Jack's Newswatch

Yesterday I sat down and finally watched a hockey game.  My father (now passed on) was a “hockey nut” just like Stephen Harper is today but I am not.

I lost interest in hockey when when six teams became …what?  Twenty six teams and the NHL lost the best and the boldest.  All of a sudden north american hockey lost something and I lost interest because I failed to see how it was all better.

Back in the “good old days”  there was a series and hockey nuts will recall this.  It was the stanley cup final and Boston against Montreal.  Bobby Ore against Montreal and Scotty Bowman was coaching the Montreal team.

Ken Dryden in goal.

Montreal at the time was in second place and expected to lose because the “Bruins” had won everything in the year they were ascendant and so nobody expected them to lose the final series.  I walked into the office as people were discussing this and I called it “Montreal — four straight” and so it happened…and so it boggled people’s minds.

It was no surprise because I had been watching Scottie all year and because that was so I picked up on his tactics.

He wanted to come in “second place” because he knew he had a “nuke” waiting.  Hockey is as much about tactics as it it is anything else and one thing people should know is “you lead them where you want them to go and then you kill them “.  So it happened on “Scotties” watch and so it happened yesterday.  Therefore the reason why I called it “three — one” :  Canada.

I watched the game (the only thing I did watch in the Olympics) and was not surprised.

I will say this.

Back in the good old days I watched the Montreal Canadians and saw how they controlled the puck — beyond belief.

That wasn’t yesterday. It was a long time ago and yesterday looked like “shinny” to me but you work with what you have.  I was very surprised I was even close.  I called it — “four straight” in Bowman’s era and that is that.  It happened.

Yesterday I saw the same thing and called it “Three — One” prior to the start of the game.  I expected Canada to be all over the US (and they were).  It ended up “Three — Two” in O/T — “close enough”.  That Canadian coach was doing what Bowman did years ago.  It was all planned and once again the US fell into the trap just as they did many years ago.

Nobody should make the mistake of thinking Canada is a second rate hockey team.

Canada has been there before and knows all about it.

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Admit it: you can’t think of Al Gore any more without tittering, can you? Even some Apple shareholders are disgusted with the former VP turned eco-nut moneybags. He’s become “a laughing stock,” declaimed one disgusted shareholder, and no wonder.

True, Al Gore has positively cleaned up by exploiting the business opportunities that have come his way from the Chruch of Gaia, I’m Greener-than-thou, Inc. The London Telegraph describes him as our “first carbon billionaire.” “There’s gold in them there faked studies, pardner!” Gore’s successful gaming of the system argues for a certain cunning and eye for the main chance. The guy has hauled in an impressive pile of pelf these last few years.

But that success says nothing about his sanity. Alas, the chap is clearly bonkers. I submit as exhibit A the interminable Op-Ed column that his PR-firm, a.k.a. the New York Times, issued today. Here’s the first paragraph:

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When I was 13 years old, science scared me. Not science itself, mind you, but the terrors of the future it foretold. News of the coming dark ages were delivered to our young ears through that most trusted of conduits, a high school science teacher. We’re killing the planet? I was shocked. What a bunch of jerks we all are! I remember so very clearly coming home from school, brow furrowed, and earnestly rebuking my parents for contributing to the destruction of the earth. RECYCLE! LIKE RIGHT NOW!! OR WE’RE ALL GONNA DIIIIEEEE!!!!!

My father, a professor himself, looked up calmly and said “why?” Well I didn’t really know why. Something about landfills and styrofoam and earth day. Newspapers were killing dolphins. Six packs of soda were strangling penguins. The hole in the ozone layer was letting all our air out into space. Or something. Whatever it was, it was URGENT that we recycle to fix it!!! FIX IT FIX IT FIX IT!!!

Still, though. Why?

So now I’m thirty-five years old, and although I eventually broke free, environmental hysteria has surrounded me ever since that day. And there is no hysteria more rabid than that over man-made global warming (anthropogenic global warming, properly, or AGW). Assuming you haven’t been in an alternate dimension for the last decade or so, you know exactly what I’m talking about. The world is going to be destroyed, Al Gore tells us with the earnestness and oratorical flourish of any panicked 13-year old, if we don’t do something RIGHT NOW!! To which the “global community” replied with a resounding FIX IT FIX IT FIX IT!!!!!!

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Senate Democrat “moderates” probably slept well last night, but no House Blue Dog should have. In the marathon Blair House healthcare “summit,” the Chicago Obama family made it perfectly clear that the Senate Dems are protected “made men” but the House members are expendable in Obama’s pursuit of nationalizing healthcare.

The summit convened after a round of new polls showed — again — that most Americans don’t want Obamacare. A Quinnipiac poll showed Americans disapproved of Obama’s healthcare plan by 54-35 percent. Rasmussen said 56% opposed and 41% approved, and both Pew Research and PPP said 50% were opposed to it. The opposition will almost certainly rise after yesterday’s media event.

For that is what it was. It was precisely as Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-Ind) characterized it to me last night. The “summit” wasn’t anything resembling an honest debate or a real negotiation. Pence pointed out that Obama opened the meeting with comments that directly contravened his stated objectives for the summit. Instead of opening the “summit” to a debate and negotiation of both sides’ positions, Obama began by stating that his purpose was to make the case for his healthcare bill.

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The Palestinians have nothing on liberal Democrats. Palestinians, as Abba Eban, Israel’s former ambassador to the United Nations, famously quipped, “never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity.” But the Democrats and the jogging canines of mainstream journalism never miss an opportunity to miss the obvious.

Allow me, then, to explain the reason — the real reason — why the aforementioned devote the enormous amounts of time, effort, ink, and pixels to attack one woman, Sarah Palin. Palin is a private citizen, who does nothing but give speeches, sell books, post Facebook messages, and is a “Fox News contributor” whose only substantive “contributions” so far, from what I can see, have been to Fox News’ bottom line and to her own bank account.

After all, we never saw the left direct this level of vitriol — no, let’s call it what it is, hatred — against the likes of Ron Paul, Steve Forbes, Ross Perot, and others whose names, for good reason, I cannot recall. And, unlike Sarah Palin, these were all declared candidates, actively-campaigning for the presidency in an election year.

What could possibly account for this borderline deranged venting of hellfire, this spewing of enough bile to float a battleship, enough gnashing of teeth to pay the college tuition — all four years — of the children of a whole battalion of cosmetic dentists? After all, it’s not like Sarah Palin could actually be elected President of the United States or anything.

Or could she?

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The Montreal daily La Presse published my opinon letter this morning discussing the debate over global warming and the position of the Canadian government. The paper also ran an article by François Cardinal about my position on this issue.

Here is the full text of my letter, of which La Presse only published two thirds:

Greenhouse gases: Caution is the right stance for Canada

by Maxime Bernier, MP for Beauce

During the Copenhagen summit last December, Canada was ferociously denounced by environmental groups. They accused our government of trying to derail an agreement because it was not ready to sign anything. Critics were raised again at the end of January when Environment Minister Jim Prentice announced new targets for reducing greenhouse gases that were more modest than the previous ones.

However, every week that goes by brings more confirmation of the wisdom of our government’s moderate position. Since December, the debate over the scientific basis of global warming, which had been stifled for years by political correctness, is finally taking place in the media. The many errors made by the IPCC that have been recently unveiled add more weight to the various alternative theories that have been put forward for a number of years.

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Updates:

2:11 pm EST, February 25th, 2010 — Harper’s Mad Max headache?

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We take a break from the hyperventilating over the latest moves in the slow-motion kabuki dance that is the Obama Administration’s efforts to ram its federal takeover of the health care system down the throats of the overwhelming majority of Americans who oppose the various bills to take a look at what should be a much, much bigger story.

Last week, Democratic Senate Candidate Joe Sestak, a retired Admiral, let slip in an interview that someone in the White House offered him a position in the Administration if he would drop his primary challenge of Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania.  Sestak wouldn’t elaborate on which job he was offered – speculation centers on Secretary of the Navy – but it hardly matters.  As Jeffrey Lord points out, federal law prohibits anyone from offering, soliciting, or receiving any federal office in exchange for a political favor.

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Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) today asked the Obama administration to investigate what he called “the greatest scientific scandal of our generation” — the actions of climate scientists revealed by the Climategate Files, and the subsequent admissions by the editors of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (AR4).

Senator Inhofe also called for former Vice President Al Gore to be called back to the Senate to testify.

“In [Gore's] science fiction movie, every assertion has been rebutted,” Inhofe said. He believes Vice President Gore should defend himself and his movie before Congress.

Just prior to a hearing at 10:00 a.m. EST, Senator Inhofe released a minority staff report from the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, of which he is ranking member. Senator Inhofe is asking the Department of Justice to investigate whether there has been research misconduct or criminal actions by the scientists involved, including Dr. Michael Mann of Pennsylvania State University and Dr. James Hansen of Columbia University and the NASA Goddard Institute of Space Science.

This report, obtained exclusively by Pajamas Media before today’s hearing, alleges:

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What a Saturday at CPAC!

Ron Paul out-polled Sarah Palin almost 5 to 1 and keynoter Glenn Beck got huge ovations as he disavowed any conservative ascendency within the Republican Party.

So someone please tell me – just what the heck happened to a convention that was off to such a wonderful conservative start? Where is the momentum from the Marco Rubio speech and the Dick Cheney “Obama is a one term President” moment?

Perhaps David Keene of the American Conservative Union will be a bit more careful when picking keynote speakers from now on. What happened was predictable, given that the man he picked uses a daily TV show to make it clear that he blames Republicans, Democrats, the left and the right and politics in general all equally for America’s woes.

While he has a huge audience, some of these thoughts are not exactly the consensus among American conservatives. They are not consistent with reality either. Besides, CPAC stands for Conservative Political Action Committee.

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Everybody loves a good mystery and the alleged murder of Hamas commander Muhammad al-Mabhouh in Dubai by Mossad agents is sure attracting a lot of ink or pixels, not the least of which is Ronen Bergman’s Israel and the Dubai Murder Mystery in Friday’s Wall Street Journal. But unfortunately, Mr. Bergman – a senior military and intelligence analyst for Israel’s popular daily Yedioth Ahronoth – makes a major error in the second paragraph of his piece. Can you spot it?

Nearly everyone believes that the 11 alleged members of the hit squad that killed Hamas leader Muhammad al-Mabhouh last week in Dubai are Mossad agents. Seven of the 11 identities used were stolen from other Israelis with dual European citizenship.

Well, as it happens, the murder didn’t take place “last week” but on January 19. It was only reported last week. I’m not noting that to make fun of Mr. Bergman, obviously a knowledgeable fellow, or the fact-checkers at the WSJ, stressed as they may be, but it does cause you to wrinkle your nose at some of Mr. Bergman’s comments further down the page:

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I would highly recommend an article by Michael Knox Beran entitled “Palin Populism,” in which he talks about what Governor Sarah Palin has to deal with from the educated elites and their obsession (he refers to it as a fetish) that everyone in positions of importance have a upper level university degree.

Talk about elites, or perhaps the better word would be “snobs” (h/t Lee). Think about the interview with Katie Couric during the 2008 U.S. election campaign and you will know what I mean.  Palin was ambushed. The underlying message then and the message that continues to this day: Sarah Palin is folksy, but not too bright because she doesn’t have a master’s or Ph.D university degree from a “certain” university. Therefore, she can’t be President.

Hogwash is all I can say. She did get an undergraduate degree in 1987 in  communications and journalism (with a minor in politics) from the University of Idaho.  However, whether a university education is in communications or the hard sciences, from Idaho or Harvard,  does not make you any more intelligent. It simply builds on natural abilities. It can also provide the skills you need for employment, such as teaching, journalism or pharmacy, or those we used to say learned “on the job,” such as business administration. 

However, having been on both sides of the degree fence, as it were, I can definitely say that, while the skills you learn in higher education can be important, they are not necessarily the common sense and decision-making skills you would need to be a political leader. In fact, you wouldn’t need any degrees at all to acquire those skills.

I went into the job market in the early 1960’s with a grade 12 graduation diploma, combined with a lot of guts, determination and common sense. I worked my way up in jobs but always knew, deep down, that there was a glass ceiling for anyone, male or female, who did not have that special “piece of paper” – a university degree. So, later as a mature student, with the financial and moral support of my husband and children, I went back to school, eventually becoming a teacher. Then, in mid life, I went on to finish a Ph.D in Education and teach university.

My point in mentioning my own story is not to pat myself on my back, but to tell readers that, in spite of all my “higher education,” I am still the same gutsy determined person I was in the mid to late 1960’s. The only difference now is that I know how to conceptualize, research and write in a particular context — much as many people get through advanced experience in a trade or creative endeavour like being a professional celtic dancer.

However, Governor Palin cannot have it both ways. While I agree she is far too often minimized by the mainstream media and the Ivy League establishment, she can fall into the same judgmental mindset herself.  

For example, if Knox Beran is correct in the way he quotes her, he writes: “Governor Palin, in contrasting ‘American values’ with the aspirations of ‘elite education,’ warns us of the arrogance — and the moral ’spinelessness’ — that today’s higher learning too often fosters.”

In other words, by warning us “that today’s higher learning too often fosters arrogance and spinelessness,” Palin has a tendency to use the same type of “anti” language that the Ivy League ”snobs” use to judge and dismiss her. 

In fact, I read all the time in the blogosphere about how stupid and lacking in common sense people are who have Ph.D’s — as though we were all the same.  True, I have known my share of people without common sense. Some had Ph.D’s, some did not.  The point is, that “broad stroke” attitude is just as unfair as the reverse.

In any event, Governor Palin’s best defence against those who would minimize her and put her down is to just be herself — pretty much as she always is. I mean, she continues “to be out there“ in spite of all the petty and personal attacks. Clearly, she has what it takes to be President with or without an advanced Ivy League degree.

Note: Revised slightly after publishing.

Update: As I mentioned in a comment to Lee, the one thing I didn’t have room to write about was the ridiculous pecking order even for those who do have master’s or doctoral degrees. It starts with undergraduate degrees. Journalism, communications and believe it or not, youth and child studies are at the very bottom. Physics and chemistry are at the top. It’s the same at the Master’s and Doctoral level. I have been ridiculed by those in the hard sciences for my “Mickey Mouse” Ph.D in education.

Then, the pecking order continues with regard to where you graduated from. My first two degrees were from Brock University which is less than Queens or U. of T. However, because my Ph.D is from U of T., I’m okay. (I say that with tongue in cheek.) It’s all so very silly.

Then, of course, there are the people who don’t have a degree at all. I am reminded of how John Snobelen was treated by the Ontario teachers’ unions when he was Ontario’s Education Minister. The MPP I worked for was his Parliamentary Assistant so I saw how he operated. He was brilliant. A grade 11 drop out, he was an entrepreneur and a self-made millionaire. In other words, he didn’t need any degrees at all.

Yet, the snobbery or degree fetish Knox Beran talks about is what he had to deal with. Seems to be human nature. In effect then, if someone has a degree, any degree from an Ivy League university, they are basically set for life — whether or not they have any common sense or not.

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