Quotulatiousness

July 6, 2018

Lac-Mégantic, five years on

Filed under: Cancon, Railways — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 05:00

Five years ago today, we learned of the tragedy that had struck the Quebec town of Lac-Mégantic in the small hours of the morning:

Updates as they came in: initial post, locomotive fire, media access, still questions more than a week later, first anniversary, and the Transportation Safety Board report.

Earlier this week, Asad Iqbal reported from Lac-Mégantic:

Rail safety advocates say that five years after the Lac-Mégantic train derailment, not enough has been done to prevent similar tragedies from happening elsewhere in Canada.

On July 6, 2013, 47 people died when a train loaded with 7.7 million litres of fuel rolled unmanned into the downtown core and exploded in the middle of the night.

Commemorative events honouring the victims will take place throughout the day on Friday.

Meanwhile a citizens’ committee for rail safety and surveillance will mark the disaster by heading north to the neighbouring town of Nantes, where the train started rolling down the steep hill toward Lac-Mégantic in 2013.

“Five years after the tragedy we have not seen a significant improvement of rail safety measures,” said Robert Bellefleur, a spokesperson for the Coalition des citoyens et organismes engagés pour la sécurité ferroviaire.

The federal and provincial governments announced in May a bypass would be built around the town of Lac-Mégantic, Que. (Julia Page/CBC)

Tanker cars carrying dangerous goods are regularly parked at the top of this steep hill above the town, Bellefleur said, a disturbing image for people who drive past.

“The main risk factor that contributed to the tragedy is not even solved,” said Bellefleur.

The First Modern Battle – The Battle of Hamel I THE GREAT WAR Week 206

Filed under: Australia, Germany, History, Military, WW1 — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

The Great War
Published on 5 Jul 2018

Meet us at the Tank Museum: http://bit.ly/TankMuseumFanMeeting

The Battle of Hamel is considered as the first modern battle. Masterminded by Australian general John Monash, it included meticulous planning and integrated tanks, artillery, airplanes and infantry into one cohesive strategy.

“That’s what governments are for — get in a man’s way”

Filed under: Bureaucracy, Business, Government, USA — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

Veronique de Rugy says that the 4th of July is a good time to reflect on the American Founding Fathers fighting to gain independence from a distant tyrannical government … and the rest of the year is devoted to coping with a less-distant but no-less tyrannical government in Washington:

Consider the oil and gas industry. Over the years, the federal government has adopted many regulations meant to hinder the industry. As Nick Loris, an energy policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, reminds me, one such regulation is the Merchant Marine Act, also known as the Jones Act, which makes it more expensive to ship oil and natural gas from coast to coast. Then there are the past administrations’ outright moratoriums on drilling in certain areas of America’s coasts, which massively increases the cost of doing business. As Loris notes, there are many costly bureaucratic delays in issuing leases and processing applications for permits to drill (APDs), which stalls production on federal lands. On average, the federal processing of APDs in the last year of the Obama administration was 257 days, while state processing is typically 30 days or less.

Since Uncle Sam has a lot of regulations in place to make the operations of domestic oil and gas companies more costly, why is the biggest beneficiary of loans from the federal government export credit agency (the U.S. Export-Import Bank) the gigantic Mexico state-owned oil and gas company Pemex? Between 2007 and 2013 (the most complete data set we have), Pemex received over $7 billion in loans backed by American taxpayers to buy U.S. goods. Thanks to Uncle Sam, this discounted borrowing power gives Pemex a leg up on its competition with domestic oil and gas companies.

Then there’s the Trump administration tariffs. These import taxes on foreign goods coming from Europe, China, and other countries have not only raised the cost of doing business but also triggered retaliatory measures from foreign governments. For instance, the farm industry is paying a steep price from the tariffs on steel because they increase the cost of farm machinery, lowering profit margins. Farmers are also hurt by the European, Mexican, Canadian, and Chinese governments that have imposed retaliatory export restrictions on U.S. farm products. Many small farms are calling for help to survive. It’s so bad that the entire Iowa congressional delegation sent a letter to President Trump on June 25 in which it called the tariffs “catastrophic for Iowa’s economy.”

Quote in the headline from Firefly episode “Serenity, Part 1”.

Funny British Army Recruitment Video

Filed under: Britain, Humour, Military — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 02:00

Matsimus
Published on 9 Jun 2018
Some old school British Army recruitment video which was very well made but also just hilarious lol!

Hope you enjoy!!

(DISCLAIMER: This video is for entertainment purposes only. The views and opinion come from personal experience or information from public accessible sources.)

QotD: “Afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted”

Filed under: Media, Quotations — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 01:00

And there we have it in a nutshell. “Afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.” That phrase, it should be pointed out, is not what “they” say it’s a journalist’s duty to do. That phrase was satirical, uttered by the fictional Irish bartender “Mr. Dooley,” the 1893 creation of Chicago Evening Post humorist Finley Peter Dunne. It was not intended to be taken seriously. Here’s the phrase in its original context: “Th’ newspaper does ivrything f’r us. It runs th’ polis foorce an’ th’ banks, commands th’ milishy, controls th’ ligislachure, baptizes th’ young, marries th’ foolish, comforts th’ afflicted, afflicts th’ comfortable, buries th’ dead an’ roasts thim aftherward.”

It was a satire of newspapers, not a how-to manual for journalists. Yet that is exactly what Jackman — and, I would wager, the majority of his crusading colleagues — has turned it into. And let’s just ruminate for a moment on what that means. Afflict (“cause pain or suffering to”) the comfortable (“those who are free from worry or pain”). In other words, give pain to those who don’t have it. What a motto, what a career description. Forget the five Ws, forget just telling the truth. Journalists are here to give pain to those they feel are too pain-free. And of course the press takes it upon itself to determine just who is comfortable enough to deserve affliction. Now, make no mistake, in an active situation on the street, the police do, absolutely, wield the power. They have a license to take lives, and they have the muscle of the state behind them. That said, can we really call inner-city beat cops “the comfortable”? Are we talking the Rockefellers here? Are we claiming that your typical parking-ticket scribe is a caviar-eating, yacht-racing, Fabergé-egg-collecting one-percenter?

That’s why those who elect themselves the rainmakers and the pain bringers are so dangerous — we are at the mercy of their judgment regarding who among us needs the misery they have decided they must inflict.

David Cole, “Afflicting the Comfortable”, Taki’s Magazine, 2016-10-06.

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