Not much reading time, but I made some....
Anger Triggers
First thing I saw on the Internet this morning was a beautiful poetic thought about old things and the history they hold, a celebration of old houses, barns, musical instruments, books. I wanted to share it. And right beside it, on my e-friend's web site, was a link to the post about what happened when another fan "shared my post with someone who did not share my values." Person had not been quite as fanatical about keeping per real identity and address as private as I've been. Person was physically stalked and threatened for having posted, iirc, something about loving per Christian parents. I don't think anybody as despicable as that reads this blog, except maybe my own Professional Bad Neighbor--if he can still read--and I doubt he'd go as far as this person's home: he harasses people whose real estate he wants to acquire cheap. But you never know what other scum out there may be able to read. No links to this person's blog, although it deserves links and readership. Youall should have been following it already. If not, too bad.
Animals
Back home, the Roads End Naturalist found a rich variety of moths...love the way the camera makes the dapper little Desmia look about the same size as Eackes imperialis, four to five or even six times its size in real life. Desmia would not completely cover an adult's fingernail. Eacles would cover many adults' whole hands. But the real star of this collection is not a moth. The camera roll includes one of the most adorable mammals in the Eastern States.
Canadian Content
Obviously the jolly lads on this video regard their show as entertainment. Obviously some "facts" they say with straight faces are jokes. Fake News, even.
Now, what do we do about Fake News? People said they could spot it. Purported tests run on social media "proved" that people can't spot it--at first glance. Apparently what most of us do with most "news stories" we've heard is file them as possibly true, and usually we don't care enough to find out whether they're true or not. If subsequent news stories confirm that they were true, we remember that, and if not, we remember that. Rarely do we engage with a news story enough to prove or disprove it on the day it breaks as news.
Naomi Parkhurst and I participated in one of those experiments, a few years ago, on Twitter. We were sighing politely about the sad weather news from Puerto Rico and someone dropped a fake news story on us. "Trump's offering the hurricane survivors shelter in Florida, and then if they don't pay he's going to confiscate their passports." That sounded like the sort of filthy trick Trump might pull, we agreed, not contradicting an e-acquaintance we had no particular reason to trust as a news source. I think I spotted the illogicality first because I had an old school friend from Puerto Rico/ "They have passports? People in that sort of neighborhood usually don't have passports. Why would they need passports to come to Florida or go back to Puerto Rico, anyway? Puerto Rico is a US territory; its residents don't have their own Representative in Congress but they have a vote for the President; they can travel through the States whenever they choose." The fake news tester was counting on the fact that most Puerto Ricans speak Spanish, as Cubans and Mexicans do, to distract attention from the fact that they're US citizens. I cared about the story enough to spot the error; NP, not to be outdone, got the chap to admit it was just a fake news story.
Now I don't know which Canadian news items "the Timcast" discusses are genuine news and which are fake news. Those of you readers who follow Rebel News will recognize some of them as at least partly true. Others sound as if they have to be jokes, though it's risky to make that assumption...!
This is true, though: The Canadian government has for years tried to preserve some sense of distinction from the United States by insisting that their broadcast media contain a certan proportion of "Canadian Content." LPs used to have "Canadian Content" stamped on them if the singer was still living in Canada, and radio stations were supposed to spin those LPs more often than those from the States, and so on. There were special promotional programs for Canadian writers, too. Some people I knew used to talk about emigrating for the benefit of starting out competing among a smaller pool of writers, artists, or musicians, getting more promotion.
Well, personally, I found I didn't really want to emigrate anywhere. Even a contiguous State was too far from home. I liked Maryland. Very much. Delightful place, full of scenery, history, "purer" British and Irish music traditions. I just didn't want to live there.
But the points and jokes the guys make leave me wondering: While we in the US have no right to influence any question of how Canada wants to govern itself, can we, or should we, support Canadians who are philosophically congenial with us by reading and watching more Canadian Content? Y'know, guys like these chaps will comment on a news item of global significance, Canada's out-of-season fires or maybe floods in Botswana, and we'll listen, and then they start talking about some bit of Canadian news of no particular concern to us. The stories Rebel News is obligated to report to us whether we're interested or not, only more of them. Should we be listening? Should we be looking up the facts they're talking about? Can that help?
I don't know. I'm asking.
Music
Christian content:
Sinead O'Connor caught in a rare moment of celebrating her heritage:
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