be updated until later in April when the weather is better. The only working blog at the moment is over at Wordpress. Photography in the parks is about as much as fun sewing underwear.

Check out this working blog at the this time.

http://gordeecampbell.wordpress.com

Snowbourne conspiracy

I was drifting though the photo albombs last night and came across an image of one snow drift on the guard rails of the front porch. Lot of snow.

Unbearable choices

Confronted by choices this week, my bloggong ratio decreased. If the Canadian political leadership declares that they will abscond forwith on Holiday seasons ungreetings then it should be an allowance for the plebes such as you and me.

Without the need to wake and volunteer gives me more choice also. At the moment I feel like hibernating. Black Bears have this right. Instead of whining about the cold their species evolved a biological answer to winter. Humans opted to try to increase brain capacity. The primates might have gotten it wrong. At the moment the bears are quite content.

uPdaTe truck ruts

Someone repaired the front lawn in Moss Park where the CityTV media TV truck got accidently stuck. Good on them.

I don't know if they did it or someone else repaired it. The thing needed fixing. I appreciate the work the fixers did. They are heroes.

Scanning

Is there anytime that Julian Fantino doesn't try to get his face on the news. As the head honcho of the Ontario Provincial Police, Fantino just made an announcement on the tube to the effect that the OPP now had plate scanning technology which can scan thousands of plates per day.

Fantino claims this a powerful anti-crime tool. Fantino is a tool. What does he think criminals are stupid? Would if the plates are fake? Or duplicates? Or stolen?

Media abuse of park system

A couple of days ago in the late afternoon, a City TV truck got stuck in the front lawn of Moss Park. This happens. Is it part of the good neighbor policy not to repair the damage in the lawn?

Do these guys care so little that people could trip over these ruts in the evening walks? I mean you left a tripping hazard. Of course the area is only populated by poor people. This likely excuses you from any responsibility whatsoever.

Do you guys care so little about the community that you don't repair your mess? You complain over the air about taxes and the waste but here is the case where you cost the taxpayer for the repair you did on a public space?

Fast upladles

Woke up a half hour ago, and sort of surprise, nothing is happening man. Nothing. Better for reconstruction of started topics but weren't long enough for a decent blag.

This is an occassional digest of concerns which I put into blygs every so often. They are topics that don't deserve major treatment but now for a medley.

Notes: November 1st

Anne Rohmer saw Borje Salming naked. She's bragging since she was one of the first female sports journalist into a hockey dressing room at Maple Grief Gardens. Big deal she's a lez.

I know, I know the - who saw the what?

..............

Last night's TMZ program, present a working theory about Tiger Woods accident. Its identical to the one hypothesis that I had put forward in a blag. And its a story that is emerging, from Woods inner circle. And almost word for word.

I got something right? Your stunned. I'm stunned. I mean its like I got eyes in the front of my head.

.............

The federal, provincial governments are participating in the reconstruction of Maple Laugh Gardens, in order for it to be usable by Ryerson University. They have a hockey team. You know the city core university loaded with journalism professors from Budapest. On the main floor will be a food store.

The provincial and federal governments are kicking in dollars, yes tax dollars. They have to find something to spend the new HST revenues that will be flushing in, in the new year.

Apparently Maple Laugh Sports and Entertainment (MLSE) had a conclave and blew white smoke on the project. Probably part of anything they can do to prevent Rim Jim Balsillie from buying Loblaws and moving the building to Hamilton.
........................

Quality time

No kidding. Today I go deprogramming. The media and press run amuck while I clean out the bowels of my brain.

Deer me

The event got front page news, the lead story in the television news. You would think it was a murder or a political scandal or a sex porn corn tale. No.

A stupid deer, wound up in the middle of the stupid city. Around seven in the morning someone spotted this doe sitting patiently in some brush hedge downtown. The animal obviously must be a threat to the general civil population.

They had squad cars of police, plus the SWAT team. Obviously, deer and human interactions are violent events. The media had helicopters and teams of video people, reporters, and on and on. All the numbers of humans and it still took three hours to catch the dumb thing.

They used a dart gun. When the animal began to run, the cops joyfully tasered it, ... twice.

If this would have been rural Canada, it would have been one cop, one gun, one pickup truck. And the humanitarian place they moved the animal too? A Conservation Park north of the city? Nope. Algonquin Park? Nope? Toronto Zoo? Nope.

They moved the animal to the Leslie Street Spit. Which is attached to the middle of the city. Which will work until breeding season or when the ice forms enough to allow the animal to move. Such dickheads.

Skeptical prescription

Today the skeptical sailor. The eyes have seen a lot. Perhaps too much to remain optomistic.

Today, the government went into catch the evil doer mode. Catching child pornographers, is laudable. However whenever a federal government program is invented to address public concerns, I am reminded of the gun registry, and Ontario's E'health.

Well the federalis have decided to compel all the ISP's to report individuals who get and spread child porno. While a laudable effort, the skepticism begins.

It is the same software that would be used by a government to control the internet, to control the information flow, to filter out political opposition. And when the self righteous get their grimy little paws on these technical controls even for the best intentions like the extinction of child porno, it is always a first step. Control this, they can control political opinion.

Maple Leafs the next level

Tired and lonely the Maple Leafs ponder a fall to 3 wins in 20 games. Ready in the wings lies piles of other Leafs waiting to take their place. Piles and piles of replacement workers. The combination of Burke and Wilson brought a new culture to a hockey team. They succeeded where few could never do worse.

Greed and the phonies

Over the last few weeks, Canadians got exposed to two spurious sides of a debate. The television networks want cable companies to provide funds for local television.

In Canada, Cable TV companies swipe local broadcasts and programs out of the air. It has been going on for years. They do not pay for the signals. But they are totally willing to force their cussytomers to pay for cable, everything on cable.

Now at first glance this is all very simple. Yes the larger television stations broadcasting locally should get funding from cable. However most of their broadcast purchases are from the USA. Not much of their program broadcasts are homegrown.

And the cable companies have a legitimate argument. Why should they pay for free air broadcasts for programming that already exists, and they pay for on competing cable and USA television channels.

It should be noted that the CRTC has turned the broadcasters down twice already. This is the third strike. Broadcasters are threatening to close down the smaller local stations. For the cable companies this is idle threat because their revenue derives from distant sources in the beginning.

The CRTC commission doesn't want to be the bad guy and impose an additional fee. And everyone else is blaming the other participants. The CRTC wishes the two sides to negotiate and play nice. The buck stops at station greed.

Purple pecker pucker pet

Robin Gill of some local Channel. Was yackin on the snow board of authority. I was startled.

Gill remains an intelligent beautiful woman. But this night she was God Damned Purple. Her jacket was purple. Her lipstick was purple. And her eyeliner was purple.

Oh please, don't let this happen. Maybe it was a flu snot side effect?

Goose that gander

The Fan590 has a double standard. In the recent firings of coaches throughout sports, this Roger's Communication Company yikes it up. However, when surreptitiously canning their own staff for questionable corporate reasons, they stand very silent.

Stand up and tell us why Mike Toth, and Stormin Norm Rumack were fired in the dead of night. While they were media people which caused aggravational circumstances. This was no cause to dismiss them so callously.

One guy has a wife and young child and a newly bought home. He moved all the way here from Calgary to appease the corporate wishes. Now a couple years later he was turfed for little reason.

And the latter.... Rumack... All those strippers who dependent on his lungs and voice. I mean really.

NEW NORMAL

Normal?
You want normal?
Slap Neat hair remover
On the top of your head.
Try pulling your hair.
Stick your thumbs into your eyes
Ten times light and fast.
Get twenty pound weights attached to fish hooks.
Skewer them through the meat of your cheeks.
Feel gravitas drag on your facial skins.
Stick pins in your neck and shoulder joints.
Slug back a mickey of whiskey.
Sit on your hands for ten minutes,
On a block of Lake Winnipeg ice.
Stick earplugs in those drooping ears.
Now look in the mirror.
That's your normal,
New in twenty years.

G. Duncan Campbell

Dictated

The single impediment to sanity is being told how to vote. George Smitherman, seen here with husband Christopher, proclaimed his intention to seek the Toronto Mayor's job.

With incumbent David Miller, visualizing reality and not running again after the Toronto Garbage Strike debacle, Smitherman seeks to run against former leader of the provincial Conservatives, John Tory.

What is really annoying is that all the media are painting this as a two face race. The election is still a year away. Other mayorality candidates are sure to toss the vomit of their promises into the political carnage as well. So why let only two names harbor the press as the leading contenders.

On examination, there are people more skilled and qualified than these two rather tepid political animals. I just don't like being dictated that I only have two choices.