Winston Wolf:Get it straight buster – I’m not here to say please, I’m here to tell you what to do and if self-preservation is an instinct you possess you’d better fucking do it and do it quick. I’m here to help – if my help’s not appreciated then lotsa luck, gentlemen.
Pulp Fiction 1994
While I can not speak for the administration as I am not a part of it as an American who
Thinks that Ukraine has a proper Casus Belli vs Russia
Belives Russia should not have invaded
Believes Russia’s goal was to conquer the entire state and not just protect ethnic Russians
Believes it’s up to Ukraine to decide if it wants to keep fighting
Believes it’s up to Ukraine to decide if it wants to make deals with the US or not
Let me say the following:
I have absolutely no problem if you wish to provide Billions of Pounds/Dollars/Euros to Ukraine to support their war to eject Russia from Ukrainian territory.
I have no problem if you wish to provide thousands or tend of thousands of troops to fight for Ukraine against Russia.
Feel free to do both or either if you wish and let me wish you and Ukraine the best of luck in this endeavor.
The Indulgence Calendar is one of the many different devotions of the Catholic church used to help people find Christ. These devotions were taught by many missionaries in Catholic schools around the world.
However there is nothing like contesting with the world to produce wrath and in Canada such wrath was unleashed a few years ago as claims were made concerning the treatment of Indians in Catholic schools including stories of mass graves.
The outrage was huge even to the point of producing an apology from Pope Francis for these actions of a century or more ago, but then a funny thing happened this year. People actually starting to excavate the areas where the “mass graves” were supposed to be there seemed to be one thing missing, Bodies.
You mean what people were claiming about the Catholic church wasn’t accurate? Amazing
“I don’t like to use the word hoax because it’s too strong but there are also too many falsehoods circulating about this issue with no evidence,” Jacques Rouillard, a professor emeritus in the Department of History at the Université de Montréal, told The Post Wednesday.
Well I can’t speak for other people but when you spread a giant calumny about the faith and the church creating a giant moral panic and causing people lose their positions for questioning the claims, Yeah that sounds like a hoax to me.
And now that there seems to be a distinct lack of bodies in these supposed mass graves don’t you think it might be time for the people who had no trouble pushing these claims to apologize to those they slandered?
Last week one of music’s giants, Robbie Robertson, the lead guitarist and the principle songwriter for The Band, died at the age of 80.
In this post I’ll rank their studio albums.
Much like Fleetwood Mac, The Band, when you reach back to their beginnings in Toronto, is one of the few musical acts that, like a nation, have a historical narrative.
Arkansas rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins found success with his backup band, the Hawks, in Canada in the lat 1950s. But one by one, each Hawk, except for drummer Levon Helm, got homesick and returned to America. The first Canadian to join the Hawks was Robertson, who was quickly supplemented by bassist Rick Danko, pianist Richard Manuel, and organist Garth Hudson, but all of the members of the band were multi-instrumentalists, particularly Hudson. The Band had three vocalists, Helm, Danko, and Manuel. Often, particularly on their first two albums, they would interchange leads—and beautifully harmonize.
The Hawks split from Hawkins in 1963, and under different names, performed as a first-rate bar band until becoming Bob Dylan’s concert backing band. Helm left during that tour.
After Dylan was injured in a motorcycle accident in 1966, with the Hawks, he recorded new material that was released in 1975 as The Basement Tapes. Helm rejoined in 1967, after the newly-dubbed The Band was signed Capitol Records.
After many ups and a few downs, The Band split after their final concert–with many guest performers–which was lovingly documented in the Martin Scorsese-directed movie, The Last Waltz. The soundtrack album is also an essential work of art.
In the 1980s, without Robertson, The Band reformed, went on tour, with the intention of returning to the recording studio. But Manuel committed suicide in 1986. The remaining Band members eventually recorded three albums in the 1990s, consisting mostly of covers, but the rump Band broke up for good after Danko’s death in 1999. Helm, who had been feuding with Robertson for years over songwriting credits and money in general, died in 2012. Hawkins passed away last year.
Hudson is the only surviving member of The Band.
And now let’s start the rundown of The Band’s albums. Yes, the ones with the original lineup.
Islands (1977): There are some great outtakes albums, The Who’s Odds and Sods and Elvis Costello’s Taking Liberties come to mind. Islands is like most of the others, where listeners can say to themselves, “I can see why these songs were left off of previous albums.” Because The Last Waltz soundtrack was promised to another label, Islands was compiled to satisfy The Band’s contractual obligation to Capitol Records. It contains a curiosity, “Knockin’ Lost John,” the only Band song where Roberston sings lead. Next…
Cahoots (1971): Drugs had taken their toll on The Band by this time, and Robertson’s songs weren’t very good here. Cahoots starts off well enough, with “Life Is a Carnival,” but immediately sinks into them mud. Not even one of my favorites, Van Morrison, who co-wrote with Robertson “4% Pantomime,” which is about two drunk musicians in a bar complaining about life on the road, could save Cahoots. Listening to this album is about as enjoyable as sitting next to two drunk musicians in a bar as they…well, you get it. On the upside, the album artwork is gorgeous, and one of Morrison’s nicknames, the Belfast Cowboy, comes from “4% Pantomime.”
Moondog Matinee (1973): Two paragraphs ago Costello, who counts The Band as one of his major influences, received a compliment, now I’m evening the score. In 1995, Costello recorded an album of mostly obscure R&B covers, Kojak Variety. It’s a terrible record. Moondog Matinee, which also contains many lesser-known R&B tunes, is better than that. Predictably, it’s the better-known songs that The Band chose, including “I’m Ready,” “Mystery Train,” and “Promised Land,” which click.
Yes, I do love The Band. Really, I do.
Now comes the good stuff.
Stage Fright (1970): While Cahoots understandably opens with its best song, on Stage Fright, the collection’s worst two songs, “Strawberry Wine” and “Sleeping” are the opening tracks. The first song was co-written by Helm with Robertson, and Manuel co-wrote the second one with Robbie. With the exception of one other tune, all of the rest of the songs were written solely by Robertson, including these Band standards, the title track, as well as “The Shape I’m In,” and “The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show.” More rock and R&B oriented than The Band’s first two albums, Stage Fright is also remembered for Todd Rundgren’s role as engineer.
Northern Lights-Southern Cross (1975): The Band, with their first studio album in four years, came back in a big way here. “Acadian Driftwood,” a musical cousin of sorts of “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” recounts the ethnic cleansing of French speakers in the 1750s from Nova Scotia by the British. At the time, Robertson was married to a French-Canadian, tensions between Anglophone and Francophone Canada were at a peak then. Like the early days of The Band, Helm, Manuel, and Danko harmonize and swap lead verses. “Ophelia,” “Jupiter Hollow,” and “It Makes No Difference” are the other great tracks on this collection. Every song on Northern Lights-Southern Cross is a Robertson composition.
Music from Big Pink (1968): One of the best debut albums ever, and not just because of the great songs, such as “Chest Fever,” “The Weight,” and the Dylan-penned “I Shall Be Released.” No one knew it at the time, but Music from Big Pink was the first album of the Americana genre, or if you prefer, roots music. The album artwork featured a Dylan painting. “The Weight” is the ultimate Band song, Helm and Danko share lead vocals and Manuel adds perfect harmonies. Dylan cowrote, with Manuel and Danko respectively, “Tears of Rage” and “This Wheel’s on Fire.”
The Band (1969): Most bands with a great debut album effort suffer from a sophomore jinx. Not The Band, with their self-titled follow-up, also known as the Brown Album. There are no Dylan songs this time, but Robertson filled that vacuum with works that are now Americana classics, such as aforementioned “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” as well as “Rag Mama Rag,” and “Up on Cripple Creek.” Sometimes it’s hard to ascertain why The Band was so great and so unique. “Jawbone,” a Robertson and Manuel collaboration, offers a clue. It was written in a 6/4 time signature, a rarity in popular music.
And so was Robbie Robertson, a rarity. Rest in peace.
It didn’t take long for the “experts” to proclaim that climate change had caused the Canadian forest fires that rained down smoke on the United States.
It took me only a few hours of reporting to get some truth about the Canadian fires. A combination of too few firefighters, lousy forest management, and Mother Nature had much more to do with the fires than climate change.
As philosopher Marshall McLuhan put it: “A point of view can be a dangerous luxury when substituted for insight and understanding.”
In a 2020 journal article in Progress in Disaster Science, the authors found that various problems existed in managing Canadian forests.
“Wildfire management agencies in Canada are at a tipping point. Presuppression and suppression costs are increasing, but program budgets are not,” the analysis stated. “To co-exist with wildfire, agencies in Canada must also strengthen and adjust their wildfire management capacity and capability. This necessitates stronger horizontal collaboration, enhanced resource sharing, investments to develop innovative decision support tools, and an increased focus on prevention and mitigation.”
Most firefighting is handled on the provincial level, so no national strategy for battling the blazes exists. Moreover, most provinces have had to cut budgets to prevent fires before they start. Also, the budget cuts have meant that few areas have enough full-time fighters and hire untrained people when fire season comes around.
While there is no shortage of young people ready to take up a hose, shovel, and hard hat for the summer, there have been countrywide problems hanging on to senior-level firefighters with the training and experience needed to fight against the flames.
The government owns most Canadian forest land, which it leases only a tiny percentage to forestry companies. These companies must use practices to prevent fires by keeping the ground clean and seeding and planting saplings after a harvest. Such an approach works far better and is less costly than fighting a blaze.
Seth Kursman, an executive for the Montreal-based Resolute Forest Products, told the Toronto Star: “As public policy has gotten more restrictive and more land has been set aside for preservation, there is less harvesting of mature trees and less cleaning of the forest floor. Trees in unmanaged boreal forests usually die of disease, insect infestations, or fire. When lightning strikes where there is a lot of dry tinder, the fire is worse.”
Greater use of Canadian woodlands by forestry companies could reduce the risk of catastrophe. “About two-tenths of 1% of the boreal forest is harvested annually, while more than 25 times that amount of forest is impacted by fire, insects, and disease,” Kursman said.
It’s essential to remember that lightning has caused more than three-quarters of the damage in Canada, with no indication of manmade causes, such as arson or carelessness. That means that manmade climate change has had little to do with igniting forest fires.
Chalk up the latest barrage of climate change “experts” to a misinterpretation of the facts on the ground!
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