I am a contemporary barbarian

 

I've done remarkably well not commenting on the current state of municipal, provincial and federal politics both here and due south. I have, like everyone, opinions about these things but for the moment I will ask to be humored while I  express  my truth.

I am a contemporary barbarian.

I don't need to google how to change a tire, I can determine a right angle using the Pythagorean theorem or the 4-5-6 scale. I can wire a lamp and thanks to the OBD2 reader my grandson got me for Christmas I can turn off the check engine light in your car.  

I can also cook, sew,  type about 60 words a minute. About the only thing I can't do is swim.  I try very hard to keep my promises and prefer not to make them if I know I can't keep them.

I was elected to the Alberta legislature for a little while, and the big lesson I learned from that particular experience is that our provincial and federal politicians get elected in a democracy but they do not work in one.  

The leader of the party; be it Premier, Prime Minister  or President is the ultimate overlord.  He or she will surround themselves with "loyal" supporters and then spend a great deal of their time trying not to be too embarrassed by the things these supporters do. 

Case in point, Paul Rehn, MLA for Lesser Slave Lake, whom Kenney was forced to remove from caucus in order to placate a constituency  smart enough to know they had no representation.  Only because it was so blatant and public in the media did Kenney act. He did not act because it was the right thing to do.

I applaud his action as people who are driven by their base instincts, left unchecked and without discipline, can hardly be counted upon to preserve the liberties of the nation or province they serve.  

In other words Paul Rehn might be the poster child for everything that is wrong not only with politics but possibly also the weakened social construct we call society.  

The man violated the trust of everyone who cast a ballot, abused his position, ignored those he was elected to represent and even violated a common sense health order not to travel. "We are all in this together" I can hear him say "Well except for me of course." It is better to have character than be one, Paul, but thanks for clarifying what you are truly all about.

Instead of seeking representatives who's character is based on action and results we align with representatives who's character  is based on charm.  We elect the prettiest show pony and are then shocked and dismayed to discover that the show pony is of no use in battle whatsoever.

Where are the virtues of honor, service, duty and courage?   

Who breaks into the Capital Building dressed like Chewbaca? 

The problem is not that Chewbacca supported Trump, the problem we now live in a world where Chewbacca gets his 15 minutes of fame and the virtues of honor, service, duty and courage are left at home, if they even existed there. We can't tell leaders from Chewbacca because for all we know he was the ring leader behind the riot on Capital Hill. 

We have lost our ability to be self reliant,  A person used to build a house as a means of providing shelter for his family. now it is considered a herculean effort if they build a shed or a flower box outside the mortgaged McMansion. 

We yell at each other in forums and with language we would not dare use face to face, lest the conversation be interrupted by a swift uppercut. We attack character because we have no ability  to draw our own conclusions or consider an argument that runs counter to our own preconceived notions. 

Then  legislators chose as a priority the task of the  eliminate words like "man, woman, mother, brother, father, sister" as though these words were somehow guilty of some form of assault.  These terms do not separate us, they unite us and provide each of us with the opportunity to have an identity. 

Without identity you no longer exist. 

I fear though that for many,  the decision to cease to exist at least as thinking adults', has already been made. 

We are, at best, going through the motions to show that we have some value all the while turning our backs on those values that got our society to where it is today: Honor, service, duty and courage. 

By handing  freedoms and responsibilities over so freely to the charming people we elect it reinforces the very nature that the superficial is all that matters. 

One should not look behind the curtain lest we discover the wizard is just pulling the levers of social media with no interest whatsoever in being of service to those who elected them.  Case in point is Tracy Allard posting Christmas pictures from the legislature while she is in Hawaii. Smoke and mirrors all.

It is about  power and control, that's all it is and the longer we forget that virtue is indeed a necessary virtue, the greater power and control will be centralized and largely forsaken to the so called special interests.

Every time I hear the phrase "special interests" I know that my interests are not being considered. I doubt very much that yours are either.

We gave it away, we literally gave it away to people in leadership roles who could not possibly be less deserving, we elect drama teachers and career politicians, we elect people who are at least as incompetent as we are. 

Stop asking leaders to tell you what you want to hear, start demanding the truth whether you like it or not. It'll soon change the fabric of leaders from show pony's to people of substance, people with idea's, skills, knowledge and most importantly, a commitment to the people who elect them. 

Show me one, show me  honor, service, duty and courage. 

I'll wait......

Tested for the "VID" results in under 24 hours

I tested negative, AHS woke me up at 08:00 to tell me my result, that is pretty good service!  

Since I know the name and address of the bastard (aka friend) who infected me, I know how long I have to quarantine before I am safe for public consumption.  

This is good, unfortunately  the guy who infected me,  had to cancel a flight home to Ontario. 

Normally I think cancelling a flight to Ontario is a win and wish that some day we had to go through border security to fly there, but for now it's doubly sad because the government tells us  99.6% of people who get Covid survive, and according to Alberta's Premier this deadly disease is less deadly on airplanes, where for some reason the recirculated air manages to filter out the disease, so why I ask aren't we all on planes?

Alberta's Premier, obviously knew this when he launched a program to save his MLA's and WestJet by sending his people all over the globe to keep the airline viable, with pretty much  the same result as the  incident involving a former  Cabinet Minister who, when caught with a prostitute in his car said he was "conducting research study into prostitution."  It was a government owned car, which I understand was immediately sent to auction.  I'd use his full name but Graham is 90 years old and really, who cares.

There is no word on whether or not WestJet has scrapped the offending planes used by the caucus, but I see today WestJet laid just everyone off, so I guess that Jason managed to save neither the airline or his team with his  "Covid safety on airplanes research". 

Job loss, whether a prostitute, cabinet minister or flight attendant is not funny it's quite serious actually and I should be struck down for sharing and comparing the deeds of the modern and vibrant UCP with the deeds of an old Lougheed era  cabinet minister, who was at best really a liberal anyway. 

In this world of "do as I say not as I do" I will be staying home for the requisite incubation period of 14 days, this means I have about seven days to go since I saw the bastard who infected me last week.  I say bastard in the most loving way possible as "Typhoid Morris" is a good friend.  

And onto Washington:  I understand complete order has been restored with the Ewok and Chewbacca having gone back to Seattle to do warm up exercises for their next Antifa sponsored insurrection.  These two clowns now famous for their tattoos on their hands of the  Marxist Hammer and Sickle have been spotted at numerous Antifa events. I really doubt anyone who's seriously MAGA would be a member of the Karl Marx fan club.  It is details like this however that distort the narrative that  Trump supporters were there to do damage.  I understand the guy who broke Nancy Pelosi's Scotch decanter was found hiding in his Grandma's basement  after the FBI pinged his cell phone, no word on his tattoo, but his proximity to Nana  speaks volumes.  I do hope the FBI remembered to wipe their feet on the way in and say thank you on the way out. Hey it's somebody's Nana, it's not her fault her grandson is an idiot, show some respect.

So was the whole thing really a contrived conspiracy designed to end democracy and herald in a new era of socialism?  Well as I said yesterday I doubt my friends in Texas are very worried and would likely welcome Chewbacca with open arms should he choose to come visit  wearing that helmet with the horns on it, I'd strongly suggest a trip to the hill country in October, keep the fur too, it's chilly. 

Trump, who enflamed rioters by telling them to go home, and the Capital Police who moved the barricades to reduce tripping hazards for the protesters clearly are all  bad people, the only good ones that I can see were Chewbacca and his Ewok who were probably getting something above minimum wage  and a few selfies for their efforts. Nancy Pelozi was  there somewhere, yelling at her hairdresser.

If you doubt any of this, go look at the video footage of the event. It's quite interesting.

Stolen election conspiracies aside, I suspect law and order has been restored and the visitor galleries on capital hill will soon be filled with bus loads of very bored school children watching grown ups behave in such a way the kids instinctively know would get them spanked at home.  

And the world turns: Trump needs to admit he's out of a job, get the movers lined up, the utilities switched into Biden's name and hopefully his new house in Russia will be out of escrow before he gets there.  

As bad as things are for Trump however, I understand outgoing Vice President Pence is unlikely to get his damage deposit back because he smoked in his house and is probably going to take his sweet time moving out just to annoy incoming Vice President Harris who has her U-Haul rented by the hour.   But it's nice to see  politicians living in public housing like the poor. 

Of course, none of this actually works like this: Trump will have a Secret Service detail by his side for the rest of his life (lucky guys) and the Federal Government will be responsible for things like cars, drivers, food, housing, medical expenses, Botox for the Mrs. and ringette lessons for the youngest kid.  So if Trump is broke  he's still better off than 90% of his supporters.  

I find it so ironic that in a country where health care is not a public institution, the members and staff of the senate and congress have the best medical and dental plans money can buy, after all people who take the humble salaries of these two chambers have only their PAC's and undocumented donors to make them rich. This is how, on $175,000.00 a year Hilary Clinton, in eight years in the Senate, was able to save enough  food stamps to raise her net worth from $2.3 million to $40 million.  

Although  the democrats do have way better sex scandals, I half expected an Obama/ Oprah thing to pop up and nobody ever thought Nixon or Reagan or Bush 1 was much in the "ladies man" department.  This they left to Bill Clinton and his cigars, and JFK and well,  everyone who wore a skirt  in 1961. I think Jimmy Carter was just too pure to be caught with his pants down, his brother Billy however, all bets were off.  

Democrats, who would never steal elections or get rich being bought off by their PAC's and donors, can be forgiven for  thinking with the "little head" more than the big one, although notable exception is made for Bill Clinton and stated earlier JFK. I was going to make a comment about how JFK and Margaret Trudeau had Cuban missle crisis's about ten years apart, but it seemed funnier in my head than on paper.

It's a problem of what I will call populist tribalism and we have it in Canada as least as much as they do down south, our own Prime Minister, who thinks he is something of a "ladies man" when he isn't trying to impersonate Al Jolson is completely out of touch with the average Canadian and isn't likely to have anyone in his rolodex with a area code starting with 204, 306, 403, 587 or 780. He might have some 604 or 250 numbers, but only because the conservatives in BC call themselves Liberals for some unknown reason.  Trudeau does not have a PAC so he has to launder his illegal donations through his family and a bogus charity run by twins. and supported by the international massage parlor, SNC Lavalin.  

In Alberta, we have two machines of roughly equal size pushing around the piles of dirt they have on each other, yet neither really addresses, in an earnest way the issues of their constituents because that sounds like it might involve shoveling. 

Impact of the "Vid"

 

I've heard covid  called the "Vid" by people younger than me who don't have time to use real words, this is the same generation who call 7/11 the "sev" and McDonalds, "mickeyD" although that last one really isn't any shorter. 

Today I went for my nasal brain swab to see if I have the "vid" I don't think I do, given that 

a) I am not micro-chemophobic 

b) I probably swallowed enough alcohol based products in my life that everything is pretty well germ free.  

But I am not doing this for me.  I'm doing this because I have three wonderful grandson's, who would give me serious shit if I ignored the issue and because there are people who could get very sick or even die if I inattentively were to infect them.  

I went  to the Hazel Bluff community hall, which is about 5 miles west of town,  and waited exactly zero minutes for the lovely nurse to stick what felt like a ski pole length swab up my nose to take a sample of my cerebral cortex, then tell me to go home and isolate until I get the text with my results. 

My daughter Rebecca, who lives closest to me and who happens to be home, immediately sprang into action and brought Dad groceries and dish soap.  So I am set. All I need to do  is renew my Netflix membership and my life will be golden, I shall wake up late, feast on Salmon steaks and binge watch Longmire, (again).  

I really like Longmire, although I am surprised that Absaroca County, Wyoming seems to have no crime except murder,  it does sound like a great place to drive very fast,  generally Wyoming is that indeed: In 2008 whilst I held a public role, Barb and I went to Thermopolis Wyoming for a holiday and as I'm tooling down the interstate in her new BMW, 3.0 liter  twin turbo SUV at a very irresponsible  200 km/h, (124 miles an hour) the state trooper who pulled in behind us, saw the Alberta plates  and proceeded to blow past us like we were standing still. 

Ever since then I have wanted  a Crown Victoria with that cop spec 4.6 V8. See, unlike Idaho where I a got a ticket for doing 75 in a 55 in my motorhome, the cops in Wyoming, are just really happy to see out of state traffic on the interstate and this might explain why Walt Longmire never has any petty crime in his county, except for one episode where a prize chicken went missing but was later recovered and reported to be "quite tasty".

The motor home ticket did result in me having to call the Governor of Idaho's assistant because, well I forgot to pay it and they issued a warrant for my arrest. I did pay the fine and the Governor's assistant laughed and laughed. I did not go to jail, which was a good thing because I was still in public office at the time. 

Now that we are in this weird sort of voluntary/ mandatory lockdown and no longer have a BMW SUV, I have to settle for my Buick Le Sabre which is by no means a slow car, (the supercharged 3.8 V6 is a time tested bullet proof engine) I can't go to Wyoming and play in traffic because, well it would be stupid to do so, especially since everyone else is managing to stay home. 

Except of course for the people who keep telling us to stay home: like Allard, Huckabee and Liepert. Although in fairness Ron, isn't a provincial politician. But since I don't want to flaunt my freedom in the face of people who sacrificed things like their grandson's first Christmas and worse funerals,  I will stay home. My Buick shall have to wait until the restrictions lift before it sees the happy side of 200 km/h in Wyoming, I am betting I can get about 230 out of it and until then I shall have to be happy making vroom vroom noises while I watch Walt Longmire solve another seemingly perfect murder.

If you have never watched Longmire or are a vegan opposed to concealed carry or open rifle carry by guys with big hats you have no idea what you are missing. I skipped gingerly over the whole Kenney debacle because, well, it's stupid. Indeed today I am more concerned about parts of the United States that are either mad because Trump is insane or  mad because Mitch McConnell is now wallpaper. 

Never in my life did I expect to see Ewoks and Chewbacca break through the doors of the Capital and break stuff like Nancy Pelosi's scotch decanter.  Democracy has been set back at least 15-20 minutes and now the only real question is who is the next crazy leader? We still have that guy in North Korea, but I understand he's an NBA fan and can't be all bad.

I'm not impressed by Joe Biden, but Vice President Harris has a few things going for her one including a well orchestrated opportunity to demonstrate some serious national rebounding from Trump. Gun sales are up about 1,000% in Texas, so I am not too worried about a wholesale erosion of democracy. My concern with Biden is the guy has never actually had a real job, he went from articling law student to Senator about 50 years ago. Harris who is similar to vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin only in gender is a smart person, I also think she is sane.

The Democrats of today are not that dissimilar from the Republican's of the 1870's when my great grandfather was involved, you may recall that Lincoln was Republican and took on the Southern Democrats in the civil war to end slavery. So really he was kind of a social progressive and the Democrats were the social conservatives which proves I guess that pendulums swing both ways and sometimes more than one pendulum is swinging.

None of this forgives Donald Trump or Chewbacca for the gong show or broken crystal, but is does say that the Republican loss of the presidency is not the problem people think it is, indeed it's only a problem if you interpret it as such. Texas is the only state in the union with the right to secede with a simple majority and while I don't think my friends are weaponing up to make that happen, it's comforting to know they could. In Texas it is generally accepted that "An armed society is a polite society" and while New Hampshire has a cooler motto "Live free or die" the end result is the same.  Harris is the deciding vote in Congress, which means that the Republicans' and the Democrats have an equal shot at screwing things up or at actually working together. 

Time will tell I suppose.

Meanwhile in Alberta: that spot of unpleasantness in Washington DC should not cause us to lose focus over the behavior of our own elected officials,  in this age of social media when so many careers are ended by texting dick pics to the wrong people, it takes about five seconds for the oppositions war machine to find out and broadcast them far and wide. Now maybe dick pic is the wrong thing but there was one picture from Mexico that definitely had a dick in it, he was standing in from of a piñata or something. 

Such irresponsible power hungry people. I really feel like I'm caught  between the fiscally bankrupt and the morally bankrupt, neither evil is acceptable and people like me who are very pragmatic about how you live your life as long as we don't spend too much money on it have no place to go, or do we?

Day one