What the ... seriously?!?!?!?

A friend asked we what I thought about the Remembrance Day controversy the Chronicly Horrible, I mean the Chronicle Herald, was going on about. Not having paid attention to the news I had no idea what he was talking about.

It turns out that during the Remembrance Day ceremonies taking place the Halifax Regional Police deployed armed members. My first thought was ... great. They made sure that if anything happened the right people were there to respond. What controversy?

Well, having armed police ready for anything has angered some people. What the fuck?!?!? Seriously?

“If ever there is a day to put the guns and these costumes away and say we are not afraid, this is it,” John Wesley Chisholm posted on Facebook, along with a photo of two officers in tactical gear.

Others commented on Twitter, asking the force why the more imposing gear was necessary during a public event and on a day for honouring veterans and those killed in combat.

I guess I just had a nightmare last year when a gunman murdered Nathan Cirillo and shot up Parliament. If that had happened no reasonable person would wonder why the HRP had officers ready for anything on Remembrance Day. Oh wait it did happen. And they were ready. Lest We Forget.

The main mook behind the complaints seems to be Stoo Metz.

Stoo Metz posted, “Seeing guns like this in the hands of @HfxRegPolice scares me more then the terrorists. #Halifax”

“It doesn’t make me feel safe,” Metz, a Halifax photographer, tells Yahoo Canada News. “It makes me worried we have less and less freedom because the guards now have bigger guns.“

What worries me is that the media panders to assholes like Metz, who is probably just looking to make a name for himself and sell more photos.

Seeing guns in the hands of the police scares you more than terrorists? Fuck off cunt.

Did the "guards" inconvenience you in any way? No.

Did they stop you from taking photos to sell?  No.

Did they infinge on your freedoms? No.

They were there to make sure no piece of shit hurt anyone.

Did you thank them? No. Instead you vilified them.

Fuck you Stoo Metz and all the assholes who posted shit in support of you.

Fucktards.

What the ... national news?!?!?

A "cautious" Calgary doctor also know as a daredevil that lived for adrenaline rushes died base jumping in Arizona. Why the fuck should I care? Why the fuck is it NATIONAL news?!?!?

Not to denigrate or diminish how his family and friends feel but why the hell would this be considered national news? CTV, CBC, The National Post, even METRO for the Halifax area is carrying this story.

To add to the inanity of the story you have this report:

‘‘A rescue helicopter … located Dave’s body and confirmed he had died from massive injuries resulting from impacting rocks at high speed. "

They REALLY had to elaborate on that? They needed confirmation that he died from massive injuries due to hitting rocks and a high speed? Were they thinking maybe his death resulted because of being hit by a car in mid air? Media fucktards.

A Crack in the Ford Case

CBC NewsWorld just reported that the much touted video showing Rob Ford smoking crack is gone. The head of Gawker, the head Gawker?, has been heard from. According to his go between with the video owners it no longer exists. It is gone. If it ever existed.

We have the word of three "reporters" that the video existed and Ford was on it. Yet no video. The Gawker has raised over $200,000 to buy the video which now can't be found.

Bravo media fucktards. I refuse to refer to them as reporters any more. You ran your mouths off without having the actual video in your possession to back you up. You have set yourselves up for a nasty libel suit that you should lose. You tarred a man's reputation with no proof ... just your "word" that the video is real and Ford is really in it. And people wonder why the media has a bad name?

I am not a Ford fan but I don't like to see shit like this happen. The Gawker should be forced to donate the money they raised to the charity of Rob Ford's choice at the LEAST.

I hope he sues the fucktards.

Rob Ford Crack Addict

When did the standards of journalism sink so low that supposedly reputable media outlets would make allegations based on video that they (3 "reporters") either only saw a short clip of or never saw at all?

Is Mayor Ford an asshole? At times yeah. Is he a crack addict? I am looking at a picture of him as I type this and find it hard to believe that someone his size is a crack addict.

He is being attacked in the media based on ... what? A video no one can see but the 3 "reporters" who saw it claim it is legitimate. BUT they need some rubes to donate money in order to raise $200,000 to buy the video. I wonder what happens to the money if they can't buy it?

Rob Ford is in a catch 22 situation. If he speaks out against the claim he gives more fuel to the "media" who are using it to attack him. If he doesn't they claim his silence is proof. Tough position to be in.

So far he has said he is not an addict and there is no video. What else can he say?

Isn't the onus on these "reporters" to prove their assertion? Shouldn't the media have actually had the video to use as proof before reporting this? Before trying to destroy someone's career? Their life?

What the ... weather?!?!?!?

CBC News World shows a current vid of Halifax. NO snow. VERY clear. It is dark, 9:30ish PM. No snow or rain. Then they flash to a vid of people using snow blowers and talk about winter weather hitting Nova Scotia.

FUCK OFF! We, Halifax area, got jack shit in the way of winter weather today. Going from current to stock footage of a snow storm is not just misleading, it is deliberately obfuscating things and bull shit. Yes, we got high gusts of winds, and a little snow, flurries, but that is it. By using the stock footage you made things here seem a LOT worse than they actually were.

Thanks for being disingenuous CBC. This is a good example of why I don't trust the media. You will blow anything up for a "good" story. Fuck you!

What the ... fearmongering?!??

I wrote this Thursday, February 7th 2013. As the media was scaring the shit out of people over the impending doom of a snowstorm. I am late in posting it.

*****

We are supposed to get a Winter storm starting tomorrow night. To listen to the media it is the apocalypse coming. They keep reminding people of how bad White Juan was when it hit in 2004.

White Juan was a devastating winter storm. In Halifax, 95.5 cm of snow fell in one day. Winds gusted from 60-80 KPH, with some bursts recorded at 120 KPH. A weather station in Halifax recorded 2 10-second gusts of 147 KPH. With the snow that came down the next day the total snowfall in 48 hours was around 120 cm with some drifts higher than 2.5 metres.  It took a long time for the Province to recover from that.

Now we look at the present. Last Monday Halifax got about 10 cm of snow. Schools were cancelled. Doom and gloom was spread by the media. For 10 fucking cm of snow! I drove to work when the "storm " was at its worst ... and had little trouble. By the time I went home the roads were pretty much cleared up. Unless you were a fucking idiot and drove too fast for the conditions, and we have a LOT of those here, you shouldn't have had any trouble.

The Saturday before we had 10-15 cm. Once again, it wasn't that bad if you didn't drive like a moron. By the time I was driving home it had turned to rain. Within an hour the roads were BARE. Yet when the weather forecasters talk about that period of time they refer to storms. Massive storms. Weather bombs. On Wednesday they were talking about how we were still digging out. Yes, some areas, like Newfoundland, got a LOT more snow than we did. THEY were digging out in areas. Halifax? Hell no.

Now we are getting dire predictions of White Juan like proportions from some media outlets. What are we supposed to get? 20-35 cm of snow starting late Friday night with most of it hitting Saturday. So, lets call that a 36 hour period of time. The wind will gust from 30-45 KPH overnight and may gust up to 60 KPH Saturday. If you listen to the weather forecasters you should prepare for Snowmageddon. Seriously, this is how the fucktards are building this up.

White Juan                                                                                 Friday/Saturday

95.5 CM in 24 hours 120 CM in 48 hours                                20-35 CM of snow in 26 hours
 main winds 60-80 KPH                                                           main winds 30-45 KPH

Yeah, it REALLY sounds like another White Juan. (Can you feel the sarcasm?) It sounds like what we would call in the 90's, before the pussification of Canada, a bad winter storm. Some form of Snowmageddon? Fuck off.  

Now the media gets their basic weather information from Environment Canada. Then they put their spin on it whether for current weather or predicting future weather. Here is what Environment Canada has to say while the media meteorologists are predicting total doom and gloom.


Halifax Metro and Halifax County West
3:33 PM AST Thursday 07 February 2013

Winter storm watch for Halifax Metro and Halifax County West issued

Strong winds, snow and blowing snow beginning late Friday night and intensifying on Saturday.

This is an alert to the potential development of dangerous winter weather conditions in these regions. Monitor weather conditions..listen for updated statements.

A low pressure system will intensify as it passes near Cape Hatteras on Friday before tracking south of Nova Scotia Saturday night.

This system will give snow at times heavy, strong northeast winds and blowing snow to Nova Scotia Friday night and Saturday. These conditions will persist Saturday night and into Sunday morning for Cape Breton and Eastern Nova Scotia. While it is too early to give an accurate estimate of snowfall potential, some guidance is indicating that amounts in excess of 30 centimetres are possible for parts of Nova Scotia. Also there may be periods of ice pellets or freezing rain along the Atlantic coast starting Saturday and extending into Sunday over eastern regioins.

Strong northeasterlies and northerlies over the Gulf of St. Lawrence may also give higher than normal water levels late Saturday and into Sunday, and will push pack ice into north to northeast facing shorelines. 


In other words, it could be a bad storm but it is too early to say for sure. Be prepared. I understand that the media panders to fear for ratings but this fear mongering is ridiculous.  

****

As I wrote this, in the aftermath of the ... winter storm we got the ...  fact the media does nothing but fear monger remains strong. Or is stronger. I heard words like White Juan, Snowmageddon, and Weather Bomb bandied about by various media outlets. It was all a lot of BS. What we got hit by was what we would have called back in the 90's a snow storm. Nothing more. Nothing less. It was not the next White Juan. It was not some cataclysmic event. It was a god damn winter storm. That is all.

Canadians have become pussified to winter. The media helps this happen.                                                                              

What the ... wedding announcement?!?!?

What is the top news story in Canada? Prince William is engaged to get married. Evidently this is a much more important story than Canada continuing it's role in Afghanistan. Or the explosion in Mexico that left Canadians dead and wounded. Or the economy. Or jobs. Or anything else that is more relevant than an engagement.

CBC NewsWorld devoted 10 minutes at the top of the hour to prattle on and on about the engagement. What did you get to hear?

The announcement of the engagement which actually happened last month.

The British PM blather about how the engagement is so important he was interrupted in a Cabinet Meeting to be told about it.

How the Cabinet stopped the business of running the country to cheer.

A CBC talking air head (female) say "As William got older I started liking the younger Prince more." What a creepy cougar. Imagine if a male announcer said that about a young woman?

CBC NewsWorld devoted almost 10 minutes of the opening news hour to THIS story???? Give me a fucking break. I can understand the news reporting this but as the top story with so much time devoted to it? That is retarded.

This is one of the reasons why I try to avoid the watching the news. It is shite. They will blather on about crap like this as a top story while much more important things are going on.

Reporting

It is nice to be back in a country where a piece of shit rag like the Korea Times is not the norm. Well, outside of Fox News that is. However, there are other problems related to the media.

THE NEWS now, at least in Canada, is all about Colonel Russell Williams. The piece of shit makes me wish Canada had the death penalty because he is the poster boy for using it.

The reporting of the case has been, in my view, excessive. Yes, it is an important story. It needs to be told. The amount of detail however is not necessary. Seriously, the news HAS to show the pictures of Williams dressing in the lingerie of his victims? really? They have to drone on and on and on about everything? You would think there is no other news story in Canada except this.

It reminds me of the stupidity that went on during the Homolka trial. The media actually wanted to get a hold of the tapes that were made of the girls being raped and murdered. What the hell?!?? Why?!?!? They actually went to court to try and force the release of the tapes! That is fucking twisted.

The last thing the family of the victims needs is to have things like that handed over to the media and circulated. Why in the hell would anyone want to watch the rape and murder of the girls? Other than for some twisted sexual fetish?

Reporting the news doesn't mean that every salacious detail has to be exposed. While the lingerie photos aren't as bad as trying to get the tapes it still isn't necessary to reporting the story. Considering that Williams plead guilty to the charges it isn't as if any of the evidence is being disputed or even needs to be presented. Yet the media feels the need to air it all because the sensational nature of it will get ratings. It isn't that they are reporting the story it is how they are doing it or over doing it. Then again, I never had a high opinion of the media and how they operate.