Good Government

I am thoroughly in favour of good government. I totally understand and appreciate the need for leadership and beurocracy. I love that there are those people who will deal with the complexity of managing the vast mechanical organism of civilization with the aim of helping the most. I love democracy though know the value of enlightened benign dictatorships. Dictatorships like communist leadership are unfortunately rarely benign.

I believe that people can be individually and collectively be  wrong and the more wrong they are the more they will attempt to persist.  I think there are lessons to be learned from history and from my own life. I’m not a saint. Why would I expect others to be and why ever would I believe something like ‘ trust me I’m a politicians. ‘  History also teaches me that a few bad apples can ruin a whole country and turn it into the night mare religious dictatorship that is Iran today or the horrible nation of Venezuela, once so hopeful. 

There are major checks and balances in the world to stop Naziism and Communism, the fascists and the extreme left wing from ruling the world. Marxist ideologies  are terrifying as fascist one are, Stalin and Hitler happy to be allies though neither was trustworthy.   We have police and military and various organizations in place to reduce the risk of another WW1 or WW2.  We have a supposedly free media and freedom of speech and freedom of religion and freedom of association to help keep government serving the majority not a few corrupt cronies.  In Canada that’s supposed to be the rule but there is a major divide between the rich and the poor and there are serious double standards and extreme hypocrisy in place.

Being a whistleblower in Canada is not only unrewarded it’s highly dangerous. That said it’s not nearly as dangerous as telling the truth is in China or Saudi Arabia.   Yet speaking up against abuse of power and even responding as did Gandhi and others less disciplined have maintained the balance of power.

There is a fear that those who work will be disenfranchised by those who speak pretty and steal ugly.  There have always been con men and thieves.  We don’t want a government of conmen and thrives. Our parliamentary system is supposed to thwart this. 

There has been a movement away from parliament and government by the elected to increasing government by bureaucrats and courts.  Also individuals in corporations and protest organizations have felt right about taking the law into their own hands. There’s a sense that the police aren’t able to manage matters because they are undermined by the courts that increasingly are undermined by special interests. There’s the sense that the lobbyists are able to buy undue power in parliament.  There are similar concerns in other commonwealth countries and in the US.

All this may just be paranoia.  We have survived 1-2 years now of both Trudeau and Trump and never were two politicians considered more vile by half the population.  The country survives despite the daily complaints of the direst outcome.  We were told there would be war and we were told their would be economic collapse. There’s been a whole lot happening but mostly business as usual.  Obviously Pierre Trudeau moved Quebec into the centre stage of Ottawa and sidelined the English, the west and rural people in general.  Now Justin Trudeau continues the undermining of Canada as a whole using identity politics to divide and conquer playing everyone against each other like a Game of Thrones. Canadians are aborted en mass to be replaced by immigrants which Trudeau called ‘irregulars’ There is no law and order and in the US Trump is not supporting the EU Brussels.

Yet trains run and planes fly. There is running water. Hospitals are staffed.  There are wait lists. There are increasing doctors policing doctors with fewer and fewer doctors seeing patients and more and more patients complaining about the failure of the once great medical care system in Canada. But there are medications and breakthroughs and cures  and the system muddles along.  There may be 20 men and women doing the job of 1 administrator necessary with all the graft and corruption and duplication involved but the military industrial complex and the education complex and the business complex and the Health care complex all have their inherent flaws. The point is that the men and women in all these systems are serving some purpose even if it is as a useless seat filler. We are at least not in collapse or at war and despite the constant whine of the Global Climate Lobby the sky hasn’t fallen. 

I just worry they get in the way. like Bed blockers and all those people at rush hour who would be better employed driving at a different time. There’s all this irritating construction but it’s all keeping the goods moving in and out of the city. The roads and highways are all another complex that persists.

I’m critical of the waste and inefficiency and individuals who are ignorant and arrogant and drunk, stoned or dementing.  The point remains that the present government and system and beurocracy are managing things. I’m critical and know critics are generally the most useless. I’m in the midst of the work so I’m at least talking about things I know and seeing the mismanagement up closes nd real.  Yet today we’re still passing. Fail is when the whole shebang goes to hell in a handbacket like Venezuela and all the socialist/communist countries that couldn’t even let the people work and make sure their children were fed. FAiling is all the war lords and gangs and tribes fighting each other. 

There’s a lot that can be improved but its still needs to be said,government is good as it keeps the roads open, and violent crime continues to reduce.  There are simply so many things that government, the politicians, bureaucrats and leadership are doing extremely well. I want to acknowledge good government and the good people in government who are not being lead astray by bribes, ideologues or simple garden variety megalomania insanity. These are the wholesome ones who aren’t mislead by  the Agenda 21 recommendations of the incredibly corrupt and mismanaged UN.  I like that there are warehousemen driving motorized vehicles stacking food in the late night and early morning so that when I go to the grocery there are groceries there. I think all of this government, corporate, private and public is too often not acknowledged. I’m not presently being tortured or watching my loved ones get beheaded and yet to listen to Canadian media and American media all of are presently undergoing genital mutilation and flagellation and the world is about to implode because of poor government. The fact is my genitals are intact. No one is being beheaded in my immediate circle. The sun is shining. My neighbours are barbecuing. There’s no AK47’s being stacked in my Church.  It’s all pretty mundane and boring and frankly I thank our government and the bureaucrats for this.  Mediocrity needs to be maligned but really I must remember this is not so bad and things could be a whole lot worse. Personally I thank the Lord for this but believe God has a sense of humor and that’s why he has given us some of our present politicians.  

I’m really thankful for good government and good leadership and especially all the good people that make things work despite the stupid people in our midst. 

Contes Cruels, Firehall Arts Centre

It had been years since Laura and I had been to the Firehall Arts Centre. St. James Church which I attended for years was just across the street. There’s no excuse. We both said how much we’d liked the performances we’d seen.  Then last year we so wanted to go to the Chelsea Hotel production of Leonard Cohen’s music and songs. But it sold out immediately.   Thanks to the Turning Point Gala I was able to win tickets at the auction for the Firehall.   Laura was able to book our seats for tonight.
We arrived early enough to have appetizers at St. Lawrence Restaurant, this truly fabulous French restaurant with so much character we simply found a block away. I’d thought we’d get coffee nearby but this magnificent little morsel of divine cuisine and wonderful service magically appeared.  The duck pate is to die for!  Laura loved her mushrooms white cream sauce and pastry.  The waiter spoke French. The menu was French. I was taken back by the language and atmosphere to St. Boniface, Quebec City and even gay Paris. But there is no doubt that duck had flown in from  New Orleans. The hostess laughed to see my face light up and said she loved to see that expression of joy people always had when they had their first taste.  We are definitely going back for the main course. They were kind enough to rush our order and we were able to be at the Firehouse 5 minutes before opening.
Our gustatory senses and olfactory senses were sated .  Now we were about to have a sensational  visual and auditory experience.
Contes Cruels was written and choreographed by Serge Bennathan who is simply brilliant.  The dancers Josh Martin, Hillary Maxwell, Molly McDermott and Katie Lowen were individually and collectively original, talented, and really quite extraordinary. They moved so beautifully with such strength and form.  I loved the avant garde nature of the work.  The specific movements might have begun  in Europe before the war or between the wars,  in Berlin or Paris,  modern dance pushing the very edges of art.  Degas was fascinated by ballet. Matisse captured the beginnings of modern dance.  Expressive dance grew out of classical ballet into tonight’s 21st century creation with poetic appliqué and sound intertwining bodies.
The choreography of Serge Bennathan and the dance of Josh Martin, Hillary Maxwell, Molly McDermott and Katie Lowen  was truly gifted.      Shouts, rushing bodies, flow and abrupt changes like the northern spring break up released floods of emotion.  I found myself smiling laughing and frowning with the sheer emotion of the presentation.   Then  the sensitivity of a pas de adieux that touched the most vulnerable space between. And always these incredible bodies moving as if the four were gifted children or maybe migrating birds. At moments they were even humans and briefly angelic. The soothing words of poetry provided reassurance.      It was a black space made tactile by the lighting design of James Proudfoot.  Everything about the performance was memorable.
The audience exploded with applause and standing ovation. The dancers bowed and returned and bowed again.
Now Laura and I really want to go back to the Firehall for more. They have yet to announce next year's performances. It will be great too to see future projects of  Serge Bennathan, a Creation for Ballet BC planned for 2019.  The dancers will go on to great fame.
And yes, we will make the time and book a dinner before at the St. Lawrence Restaurant.

Labyrinth, the Turkish Movie (‘Labirent’)

When I was in Turkey I saw and exhibit in the museum for the decades of Turkish film.  I was impressed by the exhibit. Later I told East European friends how I’d seen all these films on display and what I’d seen was very talented.  They told me they loved Turkish films and that this is what they grew up on. Istanbul was the Hollywood of the East.

Well, Labirent (Labyrinth) was spectacular.  Tom Clancy, Tom Cruise, Angeline Jolie, and 007 all rolled up in one.  Made in Europe, mostly Germany and Turkey the back ground was incredible. Lots of those wonderful scenes of ancient cities.  The real find was the actors and actress.  Atimucin Esen played Fikret, the central character, the police spy operative in search of a terrorist cell.  What a great actor!  Melted Cumbul played Reyhan the partner who was not only deeply beautiful but also very intelligent and when she shot and fought there was a truth about it that’s not always present in the lipstick feminist Hollywood girls. Everything about the acting was real and human and meaningful. 

Tolga Ornek  was the director and did the screen play as well. It was so moving but in unpredictable ways. None of the stereotypical car chase sequences we’ve come to love from the west but fast paced foot chases and counter intuitive switches,with short rapid scene changes to maintain momentum. The car chases were there but different. Indeed everything was refreshing in the photography and angles.  The characterization was rich. .  I couldn’t help but think of the French Connection. It really was right up there with he best of thrillers and action movies. 

The subtitles were great but breaking up the film was the English dialogues when Fikret met with the English Intelligence head, Hugh Spencer played most believably by Martin Turner.  Yurdaer Okur was a really believable intelligent bad guy as was Altman Gordon playing Yousuf Zawas, the elder..

The plot was simple. Internet chatter, a leak here and a counter leak there, and a clue here and a clue there, all the while the hunt progressed with bombers going off and the action crescendoing to the big event.

The synagogue scene was so touching.  The children and family scenes all so moving.  It was heart rending at times but overall just a great French Connection type race against time.

Well done. I’m so impressed with Turkish film and look forward to seeing a whole lot more. The whole cast was great and deserving of comment but I’d  just say.  see the film.  Enjoy a great thriller. It was released in Germany in 2011 but is out on NetFlix 2015.  Great movie Two thumbs up!

Lying Women and False Sexual Harassment Claims

Herstaria, the political correct word for hysteria which containing the hated 'his' could no longer be used as it offended women. HERSTARIA by contrast is the present Public Mental Health Epidemic of False Sexual Harassment Claims. She "stars" as a 'faux victim'.  It has long been noted that 'false allegations of victimship ' is an insurance scam.

"Victimship' today may be more about 'influence' and 'attention' and 'services' than actual money. Andy Warhol did promise 20 minutes of fame for everyone and many of those long in the tooth are angry enough to feel they deserve it.

I am surprised though it has followed so closely on the last Sex Industry Mental Health Epidemic, 'infant rape.'  Merely  a couple of decades ago every infant or toddler involved in a family law custody trial was 'raped' with violent intercourse and no evidence of trauma.  Millions of men and children were savagely harmed by this epidemic that perhaps caused more harm than  the Ebola Virus.

Grandparents objecting to themselves being deemed dangerous to infants because their son had married a woman who put herself before the needs of the child began the investigations and studies that concluded in the well established 'false memory syndrome' and 'parental alienation syndrome' fairly ubiquitous at one time in the divorce landscape.

Cultural maxism and the Burocratic State were all for destruction of the family, tenets proposed early by Marx and Engles.  There must be only one god and that God must be  the State.

The legal system rather than expanding it's paradigm continued to treat children as property with a bias that the mother 'owned' the children. Courts fell into three groups, reasonable adult judges with their own children trying to propose a settlement of conflict for the sake of the children and parents, old men easily manipulated by their biology and the desperate sexual wiles of angry women who found grandfather aged men were happy to chivalrously 'rescue' the 'little lady' even when the mother was extremely abusive or, anti male feminist judges, one woman judge finding some 350 consecutive custody cases against the father.

In enlightened countries, family law cases are dealt with by mixed gender tribunals and increasingly here in Canada, after 30 years of ruin and devastation, by mediation, first introduced in the US decades before Canada. There is  evidence of healthy progress in an institution not known for evolution except as political expedience.

Now we see  we don't hear about the rape of children in the media.  The principle reason was that it was found that the majority of cases noted in divorce trials were false.  Further there was major factual evidence brought forward of children being 'coached' through 'extortion' by their mothers and feminist counsellors.  The overt and quite rabid bias of the sometimes frankly psychotic women involved in these affairs was increasingly made public such that 'interviews of children' and "examinations' had to be recorded and video taped. Already by the late 90's I worked in the US with a paediatrician who had undergone 6 months of formal training in the examination of children accused of being sexually abused.  The profound negative psychological consequences of children who survived the decades of 'false memory syndrome' continues today.

Yet here we are again,mere decades later with countless women claiming to be drugged and raped and if that is  too challenging to suggest, sexually harassed, which all women have experienced dependent on the definition. While men were all collectively called 'rapists' by fanatic feminists today they're are all correctly called sexual harassers.  Masculinity is defined as 'toxic masculinity'.

The 'false memory syndrome' mental health epidemic lasted at most a couple of decades fueled principally by the 'legal lottery' and many good parents wanting to protect their children and finding as the military before them had, a good offence is the best defence.

As a family and marriage therapist I routinely saw that the 'key' was 'terms of reference' as 'who started' or 'who escalated' or 'who hit who' was never as clear as the comic strip media portrayed matters.  The fact remains there are likely a million books written about WWI with as wide variety of claims and explanations.  It's always easier to choose sides even if that is arbitrary. Standing in the middle or being moderate in any conflict usually guarantees that both the extreme right and extreme left attack you together.

Men in power and women in power would isolate and deny the problem reframing it as an individual concern rather than a systemic or Industry Wide or Nation Wide Epidemic. There's always more money in treating things individually and by sweeping matters under the rug. That this Sexual Mental Health Perversion has risen again in mere decades is cause for concern if only because it removes billions of dollars from positive advancement of society and transfers this energy and finances to the nefarious designs of the Legal Lottery.  Were this energy and money put into science, world poverty would have been cured and space ships would be on Mars.  Instead, like dogs and other animals we are inordinately interested in butts and genitalia.

The classic 'sexual harassment' study was called the 'water fountain' questionnaire. A questionnaire was drawn up with statements rated from "hello", to "would you like me to tie you up, spank you and have anal sex with you" range. Pictures of two groups of men were chosen, pictures from an Alaska men's calendar of firefighters I seem to recall, and a collection of pictures of 'dweebs' who were thought to be attractive to their mothers but likely none other. Finally a 'rank' was chosen for the men from office mail order clerk to millionaire CEO. The results of the study were that if you were a  millionaire CEO who looked like an Alaska Men's Calendar picture seriously nothing you could say would be deemed 'sexual harassment'.  However if you looked like a dweeb and worked in the mail room all you said including 'hello' was considered 'sexually harassing'.

Rather than be considered uniquely concerned about the 'extortion' and 'lies' and 'frank psychosis of untreated women" (especially those suffering 'retrospective falsification' eg he didn't marry me therefore he either raped or sexually harrassed me at least) the persecution of men and the destruction of families, reputations and careers,  untold number of men are in jail because of female psychopaths and sociopaths, I would argue that there is a secondary agenda associated with maintenance of 'class'.

Once I was involved with number of women who stalked men and were viciously angry and violent and extremely deceitful. One woman claiming a number of rapes put one man in jail through false accusation and caused another to be severely demoted and a third to leave Canada rather than face a costly trial with everything stacked against him. When she confessed there was no consequence for her except loss of the sexual weapon she'd wielded for years and certainly no compensation for the men whose lives she'd ruined.

Some interesting statistical facts are 1. Women abuse children more often than men
                                                          2.  In divorce 50% of DNA of children show the father (who is still obliged to pay for the cowbird child) is not the biological father, never a surprise to the mother, but very often devastating to men.
                                                          3. Women historically marry 'up'.  Sexual harassment claims are a powerful means to get back at men who refuse to do for women what they demand or feel entitled to regardless of the relationship
                                                           4. Men in business commonly described sexual extortion as a common phenomena.  Locally 'if you don't give me $1000 I'll say you sexually harassed me' was the standard 'shakedown' fee.  Lawyers described it as the 'cost of doing business' and explained to a large extent the decline of a set of jobs and preference for the safety of admitted more irascible computers and robot alternatives.  A Texas study of male and female 'teen' gangs showed that boys extorted business by 'threat of arson' or 'violence' whereas female teen gangs used 'sexual extortion' to collect money.
                                                           5. The list goes on and is often discussed on the MGTOW, "men going their own way", a Utube network, a privately funded resource that obviously can't compete with the publicly funded propaganda sources such as Women's and Gender Studies Programs at University and the radical Feminist biased program of some political parties and CBC the public television radio show.  It must be noted because of the early death of men from the stress of work and personal sacrifice for women and family, wives and children have gained the wealth of the now dead. Women protected from the workplace lived 10 years longer than their partner and now control the wealth of Canada though they principally and hypocritically allow other men predominantly to manage it. This alone explains the increasing political grovelling. When women and men do the exact same job, as exemplified by the horrible agricultural workplace, they die at the same age.
                                                         6. Today's modern woman is no longer a 'wilted flower' of Victorian 'damsel' as they are a principal consumer of pornography, politically correctly called 'erotica' though best selling Fifty Shades of Grey was more wicked than most of female pilloried Hugh Hefner Playboy 'outrage'. IF imitation isn't the sincerest form of flattery, single old women in fancy race cars sport young men 50 years their junior as lovers. Female executives in mainstream women's magazines even write about the need for male prostitutions services for them while on business trips. And in Vancouver an over 50 year old prostute wrote a mainstream article blaming men for her nightly income being one tenth the 20 year old girls and feeling entitled to income parity. Meanwhile French Parisian prostitutes marched collectively against the unionization of their industry and many do not perceive themselves as "fallen women" but rather express the chosen benefits of the 'oldest profession'.  Despite this 'diversity' of opinion feminists insist women are all victims and all women are oppressed by men despite the fact that 'behind any great man there was a great woman' and to date Eva Brawn, the women behind Hitler, continues to be coddled by feminists.

Obviously there are women who are raped and sexually harassed legitimately but their cases are seriously sidelined by the Herstaria Epidemic.  Having treated women who came from other countries and were raped hundreds of times I have met women here who insist that they were as seriously injured by an unwanted man's 'look' as a woman gang raped repeatedly.  Seriously, it is now common for women to say that their 'emotional abuse' is worse than 'sexual and physical abuse.' The key to understanding this is the pure subjectivity of this claim and the demand for public resources with countless counsellors and psychologists listening ad infinitum to what one culture calls the 'princess syndrome'.  It's no wonder that my patients shot and stabbed and raped can't get to see a psychiatrist or get follow up care outside of the hospital admission.

The following are some of the leading spokes persons addressing this issue.

Chistina Hoff Summers, PHD
author of Who Stole Feminism, How Women Betray Women
and The War on Boys

https://www.amazon.ca/War-Against-Boys-Misguided-Feminism/dp/0684849577

Diana Davison, activist for the falsely accused

https://dianadavison.wordpress.com/tag/a-voice-for-men/

https://youtu.be/o1qN19P2nkg

Janice Fiamengo, Professor, University of Ottawa, The Fiemengo File

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD65wnDGuTg


Jordan Peterson, PhD

https://www.facebook.com/vicenews/videos/974950379331579/

Camile Paglia

www.chatelaine.com/living/books/camille-paglia-free-women-free-men/

Naomi Lakritz is an example of a local case but there is also the Ghomeshi 
case where hundreds of women claimed the courts were wrong.  
The main position of feminists is that women should be believed
 when they speak of sexual matters.
 Indeed a senior female bureaucrat stated , "women don't lie about sex' . 
This was the same claim actually spoken and written in the epidemic
 of sexually abused infants when it was said 'children don't lie about sex'.  
The fact is lying is a 'skill' childrenten commandments 
'thou shalt not bear false witness' is alongside 'thou shalt not murder'. 



Lakritiz discusses how men are collectively guilty of sexual harassment in the epidemic and panic

calgaryherald.com › Opinion › Columnists 

It is hoped eventually appropriate compensation
 will be made for the last Herstaria epidemic 
and that soon compensation will be made
 for the real victims of this Harstaria panic.  

Then hopefully to paraphrase Ellen Degeneris
 we can get back to comparing what cars we drive.

Isaiah: Long necked women and their boys

Isaiah 1:1 1-49. “The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah saw

“I reared children and brought them up but they have rebelled against me.....woe to the sinful nation, a people whose guilt is great, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption! They have forsaken the Lord; ....your hands are full of blood!...Wash and make yourselves clean, Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wring, learn to do right; seek justice.  Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow. .See how the faithful city has become a prostitute! She was once full of justice; righteousness used to dwell in her - but now murderers! .....Your rulers are rebels, partners with thieves; they all love bribes and chase after gifts. They do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow’s case does not come before them.

2. In the last days....the mountains of the Lord’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains....Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of Jacob...He will teach us his ways so that we may walk in his paths.....stop trusting in mere humans who have but a breath in their nostrils. Why hold them in esteem?....

3. “I will make mere youths their officials ;children will rule over them..people will oppress each other -man against man, neighbour against neighbour. The young will rise up against the old, the nobody against the honoured....the look on their faces testifies against them; they parade their sin like Sodom, they do not hide it . Woe to them! They have brought disasters upon themselves.....Tell the rightestous it will be well with them for they will enjoy the fruit of their deeds, Woe to the wicked!....Youths oppress my people, women rule over them.....the Lord says the Women of Zion are haughty walking along with outstretched necks flirting with their eyes strutting along with swaying hips, with ornaments jingling on their ankles....therefore the Lord will bring sores on the heads of the women of Zion....instead of fragrance there will be stench...instead of beauty, branding...Your men will fall by the sword, your warriors in battle.’

Reading the Bible so often is as if the events described are today when indeed they are universal and forever.  That’s the  nature of the Holy.  It resonates.  It’s open to interpretations.  

In the Bible like in science there is cause and effect and there’s possibility of change.  In Materialistic Determinism all is fixed. There is no ‘free will’.  Naturally people take pride in success and blame others or fate in failure but they deny ‘right and wrong’. The Bible has morality and ethics.  I’ve left out a lot of this passage of Isaiah.  I like Isaiah.  Great images.  

Manning Park Marmots

On the way back from Princeton, I stopped at Manning Park lodge to see the marmots. The last time I picnicked there was years past, later in the year, and the marmots were very fat.  They have signs up saying don't feed the wild life. Now they were smaller but just as adorable.

Princeton BC Townsite

Laura and I stayed at Riverside Cabins by the Bridge off Bridge Road. We really enjoyed our stay. We enjoyed walking about the lovely little town with all the friendly people. I took some pictures. I hope to get to St. Paul's Church on another visit.    All round a great trip with Laura and Gilbert.

Riverside Cabins, Princeton, BC

Laura and I loved Riverside Cabins in Princeton BC.  It was the May Long Weekend and we attached a couple of days off to that to get more of a holiday.  I've stayed in most every place in Princeton over the thirty years I've been coming up there. So often these cabins have been full.  Where we'd call the Princeton Castle Restort Cabins elegant, with their in suite hot tubs, Riverside Cabins  are rustic and homey.  Gilbert our old blind cockapoo dog loved them.

Laura and I liked swimming in the river years ago when we'd been there before. This weekend the river was rushing full and so many places in the interior had flooded. Laura had phoned the owner that week to confirm that the cabins themselves weren't flooded.

Instead of putting our lawn chairs on the beach, we put them up beside the cabin.

The rooms were clean with stove, sink, fridge , cable television,shower, huge hot water tank, microwave, and coffee maker. We stopped at the Save On Foods a block away and brought back chips, yoghurt, drinks and snacks.

Each morning we walked up to Thomasina's Cafe and had omelettes and cappuccino.  One night I picked up a pizza we loved from DQ mall, while another night I picked up delicious steaks from Little Creek Grill.  I came back so late once only A&W was open but Laura enjoyed the onion rings and Mossa burgers.  She actually made sandwiches in the kitchen for lunch.

We walked Gilbert on the dike each night.  Everything in town was walking distance. I love the Home Hardware. They really treat Gilbert like he's special with treats he is too excited to eat at the time but demands once we get back to the cabin.

Princeton Outdoor Supply Store is the best.    In the past I've bought binoculars, fishing lures, and camouflage clothing there.  This time I got a locally made antler handled hunting knife.  Laura loved the Shopper's Drug Mart and came away with eye liner.  It was sweet being in town but feeling out of town down by the river.  There's such peace and quiet there.

We didn't have wi fi in the room but just had to walk out into the driveway to get the signal.  This meant we could connect, gather mail and download whatever, but we certainly got a break from 'internet'.

I drove up into the woods and enjoyed just driving around the back country in my Ford F350 Cowboy Cadillac. I actually sighted in my Winchester Coyote 300 win mag short.  With shells $2.50 a piece it's easy to shoot off $20 to $30 without a thought.  I was glad to have my breakdown Ruger 22 rifle along to slaughter coke cans at pennies a shell.  I didn't see any bear or bear sign or rabbits but I did see 2 grouse and there were lots of deer in the town.  I could have gone fly fishing for rainbow as I've caught those in the north.

But I was reading the great Peter Rimmer novel and Laura thought that being on vacation we shouldn't get out of bed before noon. We did have great walks around the town. Everyone was so friendly.

I did ride my electric bicycle up into the hills.It is great on the flat but took a lot of pedalling to ascend. I was advised to have the brakes adjusted after I'd ridden it a bit.  This became imperative after the brakes stopped working coming down the mountain. If I thought my heart was working pedalling uphill downhill it was surviving a maximal stress test. I eventually slowed down on the flat.

The sun and blue sky were wonderful.  It got so hot I realized it was time for my summer haircut. Eikonic Hair Salon did a fine job according to Laura and friends.

Our stay at Riverside Cabins was  perfect. We do hope to come back and stay there again. The owners were so considerate and welcoming.

Heterophobia: Sexual Harrassment and the Future of Feminism by Daphne Patai

When reading such a brilliant, well researched, well considered book, as Heterophobia: Sexual Harrassment and the Future of Feminism by Daphne Patai, it is sadly true that radical feminism, that perverse ideology and those who generate the increasingly proven false fear monger ing statistics of women’s study, simply will not expose themselves to such a work. When Hoff-Summers wrote ‘Who stole Feminism’ she was ahead of her time noting then that women’s liberation and the suffragette movement had no relationship to the modern male bashing anti humanity ‘feminism’ of this day.

Daphne Patai has done a remarkable job of exposing the Sexual Harrassment Industry critiquing the ever expanding domain of ‘Sexual Harrassment’ and the financial and influential rewards of promotion of this very lucrative and powerful position.  Throughout her book she points to the irony of the ‘apparently powerless victims’ gaining incredible victory after victory in a matter of a very few years.  Sexual Harrassment claims have become the ‘new whiplash industry ‘. Instead of ambulance chasing lawyers there are now countless hoards of social activist warriors ready to descend like locusts on the ‘accused’ whether innocent or otherwise.  She points to Andrea Dworkins claim that ‘millions of men want a woman at work to suck their cock’ which were it to be considered of any other group would be the lowest of hate speech. Imagine saying that black men want black women at work solely for oral sex. It all works only if one accepts the under pinning feminist ideology as stated by Catherine MacKinnon author of the 1979 highly influential Sexual Harrassment of Working Women. ‘Sexual Harrassment ....eroticizes women’s subordination....It acts out and deepens the powerlessness of women as a a gender, as women. ‘

What is deceitful is that there is no mention of the traditional sexual ‘power’ of women over men and the many ways they use this power to achieve upward mobility and success.  The other most successful writer in the Sexual Harrassment Industry has produced a work that simply never addresses the ‘innocent’ and ‘false accused’. Indeed the insanity of this industry is to argue that women ‘don’t lie about sex’.  This claim is as ludicrous as to say Nazi’s  would never gas Jews yet it’s exists throughout the Sexual Harrassment Industry.  Patai argues this is because the underlying purpose of the Sexual Harrassment Industry is creation of money, jobs and essentially the destruction of male and female relationships by increasing beurocratic barriers mostly orchestrated by quasi legal administrative bodies fearing principally for their own positions and unwilling to risk saying no to a sterile movement. Better to outlaw ‘hugging’ and accept that despite the usual argument of ‘power’ male students obviously sexually harass female teachers because it’s not about anything more than destruction of the heterosexual relationships.  

She moves through each of the major cases  in the history of the Sexual Harrassment Industry’s increasing destruction of freedom of speech and expression and increasing power victories while claiming victimship.  She identifies the misuse of language to create a propagandistic halcyon cry  of ‘the skies falling’ ‘every woman has been a victim of rape’ to generate class size and industry influence.  She notes that there is never a discussion of what is ‘trivial’ versus ‘serious’ and everything from even the ‘male gaze’ in a public space  is considered traumatic and ‘very serious Harrassment.’  She shows how increasingly the words ‘Sexual Harrassment’ are replaced by ‘discomfort’ and that the language is manipulated routinely implying objectivity to a purely subjective and utterly biased fiction.  Discussing the industrial growth of the Sexual Harrassment Industry she states that it would be ‘refreshingly honest if feminists were to say, ‘tough you men had a good run for your money, now we’’ve got the winning hand’ . Instead feminists dress up their game in utopian jargon and greater justice......as many critics have pointed out....were extreme feminist causes to succeed it would be just another instance of one abusive group being replaced by another.’

She quotes Jeffry Rosen’s comment that MacKinnon has ‘nearly won the war to transform Title VII from a law that bans sex discrimination to a law that bans sexual expression’.  To get more of the ‘pie’ the Sexual Harrassment Industry have moved from the rare reprehensible historic workplace event to what others have described as a full fledge attack on ‘toxic masculinity’ as it appears in any aspect of society, and the key to understanding this is that ‘all masculinity’ is ‘toxic’.  

Farley discussed in contrast the upward mobility of women such as Elizabeth Ray, who was employed by Congressman Wilbur Hays for a job which she was unqualified for, and that these endless examples ‘testify to the ways in which women have always been able to use their sexuality as a means of upward mobility.’ By contrast she points out that the ‘power of the charge of Sexual Harrassment is, at the present moment, enormous. It can unleash formdable institutional forces against an alleged harrasser often with a complete absence of due process.’  She points to the suicides of those innoscents who are falsely accused and how the feminists consider their loss and death as acceptable. Like any radical ideologues the  feminists will use whatever means to achieve their ‘justified ends’.  

‘Victime of Sexual Harrassment (no matter how trivial) gain the status of ‘survivors’ tantamount to those who have suffered ‘brutal assault, torture, or persecution’. ‘ Not to be outdone she writes, psychology has jumped on the bandwagon providing endless counselling for those ‘grieving’ their experiences.  

She speaks also about the ‘Sexual Harrassment vigilantism’ that has extended in it’s attempt to ‘ban, or otherwise regulate consensual relationships between individuals who occupy ‘hierarchically ‘ distinct positions relative to one another.  According to MacKinnon ‘economic power is to Sexual Harrassment as physical force is to rape’.  However in the expanding domain of the Sexual Harrassment Industry, ‘asymmetrical relationships’  have moved to include ‘symmetrical relationships’ and even forgive ‘female professors who are sexually harrassed by students’ as evidenced in the male students negative ‘assessment’ of the  professor’s teaching. There is no question that the teacher may be lousy but now the student, if male , is sexually harassing her. .

She critiques the highly dubious Bernice R. Sandler and Robert J. Shop Sexual Harrassment on Campus, a Guide for Administrations, Faculty, and Students for it’s ‘bizarre propensity for reconceptualizing personal relationships largely in terms of power. ‘. In detail she points out it’s outrageous contradictions and actual abuse of statistics such that were it any other area of study it would be wholly disqualified from academic inclusion.  

She quotes sociologist Joel Best’s useful analytical model for ‘claims-makers and their techniques’, Best having studied the construction of victimization in the American life over the past decades.  Applied to the Sexual Harrassment Industry it’s extremely revealing and the patterns it exposes are profoundly disturbing.  I remember a psychologist I met decades ago who said the industry of America was ‘victims and caregivers’.  Best goes far beyond this to show how easily a ‘crisis’ of ‘victimization’ can be ‘created’ and those promoting it can receive powerful rewards regardless of the damage done to the society and individual. The elastic definition of ‘sexual harrassment’ and the ‘female antagonism towards’ men and the underlying antipathy towards heterosexuality are just the beginning.

Reading this amazing book and work of great scholarship I’m aware of it’s place alongside other works that discuss the ‘death culture’ of the west, abortion and euthanasia culture and Marxist hatred for the family.  It’s amazing in it’s detail and balanced discussion of what might well be described as the mental health epidemic of our day.   It’s significance is that it’s writing was at ground zero. 

Daphne Patai is an American Scholar , born 1943 in Jerusalem, Professor in the Department of Languages, Literature and Cultures at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. 

Heterophobia: Sexual Harrassment and Future of Feminism (American Intellectual Culture) 

Publisher rowman and Littlefield 1998

Thomasina's Cafe, Bistro and Bakery, Princeton, BC

I love Thomasina's Cafe in Princeton.  Laura and I found it first last year and looked forward to returning.  Great coffee ,great meals, great service, and great atmosphere.  We sat outside on the street with Gilbert watching the world of Princeton pass by.  The picturesque bridge leading to Tulameen a lovely view.

The coffee shop idea was made famous by Starbucks and Blenz but I remember the first one I encountered was in Marin County California. No doubt they developed in a lot of places in the late 70’s and 80’s. They were a distinct creation akin to the development of the English pub.

The Turkish coffee shop went back to the 1700’s but was really a place for men to smoke and drink. I loved the ones I visited in Istanbul.This western coffee shop idea was distinctive in it’s feminine elegance.  Thomasina’s decor is light and thoughtful.

The unique western coffeeshop often family owned, certainly has none of the factory efficiency of marvellous McDonald’s with it’s excellent McCafe coffee. Thomasina's had a much more refined ambience.

The trucker diner coffee was more about the meals and cowboys.   The coffee was at times questionable. The English tea house was all about the fine Wedgewood china and exotic teas. Living in London I did enjoy these.  In Victoria the Empress Hotel still has a fine high tea service. The western coffeehouse seemed to take off from this with an emphasis on coffee. In Amsterdam the coffeeshop was all about marijuana. It was hard to write at my laptop with all the second hand smoke.

Thomasina's Cafe not only serves a variety of coffees including the cappucino’s we enjoyed daily but also has fresh baked baquettes and muffins.  Locals came and went each day we were there clutching to their hearts loaves of fresh baked bread and pastries.  It was like a little sliver of Paris. The bread we had was utterly delicious.  They have a gelato and ice cream bar too.

They also sold local hand poured soy candles. We bought a sage grass one and burned it all week in our Riverside Cabin enjoying the rich fragrance it gave our room each night.  But candles and hand made pottery mugs are consistent with the western feminine coffeehouse theme.   I don’t believe these coffeehouses could had developed before the 60’s. They’re faintly reminiscent of times when girls wore flowers in their hair.  Then they really took off with computers and iPhones.

Thomasina's had the added bistro with quiche we loved and other sandwiches and light repastes. 

I remember the very first one of these coffeehouses that migrated to  Bombai.  It took a decade in an era when a decade was what it took for a meme to move around the world. Today given the internet and almost universal television the time is sometimes only days or weeks.   All the other cafe’s and restaurants in  the city now called Mumbai  were distinctly Indian yet here was this one cafe with white walls, flowers, special coffees and a touch of Marin elegance.  There were beautiful educated young ladies in colourful saris chatting safely. It was the mid 80’s. I think they served chai tea but I remember the espresso. With sufficient hot water this powerful brew was called an Americano. 

 It wasn’t long before the Starbuck’s chain became part of the Jetsetter routine.   Sitting in Thomsina I could be anywhere in the world and those sitting there with me might have flown in from any first world destination. Only the middle and upper classes would pay the price of designer coffees knowing they were paying as much for peace and atmosphere. Where the Starbucks has lost much of it’s original panache, the small family based coffee shops catering to local needs and to passing tourists have excelled.

I love these places for connecting to the internet.  The internet cafe’s were dominated by the digital geek while Thomasina retains the centrality of coffee, conversation and a light meal.  It’s omelettes were simple and unsurpassed.

In Winnipeg the first of these elegant third spaces developed in Osborne Village.  I remember leaving a week of medical call, emergency and obstetrics, to enjoy a light lunch in the Village.  It was such a reprieve from the hustle.  Sometimes the cafe’s have had the international papers. They’re 20th and 21st century creations, the best of the best.  

Thomasina’s made Laura and my stay in Princeton all that much better, especially being able to sit outside on the patio with our little dog reminiscing about our patio dining in Rome.  There vespas drove by us whereas in Princeton it was Harley's.

Sunday, May Long Weekend, Cabin Life, Princeton BC

Gilbert fell off the bed at three in the morning.  The crash had both Laura and I up worried the blind little guy might be hurt. I sleep with a flashlight, iPhone and large Bowie knife by the bed.  In defence the heavy flashlight might be best.  In the light Gilbert was standing there with his stick.  His stick had fallen off the bed and he had followed it over.  I looked at my watch then and saw that Naomi had had ber baby Faith and Derek had texted us before midnight. We’d gone to sleep at ten.  Fat fingers fumbling with the little screen I pressed the stock message, ‘in a meeting, will get back to you’ and thanks.  I found iPhone then and texted congratulations and hallelujah.  ‘In a meeting’ so inappropriate for such a sacred herald.  The stock phrases on iwatches need to be upgraded.

In bed Gilbert pushed Laura over and Laura pushed me over and I clung to the edge of the bed all night.  For a little guy he hogs a lot of the bed.

It’s sunny today.  Blue sky. Fresh air. Riverside cabins.  A pleasant retreat.  I’ve made espresso coffee and had my second cup. I’m not satisfied till I’m trembling.  The day is a blank screen to write a tale on.  I’ve suggested omelettes again at Thomasina.  Laura’s in the shower now.  Gilbert’s asleep in his bed. I’ve gone out in the court yard and with the wifi there downloaded mail and facebook.   Rodeo pictures of Anna and the god kids.  Faith, the new baby, looks most healthy and very pretty indeed.  The Royal wedding is still in the news.  Rev Peter Elliott vacationing in  Europe was pleased with the American sermon at the English wedding.  A letter with pictures of the half naked stars of Cannes came today from a friend, all looking more like harlots and  pole dancers than professional actresses. The post had  the title, ‘they complain they’re sexually harrassed’.  The news says that the name Melania rises daily in popularity as a baby name.  She speaks so many languages and is more educated and refined that the carne talk show hosts whose jokes are now 2 years old.  The American embassy in Jerusalem is a big deal. The peace talks between North and South Korea are incredible as well.  

I’m doing nothing but reading historical fiction novels in the sun.  I finished the Brignanshaw Chronicles by the Incredible writer Peter Rimmer, a new Wilber Smith. I’ve read three of the series and now must wait for the 4th to come out.  Great history of family and Rhodesia.  Now I’m reading about the 14th century John Ball peasant revolt over the outrageous taxation of the people.  Apropos with PM Justin Trudeau impoverishing Canadians to pay off terrorists, Pakistan while spreading abortion and communism.  The price of gas is obscene today.  

I am thankful though that I got a cabin rather than tented. The rain last night and wet ground would have dampened tenting. I’ve done it so many times and lived under tarps and slept on the ground but Laura who has been a trooper through so many of those adventure deserves this space she enjoys with kitchenette and hot and cold water showers.  

She’s content to read and lie about. I feel ‘restless’.   Not so ‘irritible’ and less’ discontent’ but I do feel I ‘ought’ to be doing ‘something’.  I expect I’ll get in the truck later and drive about the backwoods shoot targets and watch for a bear wanting MAID.  I’d just as soon shoot a rabbit.  I’ve become more sentimental than I was younger.  And lazy.  But it’s always godly in the hunt. There was a veritable otherworldly halo about the deer I shot last year. I almost heard the angels singing ‘this is a gift for you’. Shooting is natural for food.  It’s more intuition than reason and not at all emotional except for the hungry.

I dreamed I was on a new ship. I’ve a penisula where I go and there are friends and family from throughout my life that are there. Sometimes a meeting o the old women and I’m a little tike, more often I’m a young man with other young men and women in some warm climate with my sailboat and I’m in harbour.  This time I had a magnificent sailboat not 40 feet but more like 100 or 200  feet or more. The state room could seat 20 around tables bolted to the floor, lovely china tea cups. . I was also in a room with all kinds of books but mostly children’s books and sitting on the floor I was excited at the thought of having time to read these once a gain. The deck and cockpit were magnificent with excellent rigging and a well cared for engine. A couple of friends were helping with odd jobs.  One room looked like my storage locker and I was having help sorting it out.  

I’d dreamed of my mother. She was beautiful as only a small boy could know. Her red hair and freckles lovely in the sunshine.  I am happy when I dream of visits from the family. Sometimes the dogs who have gone before are frolicking too.  There have been so many deaths of loved one these last years. I am thankful that I just see this as another room.  Many mansions.  Quantum reality. A kind of heaven.  In my case I’ll have a boat and meetings rooms prepared for me.  

Waking is kind. This weather is sublime.  So much green and the relative quiet of country. Small town reality.  I talked with a neighbour who rode in on a n 850 cc Yamaha motorcycle. Old men pleasantry..  Another man with two boys and I talked about dogs and sons.  These traveller conversations a day brings.  Casual communication.  Waiting for Godot.  Walden Pond simplicity.  Outside the screen door there’s a tall lilac bush. We’ve been enjoying the scents.  At night we burn the sage soy candle and it fills the room with sweet fragrance.  

Laura is out of the shower. My turn.  I bought another knife yesterday. Locally made from found factory steel and antler by a local old man. I felt good about supporting the local economy, useful artistry.  Over the years I’ve given away knives and Bibles among other things.  I once gave a way the finest pens.  Gifting lets me replenish myself and gives me comfort.  Now to the shower.  Then the omelette and then I don’t know what I’ll do.  I’m not making it to church. I’m a good winter Christian but in summer I’m more Constantinian especially when the sun is out.