Sex, religion and politics. What else is there? Really?
Sadly sex has being overdone these past few years, I think. Thanks to Paris Hilton, Kardashian and all the other closets that have been opened, there is little left to imagine or talk about. Too bad, really. It used to be one of my main interests. Now, not so much? Could be me, I suppose.
And religion? Look where that is going? Faith for some means kidnapping, beheading and blowing stuff up. Or pious rigidity to the point of absurdity. Plus there are all the still-silly costumes the high-priests wear. Just like the old days, really. They just aren’t evolving, are they?
Mind you, politics isn’t doing much for me these days either. So, it is likely just me. I’ll get on to other things. Have to. Back to OTG, for sure. But, I’ll have to return to Trump now and then. I can’t help myself. And there is the absurdity of the Martin Sheen. Hard to make this stuff up.
Seems David Suzuki, Alex Morton and that champion of beach running, Pamela Anderson, have taken the Sea Shepherd’s yacht, the Martin Sheen, to ‘observe’ the fish farms around here. It’s a peaceful protest of sorts (made for TV). And we are all generally opposed to fish-farming so it is supposed to be a good thing. Having said that, I am generally opposed to celebrity for celebrity’s sake and this strikes me as an absurd example of that. But, then again, it could be me.
I am obliged to admit that my expressed sentiment is also partly due to my softening on the fish farming issue. I still oppose fish farming for all the known reasons and mostly because of the sea lice and waste these operations create but I have been keeping close tabs on them for a few years and find them improving all the time. They are clearly still in my environmental bad books but they have also put a few farms on land (an improvement) and they are reducing their use of chemicals and antibiotics. They are also looking into new protein sources (bugs) and they are generally improving their staff, their knowledge and their practices all the time. I now give them a low C-, up from a failing E just a few years ago.
But my biggest re-think on this issue has been that commercial fisheries tend to deplete natural stocks. That is NOT the case anymore if the fishermen run them (as they are allowed to do with some species) but under the supervision of DFO, a fishery can be and usually is decimated. They are currently doing that out here with Spot prawns. I contacted DFO on the fact that the prawn population in our area was at an all-time low just as they opened the season this year and their response was, “Well, if the prawns are wiped out in your area, the fishermen will move away.”
You have to wonder what we pay those idiots for.
But, before I move on completely……….a big thanks to Wrong John and Non-Con for their heated exchange in the last blog. I love it when people express themselves. Having said that, there is a developing ‘comment’ style on the net and it lacks in a lot of ways. I have noticed it for some time but have not put words to it. The commentators are NOT really exchanging information or conceding any ground when earned. There is nothing really new being added. It is not a debate. It is mostly what they call ‘flaming’. Insults. Anger.
The stuff from which Trumps and trolls emerge.
Real commentary is missing. Instead there is word/spelling-manipulation like ‘Hitlary’ and ‘Crusty’ and ‘Lieberal’. In this case, it is not Wrong John’s fault, of course. Blog comments are implicitly limited and usually delivered off-the-cuff from the file labeled Pre-established personal biases and myths. And most people often just copy the opinion of others anyway. They aren’t usually heavy with reason, logic or facts when they do that. Nor original thought. It’s like, “Up yours!” “Oh, yeah, well, up yours even higher!”
I prefer wit or, second best, new information. At the very least read carefully what your opponent said.
OK, on to ravens, whales and ‘Oh, look! a squirrel’…..
We just had a pod of transient Orcas roll by this morning. They did a little hunting just out front. Got a seal. Bit him up into pieces and, because they had little ones with them (2) and seemed to be rolling around them a lot, we think we saw Orcas feeding seal meat to their off-spring. Hard to say, really. But that is what we think. Blood everywhere. And whale watching boats, of course. The most notable observation was the size of the BIG one. That guy was HUGE!
Anyway – the point is that we are down at least one seal today but the squirrels and ravens are doing fine.
Our Off the Grid Home 
I survived Trump’s speech. It was interesting to hear how terrible life in the States is, at least according to him. I’ve never heard such a gloom and doom presidential candidate acceptance speech. Times are tough, but really! Heading out on our first cruise on the chuck, finally. Wayne has been helping our friend John rebuild another friend’s float cabin deck, so he asked for some time off. Even though the work is volunteer, it’s hard to leave John without assistance. Hope to have dinner at the Heriot Bay Inn and then anchor at Rebecca Spit for a few nights. It’s a favourite spot of ours. Hope it isn’t too crowded this time of year. Maybe I’ll see one of your orcas going by. – Margy
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I survived it, too. But I was slack-jawed most of the time. He actually said a thing or two I agreed with like getting American (non-polluting) industries up again. But the unfettered coal mining, tax-cutting and more de-regulation etc. was appalling. Bodes poorly for the environment. And the whole 2007/08 crash was due to de-regulation of banks! ‘Forbidding’ companies to move, while laudable, is weird if you are a Constitutionalist like he claims. Same with renegotiating already-signed trade agreements (altho I have never been a fan of NAFTA either). AND not backing NATO allies!!?? THAT basically says, “Our word means nothing.”
Those words threaten survivability actually.
Mind you, those words of his meant nothing to the seal or the Orcas. I suppose Trump and Pamela Anderson are the new-type makers of news-o-tainment and I should just relax and let them put on their show……like we do with the whales.
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Had a nice two nights in Moulds Bay on Quadra. Rebecca Spit was way too crowded. Had the anchorage all to ourselves and the cabin owners on shore weren’t home (luckily for them and us). – Margy
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Like you I was amused by the defence of Mr I love Canada, no really it is like a real country. Setting litoeties aside, I love the defence of Trump, aka Mr Philopseudes, ‘you wanta know the truth, you can not handle the truth only I know truth and I’ll tell what to believe. Only I can solve your problems.
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To be fair, I cannot solve all my own problems so I may as well hand them over to him. But, honestly? Do you think Trump can fix a toaster or navigate over wild and unfamiliar terrain? Could he maintain his own car, make his own dinner, or build a shed? Do you think he knows a second language or has actually read a single book in his whole life? I wonder if he has even BEEN to Mexico.
But, I digress………..I am going back to Trump…….again…..it’s like watching a car accident in slow-mo…..hard to look away…..but, I have to…..
…..closing my eyes now…….burying head…….la la la la la la……………. hey, look! A squirrel!
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I am compelled to agree with you. Ya gotta admire a man who speaks in conclusions and screw the details. He will revive the steel industries but no details. Coal will make a come back but it will be new and improved, better than ever and cleaner than ever. No really trust me. Really folks greater coal than we have ever had in the history of coal. I love the new coal. Hubris is a quality that all disrupters possess. And hubris will make America great again.
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Damn! I checked his list of places visited and, apparently, he HAS been to Mexico. Once. Mexico City.
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The Orcas are passing by and there is blood in the water, a lot of blood. As you mentioned Dave, there is one particularly robust one given to a little chopping. dicing and eviscerating. ‘What can I tell you? It’s a deep, dark ocean out there. No really and them calves love it when I throw them some chunks of raw meat. What I really want to do is get a hold of them Shmoos that is willingly to help others. Them Shmoos is bad for business. What good is a food dessert when them shmoos gives food away for nothing, “Shmoos,” Big Orca warned, “is the greatest menace to hoomanity th’ world has evah known.” “Thass becuz they is so bad, huh?” asked Li’l Abner. “No, stupid,” answered the Big One, hurling one of life’s profoundest paradoxes at Li’l Abner. “It’s because they’re so good!”
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You’re dating yourself, Bubba. Not one in a hundred remembers Shmoos anymore. I do, tho. I love Shmoos but they are all made in China now. Don’t taste as good. Still, Abners’ Big Orca could be channeling Trump when he says that. “Hey! Free is bad for business. We gotta get rid of Aid for poor people. They would love it if we did!”
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The shmoo is a perfect metaphor for the something for nothing crowd. Schoos are beloved because they need only air to live. They want to be consumed…fried they taste like chicken and grilled they taste like steak. They walk around dropping milk, eggs, butter and sides bacon. They are white and their whiskers make perfect toothpicks and their eyes make perfect buttons. They are gullible, loveable and and so tasty. Like other totemic animals who are fable tellers such as the Raven and the Blackfish, only the shmoos reminds us that the solution to most of our problems will not be found with Blackfish’s clan.
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Speaking of Killer Whales and Blood in the water..
Mr Trumps’ election team has a controversial figure at the helm.
An excellent article about Paul Manafort
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/27/paul-manafort-donald-trump-campaign-past-clients
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There does seem to be some questionable ethics and tactics associated with Manafort. But, it is NOT surprising, is it. Really? Trump cannot even recruit established GOP piggies to his inner sanctum and they are hardly sweethearts. Newt Gingrich, Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Mitt Romney. They won’t go. He gets Chris Christie and then humiliates him and throws him under the bus. His is a backroom of Putinesque style thugs and sycophants. And even THEY don’t last.
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A fascinating political editorial by a former journalist for the New York Times….and he supports neither candidate…….
http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/odious-versus-tedious/
P.S. My apologies for the name of the blog.
I’m just the “messenger” passing it along.
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