The Left Wing Redneck

 From 2008..  Somehow “Red Neck” has become synonymous, with, the rural uncouth. People who live in houses that have wheels, and landscape with pickups with no wheels. However, in another time, when youth wore flowers in their hair, a red neck was anybody with short hair who took offence to calling the Constable On Patrol a 'pig'. In other words a knee jerk. right wing. running dog. establishment lackey. Me, having made the transition from surly youth to moldy curmudgeon, I find myself more sympathetic with the old time red necks. Where I am most in agreement is in the realization that you can't trust anybody under 30. Having said that, I am not about to turn my back on my radical roots as did many 60's radicals, like Jerry Rubin, or PJ O'Rourke. Those guys are seriously full of shit. So where does that leave me? A left wing red neck! Whatsit mean to be a left wing red neck; Rich people, really rich people have waaaay too mu...

Enter the wayback machine and set the controls for November 1988.  Canada was having an election. Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, leader of the Progressive Conservative Party, made the election about the Canada USA free trade agreement.  The message was, if the Progressive Conservatives did not win, Canada was doomed.   In the newly created Alberta riding of Beaver River  there was no incumbent.  The riding consisted of the area surrounding Bonnyville, Saint Paul, Cold Lake, and Lac La Biche,  created in 1987 from  Athabasca ,  Pembina  and  Vegreville . It was safe to assume that whoever  the PC's nominated as their candidate would win. The three ridings Beaver River was carved out of elected Progressive Conservative MPs in the previous election. The nomination meeting was held shortly before the election behind closed doors, no one other than those inside  knew how or why candidate John Dahmer was picked. The Liberals and...

  This redneck mispent a significant portion of his youth devouring science fiction. I pretty much stuck to what is now categorized as 'hard' science fiction, as in based on 'hard' science, ie what we thought we knew about physics and such.  We populated other planets, solar systems, created new societies, fought wars, and when things got tough, we could board a rocket and go somewhere else. Space travel was easy. About the same time I grew out of sci-fi, the genre evolved into fantasy and science fiction, as in mostly fantasy, elves, dragons and wizards, and magic without science.  Then we got dystopian future fiction, which  is also classified as fantasy and science fiction.  In contrast to the sci fi I grew up with, the dystopian was a future  no one would want to live in. Looking back with a critical eye, so called hard sci-fi was every bit as fictional and magical as elves and dragons.  When science fiction went to Hollywood it became even more di...

  "Politics is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals..." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics).   "Science is a rigorous, systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about everything." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science). Political truths only need agreement or compliance. There is no requirement for political truths to make sense.  Trofim Lysenko was a Soviet  agronomist who was appointed the head of  the Soviet Academy of Agricultural Sciences by Joseph Stalin.  Lysenko stated that  genetics and agricultural science was "bourgeois and  fascist   " .  Lysenko rejected Mendelian genetics, substituting his own crackpot ideas.  As many as 3,000 soviet scientists who challenged his ideas were silenced, fired, imprisoned or even executed.  Lysenko studied as an agronom...

  The United Nations has declared July 2023 the hottest month in recorded history. “Climate change is here. It is terrifying. And it is just the beginning,” said UN chief  Secretary-General António Guterres.  Fortunately, it appears that Canada has found a way to defeat global warming. According to Canada's Department of Environment and Natural Resources Weather Information Services, Ontario Capital City, Toronto's July 2023 monthly average temperature of 27.1 was actually 1.2 degrees Celsius cooler than  July 2022 .  Alberta's Capital, Edmonton, was 1 degree C cooler, 23.6 in 2023 vs 24.6 in 2022 . Ottawa, the national capital, was fully 3 degrees C cooler than July  2020 , in fact, Ottawa's July 2023 27.4  C monthly average  was  identical to  July 1892's monthly average, convincing proof that Canada has found the solution to halting global warming. Canada's achievement in combating climate change can be attributed to the ...

  A recent tempest in a tea pot was about gas stoves and their potential hazards to health and environment.  The usual suspects have climbed on their soapboxes, the loony left demanding the sale of gas stoves be banned, and the right wing-nuts proclaiming that the right to buy a gas stove is right up there with assault rifles. After an exhaustive five minute internet search, I have discovered that gas stoves may result in a statistically higher incidence in childhood asthma, may leak methane when turned off, and may release nitrogen oxides when they are used. Burning natural gas has also been blamed for the release of toxic chemicals, such as benzene. So cooking over open flames might be dangerous, who knew?  Digging a bit deeper it turns out that the source of leaked gas inside homes was due to leaks in gas lines.  So plumbing might also be dangerous, or perhaps the plumbers are dangerous.  I wonder what the ban the gas snowflakes will do when they find out tha...