Manipulating the Media:

Public opinion is shaped by the media.

Media is shaped by people who have learned to exploit media's needs to their own advantage.

Media needs revenue. They get this by selling commercials. The more commercials, the more revenue.

More commercials need more programming to keep viewers watching. More programming needs more people to put it all together.

More people cost more, so more freebies are welcome. It's the people who have learned to exploit this media need that have figured out how to manipulate the media.

The people who do it regularly with no fear of boring viewers into switching channels are the LGBTQetc gang. Channels like CTV and CBC found their silly antics more important than the dangerous insurrection in Russia or the deep water implosion off Newfoundland's coast.. 

Pride Month:

 Sexual dysfunction has been with us all along. We did not need rainbow flags, aggressive LGBTQ militias and tasteless public displays to keep us aware.

In grade school, there was no motivation for us to pick our friendships based on sex. Sex was not a factor except for the kids who shaved. 

When I started school (in the '30s) it was dress that was important. If it wore a dress, it was a girl. If it wore pants, it was a guy.

Teachers treated everyone the same. Their main concern was that the kids did their homework and behaved. 

There was no gender politics. If any teacher had showed up for work dressed like that shop teacher in Oakville, he would have done it only once and never be heard from nor seen around locally again. We had institutions for such behaviour.

We began to take notice of small gender differences in Junior High. That was when the hormones began to kick in. That's when the more serious problems with gender ID began to show up. A few former friends and buddies began to drift away into attitudes we did not quite understand.

Sexual and gender issues were carefully avoided by teachers, school boards and parents. In fact, parents appeared to make an effort to ignore a child's quirky sexual behaviour as long as possible. They probably hoped that in time the kid will smarten up and more normal behaviour will set in.. 

Except in the most obvious cases, we did not become consciously aware of marginal gender behaviour until we became adults and grew more perceptive. Some gender-ambiguous people moved away to larger communities where they were able to disappear into the social fabric. This strategy made social life more comfortable for the subject as well as for everyone near by.

Those who stayed at home made an effort to adjust to what was expected of them just as we all do. No one organized gangs ready to enforce their personal preferences upon a society that did not actually care because it had its own problems.

This was before the people in the rapidly evolving electronic media decided there was enough public interest in the antics of the "gay" gangs to put to some actual use. They were identified as a handy (and cheap) space filler when media programs ran out of suitable material to insert between their soap and shampoo commercials.

The rainbow flag was no doubt seen as a handy feature to flash on the screen to jolt sleepy viewers back to a more normal state of semi-consciousness.. 

When??

 We're wondering when politicians ready to bargain weapons for votes are going to start buying knives.

Cutlery appears to be a great current favorite with angry individuals who cannot afford guns.

At least a half dozen people get poked, slashed or stabbed daily according to media reports.

Replacing Humans:

 

The rush to replace human evolution with machine intelligence is accelerating.

That should scare the Hell out of us, but apparently, it does not. 

New cars offer more ways the car can do things better than the guy behind the wheel. 

That's true until a specific case arises. It's when a sensor or software, made to respond to an algorithm, gets fooled.

Not for me. If I do something stupid on the highway and have to take the blame, eventually that will call my ability to drive into question. 

And that's a good thing.

Achtung!

 Dilbert is gone.

Apparently, more of the most brilliant comic strips have been warned to cut back on their more incisive art and commentary.

Last weekend's strips in some cases ran fillers. Others omitted their captions. They are trying to avoid anything that might earn the disapproval of their readers.

Why? Readers who disapprove can just simply move on to the next strip. I resent their interference with what I choose to read.

Editorial view? Nothing must be controversial by modern standards. The result? Nothing of any adult interest.

When comic strips are no longer allowed to publish material of intellectual value, we have to look upon who exactly is making those judgments.

We also might look again at a nation whose collective judgment has somehow deteriorated into such Nazification. 

There's a great deal that needs to be examined and evaluated by that segment of our society no longer hobbled by the chemistry of reproduction..

Band-aids, or Duck Tape?

 As usual, the media sees the transit assault solutions in Toronto as band aids and duct tape.

So far, we haven't seen nor heard anything addressing the real problems. 

Clearly, it's a social illness. It's what our society has become. Society in the city core has gone sick. Not just with Covid. And not just in Toronto.

That's government knowingly depreciating the value of our money by printing more to buy votes.

There's no mystery as to what hungry people, deprived of their ability to pay bills and honor their financial committments will do when their backs are to the wall..

They're out there doing it right now.

And hiring more transit cops is not about to make a noticeable difference. 

Testing...Testing!:

The Putin Vs Ukraine scrap is beginning to look like not just another neighborhood brawl. It is taking on the appearance of a full-scale modern weapons evaluation exercise. 

Both Eastern and Western powers are participating.

So as not to be left out, Canada's war ministry has just announced intent to test our fleet of battle tanks by sending them to Ukraine as soon as they become serviceable.

Making our four (4) designated tanks battle-ready shouldn't take too long. 

Happy Holidays;

Apparently Putin tried to declare a recess in his war against Ukraine for the Julian calendar Christmas, which both he and the Ukrainians observe on Jan 7.

Didn't work, according to reports. Gunners on both sides kept lobbing shells across the border.

Poor Putin will have to apologize to Dyed Moroz (Grandfather Frost) as he empties lumps of coal from his Christmas stocking. . 

Covid Masks:

 Concerns about whether or not we should be made to wear those medical masks again to reduce the current crop of viral infections might be a symptom of erratic logic.

Of course, in Ontario, the left-leaning public sector would like the government to once again enforce it. They blame Doug Ford for his hesitancy. 

The NDP and Liberals, who apparently don't believe in individual personal choice, are shown threatening fisticuffs in the Ontario legislature.

Has anyone thought at all that the current rash of viral infections is probably the result of extensive previous use of those masks? 

Over the past two years there was much media speculation on how those masks were preventing not only the spread of Covid, but also a whole range of minor sniffles and coughs normal to seasonal changes. 

Question: Is it possible that the temporary absence of those minor infections in our resperatory passages prevented our immune systems from keeping evolutionary pace with the minor miseries? 

Is it possible that this is what our current crop of sniffs, coughs and snorts is all about?

Longest Reign Ends:

 Queen Elizabeth's death has triggered all kinds of comments, both complimentary and otherwise everywhere from every person with an opinion.

Those included her duties toward the empire as well as criticisms of prolonging a system of government from the Dark Ages. 

Criticisms probably the most ignorant and unwarranted came from some academics in the US. These had the effect of proving that education does not make people with ignorant outlooks smart.

Elizabeth did not become head of the British Parliamentary system by choice. She was drafted. It was the result of a train of events that left her holding the bag.

George, her father, was drafted when his older brother and designated monarch abdicated, whether by personal choice or by administration's advice, we will never know. Suffice to say, he is reported to have seen nothing much wrong with what Hitler was attempting to do out on the continent.

King George expired after a short reign, leaving his eldest child the designated choice. So whether  or not she looked forward to it, Elizabeth was drafted. Now she was head of an imperial administration that assumed the chore of trying to bring into the modern world cultures that had yet to evolve actual writing, or even the wheel.

For this, she is being criticised by modern trained academics from those very cultures.

Unintended Results?

Early in the spring it was announced that the environment around Oakville was to be sprayed to kill off the deadly Gypsy Moth infestation.

So we were not surprised at the early morning overhead clatter of helicopters laying down their environmental control.

Did it work? Must have. It is now the middle of August and there are no signs of tent caterpillars in the woodlots and ravine hiking trails in Oakville. 

Of course, there are no signs of bees and butterflies in our backyard gardens, either. 

Our Bee Balm bush is now in full bloom and we're the only ones who seem to care. Unlike other years, there are no Monarch butterflies, no yellow Swallowtails, no giant black swallowtails, no red Admirals. Earlier on in the spring, there were no furry Mourning Cloaks.

More troubling, we have a 20-foot-long pumpkin vine with more than a dozen blossoms, none  with any evidence of pumpkins.

So far, to the middle of August, we have witnessed one bumble bee, no honey bees, one dragonfly and very few other insects that might do what the bees are normally assigned to do.

The decision by either City or County council to take control of what the environment is doing no doubt had unintended consequences. 

What's scary is the results the politicians who pretend they can do something about global warming or climate change will actually achieve.

We already know that the political media disinformation has resulted in pointless taxation and record inflation. We can only sit and wait for the scary unintended consequences in the years to come.

What a Scam:

 The PM is reported to be out there, kissing babies and glad-handing people, while pointing out how generous his government is with those Carbon Tax Rebates.

No doubt he's guessing that very few among his electorate will link the climbing costs of gasoline, groceries and just about everything else with the money they are receiving in those rebates.

He has every right to show such disdain for the intelligence of his electorate. They elected him.

We pay for those rebates every time we go shopping. Milk, which used to be $4.00, is now $5.50; bread climbed from $1.20 to $3.50; eggs from $1.50 a year ago to $3.50 per dozen, and up to $6 for those customers dumb enough to believe that the hens put forth a special effort at the higher cost. 

Those costs climb almost daily when farmers, manufacturers, and suppliers all scramble to cover the cost of those carbon taxes imposed by Ottawa. The truckers add their vastly increased cost of fuel.

Trudeau's team appears to have calculated that the average voter out there would be too dazzled with their rebates to connect what they have already paid in advance. 

National Embarassment:

 Our PM's speechwriters must be tired of digging up new reasons for him to grovel in abject contrition on behalf of all Canadians.

The latest, it appears, is for a segment of our black population who, it is claimed, were forcibly restrained from going out and becoming great heroes on the front lines. This was during a war which real heroes--those that survived--tried hard to forget.

It was almost too embarassing to watch the PM going through this entry-level classroom exercise on behalf of adult Canadians.

Is there any social group left in Canada that we are not going to have to apologize to? 

I guess it depends on the numbers represented in the minority groups seeking social significance through politicians who would do anything for votes. 

Buying a Home:

Ahead of the Ontario vote, the media is making a big deal out of the difficulty in buying a home. Of course, they are blaming it all on Doug Ford.

Buying anything these days isn't easy. Massive mismanagement in Canada's economy has put everyday grocery items out of reach for not just Ontarians, but for a rapidly increasing number of Canadians right across the land.

Only members of the electorate who haven't been paying attention will take Horwath's or Del Duca's word for what's happening.

And by the way...buying a home has never been easy. It always required a responsible lifestyle including the sacrifice of some luxuries... 

Freedoms Abused:

It's widely reported how our handsome young PM was highly perturbed at the reception he got at a Liberal election funding rally in BC. He backed out, accusing the protesters of ignoring the rights of the individual to protest in Canada.

Apparently, it did not occur to him that the rights to protest in BC were just as important as the rights of the trucking convoy were in Ottawa just a month earlier.

This time he did not threaten to call out the army.

Question:TV or not TV?

Settled in for an evening of marginal video entertainment wnen the picture fractured to a multicolored mush.

Tried all the channels and the arcane electronic trickery that usually brings results. Nothing.

Who to blame? Covid? Those evil White Supremacists? Or maybe Putin, that mad Russian remnant from the Soviet era? 

That's precisely the kind of thing his accomplices in the Kremlin would try to do to get the attention of those meddlesome westerners. Maybe now's a real good time for them to show off superior Russki electronic technology.

What about the internet? Jamming the video channels only would still leave us access to the social media. Frightening thought.

Dashed up the stairs and triggered the mouse on my desk. The net immediately sprang to life. 

What a relief! So now it will be unnecessary for us to re-learn how to make innocent personal chit-chat.

The idea that eventually we might have been reduced to actually having to read something was almost too frightening to think about..

Poor Putin:

 Poor Putin. He doesn't know how to back out of the mess he's allowed himself to be maneuvered into by his Kremlin associates.

It's not a small problem. There's always the thought that in order to save face, he might decide to resort to nuclear weaponry.

The thought that the health of our planet might depend on the state of health of the minds making critical decisions in the Kremlin can be pretty scary. 

Just starting that war was a pretty scary decision.

Info for Sale??

Parliament Hill  appears uncomfortable with what's being said about them on social media. It seems what's said there is viewed as highly uncomplimentary. 

Is this the first time our leaders find themselves being confronted with what the people who elected them actually think?

Were they not exposed to public sentiment through the mainstream media (free press) over the years? What's the difference?

Is it easier for people to complain about their leadership on social media than in person?

Could be the difference between mainsteam and social media is that social media is not for sale. Few people appear to be holding back for fear that they will lose favour with advertisers and politicians.

Inert Virus:

How do you kill something that isn't really alive?

We keep hearing medical researchers describe the Corona virus as a kind of an inert microbe that shows no signs of life until it infects a living organism.

That's diabolically clever on the part of Ma Nature who sees her job as one to keep all life on this planet in balance. That includes humans.

Medical researchers have, in the past, managed to come up with vaccines which worked almost flawlessly when dealing with live microbes like smallpox and Polio. Now, when confronted with a sneaky little inert virus, their vaccines get spotty results at best. All they can do is treat the symptoms, relieving mucus blockages and fevers in patients flocking to the hospitals to seek relief.

This, however, does not stop the media from exploiting this medical disaster to sell a shipload of merchandise .

The administrations, of course, go right along with this. Politicians see it as a potential disaster to their personal status if they disagree with what the public has been led to believe.

What's being promoted in the media right now, is "So who dares question SCIENCE?"

To their credit, science isn't actively promoting science fiction. They're just de-emphasizing the truth and enhancing the fiction.

The Corona virus, in the form of Covid, is not about to go away. We're just going to have to learn to live with it. 

That means adjusting our lifestyles to improve our core health, not buying armloads of everything offered by the merchandising community.

Media Chore:

Here's something new for mainstream media types to do when they've run out of ideas for exciting material to insert between their commercials.

Instead of the boring daily litany of statistics re the number of people infected with the plague virus, they could dazzle sensation-starved viewers with an accounting of who killed more people over the last 24 hours: Putin, or Covid? 

That should be a lot more exciting than comparing yesteday's boring numbers with today's; who's agreed to run a rainbow flag up the pole, or what exciting new demands are being made of the Pope.