Large Fierce Mammal

Chicken and Photo Credit: Mrs. LFM

“The title of today’s offering refers to the signature dish common to meals served here when subjects of a certain gravity are up for discussion. Prepared as only Mrs. LFM can from exclusively dark meat, and set before the invited few in a spirit not unlike the peaches doled out at town meetings hosted by Al Swearengen at his Gem Saloon in Deadwood. So welcome, Goode Reader, to our feast of gustatory delights, where you will find the bill of fare affords necessary counterbalance to the piquant aftertaste of these dark deliberations.” ~ Fried Chicken and Potato Salad — A Welcoming Word From Your Host

As previously promised, this will be the second course in our treatment of assorted common afflictions, offered absent apology except to that worthy who wrote the tune — abused previously in my 2019 classic Dead Spider Serenade — whose identity I have so far failed to discern. The words, at least, are mine, as is the sincerity of their delivery both in the sound clip and lyrics that follow.

Dear Vlad

By LFM

It’s a long time since I’ve written,
But today I’m feeling smitten
With a need to vent my spleen upon your ears.
I’d drop by but I’ve been learning
I’m becoming more discerning
Of the people I’ll be seen with through the years.

What the hell have you been thinking?
You can’t blame this on your drinking,
And expect the world to look the other way !!!
We all expected more from
Russia’s buff bare-chested whoreson,
But her border’s where you’ve chosen not to stay.

Where once a heavy hitter,
Now a middle weight bullshitter’s
What you’ve shown yourself to be before our eyes.
Like some neighbour country hoarder,
I guess you looked down at your … border,
And found yourself unhappy with its size.

From a rising spy shop gremlin,
To the head chair at the Kremlin,
You should have learned a thing or two along the way !!!
You need a better playbook,
A sort of don’t be led astray book,
I’ll write it, but I’ll need you prepay.

Your troops are disregarding borders,
Of course they’re just obeying orders,
But it’s past time you unassed them from Ukraine.
Ere your armour stops its clanking
From supply logistics tanking,
You’ve still got time to pull them from the drain.

Your generals keep dying,
Your air struggles to keep flying,
Take the lesson now and save them from the fray !!!
If you won’t return them,
I guess we’ll have to pile and burn them,
Until the digging’s easier in May.

Well the proof is in the eating,
I hope your troops enjoy the beating
Armed with tools they seem to barely understand.
What you saw as glory gleaming
Set the internet to memeing,
And everything that’s Russian’s being banned.

If you’d threaten with a missile
In reply to this epistle,
You’re the sort, and I can’t say I’ll be surprised.
Please just shut your trap and show me,
Either blow me up or blow me,
My disdain is yours forever, undisguised.

“Her captain spies with hard shut eyes, glass safe within his pocket. The course he steers with stoppered ears that any voice should mock it.” ~ The Maelstrom, Stave 2 ~ by LFM (Image credit here ~ Click to enbiggen)

The title of today’s offering refers to the signature dish common to meals served here when subjects of a certain gravity are up for discussion. Prepared as only Mrs. LFM can from exclusively dark meat, and set before the invited few in a spirit not unlike the peaches doled out at town meetings hosted by Al Swearengen at his Gem Saloon in Deadwood. So welcome, Goode Reader, to our feast of gustatory delights, where you will find the bill of fare affords necessary counterbalance to the piquant aftertaste of these dark deliberations.

My choice in content and format of delivery came out of a supper meeting we called and hosted a week ago today. You won’t be surprised to learn that discussions far outlasted the abundance of hot oily hens laid out for the repast (a joke of course — everything Mrs. LFM makes is to die for, not from … unless that’s her point).

This will be the first in our treatment of assorted common afflictions, uttered from a Canada-centric point of view. This is because first, that’s where Mrs. LFM and I live, work, and raise our Sons; and second because Canada more than amply serves as a canary in the mine most of us share, the Stygian darkness of which could well use some illumination right about now. I am sure you will agree, or come to, wherever you are.

Canada is circling the drain in a convergence of calamities that can no longer be ignored in the spirit of simply wanting to be left alone, and can’t be escaped by treating it all like a rip tide you can evade by swimming across the flow until you’re out of the current. The Federal Liberal Government of Justin Trudeau and those of the body politic who even now would still vote for its members in the next election seem at this point in history to personify the old saying, “Everyone wants to ride the train but not everyone wants to lay the tracks.” And that’s ignoring provincial and territorial governments, which we won’t, believe me.

So grab a drumstick or four, a fistful of wings, and a heaping helping of potato salad Goode Reader and regard this as you chew.

Our Bill of Fare

By LFM

We’ve got rail blockades, and unmarked graves, injustices real and hand made,
All flavours of “‘isms”, unbridgeable schisms, and falsehoods imperfectly laid.
Cries of sedition, and left wing contrition for sins of our forefathers past,
Ideology driven apologies given that grant absolution once cast.

We’ve essentials to life that won’t bear any strife, born at home or a far foreign shore,
Those who’d rather be weak, and to turn or spread cheek, than remember what soldiers are for.
We’ve a treasury spent and a government bent on dissolving the national glue,
A post-national state, the first ever to date, and a saviour with voters to woo.

We’ve got trucks that can’t run parked in Ottawa sun, bouncy castles in Capital snow,
There’s official derision further sowing division, and truckers with nowhere to go.
We’ve those that would lead, and demand that you heed, wrapped in flags oh so perfectly draped,
We have “jabs” that aren’t votes, lots of sheep turned to goats, and some goats that refuse to be scaped.

We’ve got “expert” predictions, ignored contradictions, oft times from the same source and day,
And the few that cry foul faced with raising the howl it’s their “‘isms” that made them that way.
We’ve got bullying beasts from the near and far Easts, faced by kids with no study of  war,
And last but not least, just to round out the feast, we’ve some nuclear options in store!

Things being what they are Nick, we have nothing to say to you.

Pursuant to the shenanigans and goings on in eastern Europe, effective immediately and until further notice, the Management will discontinue use of the well worn term “phoning the czar” as a euphemism for masturbation, as well as for all purposes up to and including actually phoning anyone bearing, or laying claim to, that epithet. (more…)

Every Autumn brings with it a metaphorical expression of how Justin Trudeau views Canada — A shadow of its former glory, felled in the face of a waning season, now dying on the ground waiting to be run over. (Source)

“As I have watched Justin Trudeau flummox his way through his time as Prime Minister of Canada, now highlighted by his leadership of the government in the face of the current pandemic crisis, he has done nothing to change my impression of him as a creature of pure ego and ideology, at least insofar as his public life has intersected my private one. As such, he has shown himself ever willing to seize credit for a popular outcome in the moment, even as he defers the inevitably negative fallout for a time when getting re-elected is not going to be an option anyway.

“In this latter behaviour he differs not at all from the general herd of politicians who know their tenure comes with an expiry date so there is no time to waste padding the nest before that happens. Where he does differ is in a way that seems endemic to him — his decisions clearly spring from the belief that as long as you and those under your command are convinced the cause is noble (meaning it fits their world view), then any act of policy is justified and not only can, but must, be pursued with utmost vigour, sidestepping as necessary any pesky entanglements with how things are supposed to be done. Questionable motives exposed, there is always the path of contrition, and I have never seen any politician, let alone a serving prime minister, so prone to self-absolution by disingenuous apology.” ~ Enough. Is. Enough.

I wrote those words back in July of 2020 and so far he’s done nothing to change my opinion. Quite the contrary on a daily basis.

The title of today’s poem is taken from an ancient practice, defined by Oxford as:

“… a loud cry calling for the pursuit and capture of a criminal. In former English law, the cry had to be raised by the inhabitants of a hundred in which a robbery had been committed, if they were not to become liable for the damages suffered by the victim.“ (emphasis added)

It came to mind during the past week (particularly the emphasized part — who wants to be held liable for the actions of a thief?) as I watched governments twist, squirm, and evolve in their thoughts, words, and deeds under the unrelenting pressure of the powerfully and righteously successful Freedom Convoy.

I mean the real Freedom Convoy, and not the racist, misogynist, science denying, anti-vax, terrorist, seditious, white supremacist, violent, child endangering, existential threat to democracy and the public good government narratives have painted them.

This is in honour of that. Godspeed Ladies and Gentlemen.

Hue and Cry

By LFM

For things in Nature, big and small,
There is a guide that rules them all,
From under rocks to grandest hall —
Adapt, migrate, or die.

Though Man may think beyond the plight,
And stay his hand from fight or flight,
The choice demands an end in sight,
Or know the reason why.

Know this, who’d claim the right to lead,
From fractiousness to common creed —
The clock ticks down upon their need,
And they will call the lie.

As dripping water wears the stone,
Impatience tears at flesh and bone.
Denied to some exclusion zone —
Expect the hue and cry.

Whatever cards you hold today,
Take care the chips are yours to play,
Lest he who’d lead be led away,
Forever to deny.

The management has no official opinion on this product, real or imagined, express or implied, nor is it implicated in the shenanigans set forth below. It will, however, be explained if you can stay on the horse long enough. (Source)

Speaking for myself, the older I get, the more often I run into events and situations that get me thinking along the metaphorical lines of, “I’ve seen this movie before.”

Unless you’ve since decided to dig the proverbial hole that’s to crawl into and pull in behind, you’ll know that the past days of building protests against COVID-19 mandates appear to be having a sobering effect on even the daftest of governments. As I surveyed news reports yesterday from sources fair and foul, and watched the people participating in these still building protests characterized on a spectrum running from demon to hero, it didn’t escape my notice that the noble experiment in  “authoritarian lite”  is losing steam.

While it was the imposition of vaccine mandates for long haul truckers that was the trigger event for all this, its potential to happen, spawn new variants, and grow as it has should not have been unforeseeable. As the number of unemployed created by such mandates in other industries grew from punitive moves justified by the needs of the “Greater Good” (a euphemism for results of the latest public opinion poll), unvaccinated Canadians found themselves daily proclaimed as the reason for everything from bad breath to the Chicago fire. Government leaders and “experts” with medical and other academic accreditations felt emboldened to float trial balloons about vaccination becoming the magic key that might ultimately be required to unlock even the most basic and necessary of services. What made it possible for the trucks to roll on Ottawa and thereby become a catalyst for something much larger that has proven uncontainable up to now, was the forgetting of what can happen when you cast a group of productive, hard working people with families to feed into forced idleness.

Did you think they’d go sit in the parking lot of the nearest Tim Hortons nursing their “Timmies” and bruised egos through open truck windows because they have to show proof of vaccination to sit inside?

Fuck that, they took it personally, in a manner reminiscent in execution and effect of something I’ve quoted here before:

“The personal, as everyone’s so fucking fond of saying, is political. So if some idiot politician, some power player, tries to execute policies that harm you or those you care about, take it personally. Get angry. The Machinery of Justice will not serve you here – it is slow and cold, and it is theirs, hardware and soft-. Only the little people suffer at the hands of Justice; the creatures of power slide from under it with a wink and a grin. If you want justice, you will have to claw it from them. Make it personal. Do as much damage as you can. Get your message across. That way, you stand a better chance of being taken seriously next time. Of being considered dangerous. And make no mistake about this: being taken seriously, being considered dangerous marks the difference – the only difference in their eyes – between players and little people. Players they will make deals with. Little people they liquidate. And time and again they cream your liquidation, your displacement, your torture and brutal execution with the ultimate insult that it’s just business, it’s politics, it’s the way of the world, it’s a tough life and that it’s nothing personal. Well, fuck them. Make it personal.” ~ Quellcrist Falconer —
Things I Should Have Learned by Now, Volume II, Richard K. Morgan

Now, scapegoating and the casting of those scapegoats into his own Canadian flag wrapped pack basket of deplorables cum oubliette has characterized the problem solving strategy of Justin Trudeau and his government throughout its iterations, and is his preferred posture for teaching people he knows won’t vote for him the error of their ways. It’s a tried and tested system for him that, if it starts to look like it might blow up in his face, can quickly be converted to a heartfelt disingenuous apology. (more…)

Remember kid, do like the pro’s do — know the answer you want going in, and NEVER show your work! Source: Chatelaine

“I will posit that after two years, anything Truly worthwhile to society should by now be sufficiently self-evident as to not require daily doses of contradictory news coverage, blatant falsehoods, shameless fear mongering, dutiful repetition of a narrative long since grown unsupported by observed evidence, and creation of a two-tier society to sell it, but yet here we are.” ~ The Illusion of Truth — Introduction

Welcome back Weary Traveller to this second treatment of symptoms afflicting us all, and where Quaere Verum is now, more than ever, the mantra of our times. If you haven’t previously read our Introduction as quoted above, or feel the need for a refresher, I urge you to tarry there as long as needs must before continuing with today’s observations.

Arguments could go on all day about the evolution of understanding surrounding vaccine efficacy and and how dangerous infections by SARS-CoV-2 may be to vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, but that would be counterproductive when there is a more predictive method. After all, stated intentions turned to actions yielding outcomes give us a convenient yardstick, or this being Canada we’re talking about, a meter stick, to measure hit or miss.

Again, what follows will focus on figures coming out of Nova Scotia because that is where I live, raise my children, work, and accumulate firsthand knowledge.

As of 4 October 2021, the Province of Nova Scotia declared  “… proof of full vaccination will be required for Nova Scotians who are 12 or older to participate (in) activities such as dining out, going to a fitness facility, or going to a movie, theatre performance, concert or sporting event ….”

The full slate of places and events where attendance is restricted to fully vaccinated people, as well as those requiring no such proof, appears on the Provincial website, and you can read both by clicking on these links:

• Where proof of full vaccination is required
• Where proof of full vaccination isn’t required

Provincial Public Health officials have made it abundantly clear that requirements for individual adherence to its guidance with respect to the wearing of masks, the practice of physical distancing, and gathering limits are still very much in force, and evidence does support that this along with public awareness of what appears to have been the lost art of hand washing has actually demonstrably paid off. An article published by Yale Medicine on 26 August 2021 titled Are Colds and Flu Coming Back? states:

“A remarkable side effect of the pandemic has been the near vanishing of colds, flu, and other viruses. All of these can lead to general misery and, in some cases, serious illness and death. Fortunately, mask-wearing and other measures to prevent COVID-19 pushed those viruses to the background, if only temporarily.

“But now we’re about to enter a new cold and flu season—what will happen? We missed a year of building immunity against those illnesses. Meanwhile, guidance on COVID-19 prevention measures has been changing, and will likely continue to change as more people are vaccinated.”

This was echoed by CBC News on 11 September 2021 under the title Easing pandemic restrictions likely to mean the return of seasonal flu which quotes Nova Scotia pharmacists:

“Measures put in place last year to contain COVID-19 had the added benefit of preventing a customary flu outbreak.

“This year, with restrictions easing and Nova Scotia poised to enter the last phase of its reopening plan on Sept. 15, pharmacists are expecting the flu to make its return.”

I would draw your attention to the portion of that last excerpt that I have highlighted in bold type because the underlined 15 September 2021 date is significant.

The fact that this development of nearly complete disappearance of colds and flu occurred across populations consisting of both vaccinated and unvaccinated people supports the efficacy of physical measures intended to contain infection by viruses known to be spread by particulates and aerosols, notwithstanding the involvement of a COVID-19 vaccine or lack thereof.

Now, the argument can be made that this in no way stands as evidence of the same level of protection against spread of particulates shed by people infected with COVID-19, and that would be quite correct. What flies in the face of that however are the statistics documenting COVID-19 infections and exposures occurring at Nova Scotia venues and events to which full vaccination is a prerequisite, and that began opening up after that critical 15 September 2021 grand reopening date.

On 8 September 2021, the Province confirmed the 15 September date to be a go, “… contingent upon 75 per cent of Nova Scotians being double vaccinated. As of Wednesday (8 September 2021), 71.7 per cent of the population has received two doses of the vaccine ….” (Source: N.S. to remove mask mandate, enter Phase 5 on Sept. 15).

Reading the article that excerpt was taken from will fill you in on just how unrestricted Nova Scotia was about to become for people who were “fully vaccinated”, and for clarity from the same article, “Fully vaccinated means having two doses of AstraZeneca, Moderna or Pfizer ….”

Two final points from that article that I would like to bring to your attention, Goode Reader, are that it states:

“The province reported 14 new cases on Wednesday, bringing the number of active cases to 61 ….
“There is one person in hospital with COVID-19 and that person is not in intensive care ….  four of the cases are children under 12 ….”

And

“Vaccinated people can still carry and spread the virus … so there are lots of people walking around with COVID-19 who don’t know it and can pass it on to any unvaccinated person — most often children.”

When last we convened under this banner of The Illusion of Truth, I promised you ” … manageable bites … as part of a highly digestible meal …”, and I am nothing if not a Man of my Word. I will leave you here with the table set for the next course, and a province of 1 million souls eagerly awaiting delivery of The Promise.

Source: How liars create the ‘illusion of truth’

Of all the developments I have observed arising out of this noble experiment in “authoritarianism lite” currently in vogue, I find most onerous the politicization of science down to its very foundations. In this, it can daily be found subverting mathematics, medicine, epidemiology, microbiology, and every other field of study wherein an “expert” may be found willing to pontificate in favour of “The Science” claimed as being ever so diligently followed to our mutual salvation.

Next most troubling is that in the moment, no matter your accomplishments and demonstrated value as a member of society, notwithstanding that your way of being in the world has stood the test of time and travail so that none can point to it as a framework for any measure of failure, and immaterial that your example may have illuminated the way to the betterment of your fellows so that some now live, even thrive, because you somehow crossed their path when they needed you most; I invite you to consider these:

Hero.

Teacher.

Mentor.

Elder.

Father.

Grandfather.

Mother.

Grandmother.

Brother.

Sister.

Leader.

Saviour.

To be complete, the list of titles uttered when we speak of those to whom we owe all that Truly matters in our lives must needs be much longer than this, and will vary by individual, yet those one actually cleaves to are no longer of any consequence in the wider sphere. You see, while your own list may exclude some mentioned and include others that are not, a threshold of debasement has now been crossed that casts all we once held dear into ignominy if it comes packaged with another — Unvaccinated.

To be Unvaccinated is to be among the stupid. The misled. The irresponsible. The unclean. The Outcasts. In defining them, nothing else matters before the court of Public Opinion where personal choice is always in favour as long as it’s the “right” choice.

In past weeks we have seen politicians conflating, inflating, and launching trial balloons bearing inscriptions promoting “A tax on the unvaxxed“, and most recently more “expert opinion” on how “Public outrage over the unvaccinated is driving a crisis in bioethics“.

This latter consideration is particularly and knuckle draggingly hateful in that it springs from the opinions of physicians any one of us may come to meet on any day, for any reason, in a hospital emergency room anywhere. The inclusion of a patient’s personal medical care choices as a measure of worthiness for treatment aimed at mitigation of suffering and preservation of life is an absolute dereliction of duty in favour of rule by public opinion poll.

“Vaccinated majorities in wealthy western countries are growing increasingly impatient with a science-denying minority being blamed for prolonging the pandemic and stretching critical care resources to the breaking point.

“Governments are responding to that anger by turning up the heat on the unvaccinated with policies intended to inconvenience them, curtail their social lives, drive them out of the public square, make them pay or even criminalize them — measures Ravitsky (Vardit Ravitsky teaches bioethics at the Université de Montreal and Harvard Medical School) said are ‘politically meant to appease the vaccinated majority.'” ~ Public outrage over the unvaccinated is driving a crisis in bioethics

I will posit that after two years, anything Truly worthwhile to society should by now be sufficiently self-evident as to not require daily doses of contradictory news coverage, blatant falsehoods, shameless fear mongering, dutiful repetition of a narrative long since grown unsupported by observed evidence, and creation of a two-tier society to sell it, but yet here we are.

Much needs to be said, and ultimately done, but one mind numbing omnibus is not the format this nation, indeed the world, needs right now. So having come to the conclusion that everything I have to say in these matters must be served up to you, Goode Reader, in manageable bites, and as part of a highly digestible meal, let this stand as the appetizer.

Your vaccination status and reasons therefore is immaterial here. What really matters is how you feel about letting the word “citizen” become equated with “chattel of the state” through common usage and absent opposition.

See you next time.

It’s all downhill from here. Click to enlarge. Source.

Dotted across the world, relics of the Cold War, are edifices deeply delved wherein would shelter members of governments whose mishandling of events had brought their nations to the brink, and thence across the threshold of nuclear Armageddon. Built in the belief that they and their failed leadership would still have value when the radioactive dust had finished settling upon the wasteland, and that bureaucracy would hold sway in the face of more immediate existential matters, I suppose it’s fortunate that the bunkers and their builders were never called to test.

Today’s poem was inspired by my many long past forays to Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Debert and hours spent in the company of fellow Emergency Management officials in what was still actively operated as the Regional Emergency Government Headquarters.

The coffee was always fresh and in limitless supply.

No Bunker For You

By LFM

There is a place northeast of here
Once built of concrete, earth, and fear,
Wherein a chosen few would hide
From what their acts had wrought outside.

Though hard rain fell upon the land
They’d live to see things back in hand,
And take control of what remained
On soil the nation’s blood had stained.

Self-cast as saviours resurrected,
No thought spared they to be corrected,
For in their folly they believed
The populace they served deceived.

What might have happened, no one knows,
The war once feared ne’er came to blows,
No victims cried for kings returned,
No count was made of bridges burned.

In sober thought it might be guessed,
Who lives by sins left unconfessed,
Self-valued high above all men,
Might be advised to think again.

Word to the Wise

By LFM

“Beware of the man who shoots only one gun,”
Speaks to marksmanship Able and True.
But as words to the wise,
The same Wisdom applies
To whatever endeavour you do.

For whatever the task, or what Nature would ask,
You will need skill and tools to get through it,
But success that endures
Is what actually cures,
Not just juggles the tools used to do it.

When the problem to beat isn’t beating retreat,
And it’s you, not the foe, on the run,
Are you on the right path,
Or just taking a bath,
From the things you yourself may have done?

Far too often it’s found complications abound
From the side effects dogging our acts,
And we find those travails
Might have stayed on the rails
If we’d only just stuck to the facts.

A few days ago, Mrs. LFM was preparing the evening repast as she and I were simultaneously watching an episode of Tasting History with Max Miller. The particular episode was Victorian Mincemeat With Actual Meat which I have both linked in the title and embedded for your convenience at the end of tonight’s morsel.

Mrs. LFM and I love mincemeat, and that it may contain actual meat came as no surprise. Traditionalist that I am, I have made it with venison, personally Hunted, and will again, but that is a story (and recipe) for another day.

It was while devouring the aforesaid meal with Mrs. LFM and die Weihnachtsbrüder that something sprang from the lips of one of the kinder that, as with the singular ingredient that brings the disparate components of a dish into its gloriously harmonious whole, combined in my mind with what I’d just watched. I excused myself to my sanctum sanctorum for a few minutes and returned to sing the result.

After the appreciative laughter and applause subsided, Mrs. LFM asked, “What is it with you and poisoned pie?”

She was, of course, waxing rhetorical in reference to my October 2012 classic, Laura’s Pie, for she knows more than most that I just never look inspiration in the mouth, even as I won’t let some of it past my lips. (more…)