June 16, 2006: Bud Talkinghorn: Salutin & FEMA -&- Brazil & Varig

Time for a cage match with Rick Salutin

Ordinarily, Mr. Salutin's column in The Globe and Mail is a good warm-up for the funny pages. For him there is no lefty stance that wouldn't improve world peace and help your garden grow. I wonder if he isn't still a secret admirer of Stalin ("So he didn't tweak the utopia plan quite the right way. Nobody's perfect"). In Friday's paper (June, 9th, A-17) he is pooh-poohing the terrorist arrests in Toronto. He tends towards the idea that these were simply misguided youth, who were planning an elaborate prank. That they were in possession of enough fertilizer to blow away a chunk of downtown Toronto (and his beloved CBC to boot) doesn't faze him. To Salutin, it is obviously another example of the right wing trying to foment panic. More multicultural grants and sensitivity training for Canadians would clear up the problem.

It never takes Rick long to segue to the situation in Iraq or Afghanistan. It works to minimalize our own terrorist concerns. You want terror, well let's look at the murderous rampages of the U.S. troops in Iraq--"Just another militia among many". Other than the possible freak-out by marines in Haditha, they are not bombing mosques or wiping out Iraqi kids trying to get some bubblegum. Sorry, Mr. Salutin, but these "militias" are not of the same order of magnitude. But he really steps up to the plate when he states:

"As for our own terror episode this week, it wasn't our 9/11, Bali, or London. It didn't even happen, and we won't even know until the trials if anything was actually planned. It was low- rent terror..."

Wow! A breathtaking diminution of "episodes" there, Ricky. First, he suggests that the entire two year investigation and the vast amount of evidence the police have is maybe simply a political ploy. To build up the fascist police state no doubt. Next he suggests that it was a "low-rent" operation, not a Bali. No, if it had succeeded, Bali would look like a firecracker accident by comparison. A whole infastructure of national symbols would have been obliterated--the TSX, CBC, CSIS headquarters, the CN Tower, and for emphasis, our Parliament. He's right, it was no Bali.

But Rick isn't only a nay-sayer. He has concrete plans for taming a lawless Afghanistan. Granted, he does call his plan "painstaking", as it involves NGOs and the blue helmet boys operating without military protection. Presumably, the left could live with the body bags returning with blue helmets, and culturally righteous, but beheaded, NGOs. Anyway, the remaining peace keepers could still go on handing out "Give peace a chance" pamphlets to Taliban zealots. Thank god we have intellectuals like Salutin, who can think outside the box.

I neglected to get into his "Fascist Americans trying to help dislodge the Islamic fundamentalists from Somalia--Mistake written all over it idea", he opines. That will be my next cage match, if I lose this round. However I must add that The Globe and Mail was so impressed with Rick's article that they gave him a double page spread to further elucidate his beliefs. Well, now these 17 Muslim (alleged) psychopaths are merely an extention of The Weathermen, and The FLQ. Those rock-the-state boys from our distant past--either OD'ed or became stockbrokers, but still they are a powerful aphrodisiac for Rick. Unfortunately, Salutin has missed the magnitude factor again here. The old 60's-style terrorists were strictly politicized. The goverment was their target and due care was taken to limit civilian lives lost, with two exceptions [FLQ]. On the other hand, these (alleged) Muslim jihadis were intent on mass murder and destruction. Their enemy wasn't only the state, but all the people who didn't embrace their Talibanesque ideology. Sorry, Rick, you really must try harder to make a cogent apologia for these fanatics.

© Bud Talkinghorn

Related: Photos via CNEWS Forum re: 'Perhaps Toronto 17 Not Terrorists At All posted by DustyRhodes, 6/08/2006 23:20:59
http://
www.faithfreedom.org/Gallery/7.htm



FEMA

I watched CNN's expose of how $1.4 billion dollars was scammed from the FEMA program. Unbelievable! Millions went to prisoners, who claimed they were "dispossessed"--true, but not the way FEMA thought. People used their $2,000 government debit cards to buy diamonds, trips to the Caribbean, and for strippers. That must explain the hefty entrance fees at certain watering holes. This scandal may be the coup de grace for Pres. Bush. It also makes you wonder how so many would scam a relief program. On top of that, the two main cities to which evacuees fled, Baton Rouge and Houston, have witnessed a huge increase in violent crime since the influx. Bet the New Orleans' Chamber of Commerce aren't working too hard to get those folks back.

© Bud Talkinghorn

End of Bud's posts




Five tips for a woman....

1. It is important that a man helps you around the house and has a job.

2. It is important that a man makes you laugh.

3. It is important to find a man you can count on and doesn't lie to you.

4. It is important that a man loves you and spoils you.

5. It is important that these four men don't know each other.

Thanks to one of the women I know.



Brazil & Varig: Sic transit gloria mundi

Well, another one bit the dust. The once great airline Varig went belly-up. And just today M wrote that they had had a lousy flight home from Italy with Varig. And today C had to manage a lot of emergencies for Brazilian ticket holders on Varig who suddenly found themselves holding tickets for a dead airline.

Apparently, Varig owes three billion dollars, so they wanted to auction off the airline; the best offer was $400 million - in other words: nobody wants them. C thinks that the other Brazilian airline, Tam, is simply waiting to pick up the pieces for a song. Yes, sic transit gloria mundi.

[....] And about Sao Paulo today [***] had nothing good to say either; since the "commies" took over, nothing works properly. There has never been as much theft as now, people are afraid to be on the street and barricade themselves in their homes. To add insult to injury, Chavez, the Venezuelan nut, is sticking his meddling nose into Brazil too, pouring in money for dubious purposes.

This came via a friend, and thanks. Yes, that is a real report from someone who lives in Sao Paolo and knows whereof s/he speaks.