A Belated Merry Yuletide and Happy New Year Post

It has been nothing but work work, sleep, work, work, sleep, work work work
YEAH CHRISTMAS BREAK,... sleep sleep sleep sleep,...

That is what it has felt like for the last few weeks, and thus my absence from blogging.  Do not fear, the Grumpy Hobbit will return in the New Year, the Tiny Home Project is still continue, although the dog ate one of my design, or more correctly, I stupidly over wrote one of the design sections with a computer save and could not recover it, sigh,...

New solutions have been found that save literally a thousand dollars, new ideas have been formed and Engineering solution figured out based on them.  Things are looking Shiny.

So stay tune.  In the mean time, hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy Yuletide and here is wishing you all a Happier New Year.

Grumpily,
A Grumpy Hobbit

URMURGURD - He's Back Blogging TOO!!! Mark Francis (aka Section 15)

My oldest and bestest of friends (deal with it Mark) is back Blogging, you need to check out his blog, he just started it and needs readers.  So head on over to

Korptopia

I Normally Don't Cross Post Other Peoples Material,... BUTTTT

Montreal Simon just went to town on Ezra's ballsack with an automatic paintball gun.

I highly recommend to pop over and read it, it will make you smile.

The Wonderful Humiliation of the Ghastly Ezra Levant

E-FLAP #000009 - EXCLUSIVE * Ezra's Huge Huge Cenorship Douchebag Move

You all know Ezra's TheRebel.Media Web domain right?  You know, its the site where he posts all of his stories before the cross posting then over at his The Rebel Community FaceBook page.  This is without fail, first the video rant or post goes up on TheRebel site and then it appears on the FaceBook, I have yet to see an exception,... until now,... but it is an "after the fact" change or dare I say DELETION.

While having a discussion with one of Ezra's minions about allowable comment behavior, I pointed out that Ezra, or one of media monkeys had commented on allowable comment behavior.  Basically the rules were simple.

1. Opposing points of views were welcome
2. No bad language
3. No insulting others

Ya, I know, try not to laugh too much.  Anyhoo, the guy seem skeptical of my claim so I decide I go back and dig up the comment.  I knew the approximate date, it was the thread were my primary FaceBook account was banned, comments deleted and I was censored.  Yet I could not remember exactly which Ezra FaceBook post it was.  So I went digging,... and digging,... and digging.  I could not find the comment or the comment that it was in response to.  It seems that one of Ezra's minions was miffed that comments and threads were going missing, ya act surprised please.  Anyways, here is a screen capture of the current comment thread, I have a feeling it will go poof soon too.

Screen capture from November 22,2015 LINK

So I started looking at Ezra's posts on TheRebel.Media and low and behold I find not one, but TWO Ezra posts that had been removed from his FaceBook Community group (I have to start wondering how many other have been deleted?). You may remember them, they were his video rant post about Trudeau spending ungodly amounts of taxpayer money to "renovate" 24 Sussex. In those facebook posts many of his normal fans and all of his detractors (me included) were calling him out on this complete bullpoop. They were not renovations, they were desperately needed and long over due repairs and the plans were not the Liberals or Trudeau's, but based on recommendations from the 2008 AG Report (linkie provided) and the 150 Million Dollar plans was from NCC (National Capital Commission, a Government Crown Corporation that is non-political). Of course Ezra, who read the media reports that he based his rants on knew all of this (cause he READ THEM) but instead of providing the information he just made stuff up in those two posts/rants.  Well it seems that the cross posts of these two rants have gone POOF, down the memory hole after even his fans start handing him his ass about his overly dishonest, dickish and highly partisan bullpoopy rants.

October 27, 2015 Rant found here
October 29, 2015 Rant found here

Needless to say, it was on one of these facebook cross linked posts were I proved that Ezra was out and out lying by omitting very relevant facts and that he was simply making stuff up and got I banned, comments deleted and censored from his group (well at least my primary facebook account get this treatment, my alt is still allowed to post, silly media monkeys).

Anyways, so these two entire FaceBook posts of Ezra were deleted, all the corresponding comments and discussion flushed down the crapper as well.  Why is that Ezra?  Where is this great Free Speech Warrior who welcomes opposing options and polite and courteous debate.  YES! I was polite, courteous and ignored the constant bad language and insults that were direct at me and I never respond in kind to them.  I was polite to a fault!  I backed up my position with links and documentation.  Well those facebooks post are now gone cause Ezra is too thin skinned to accept any criticism of his BS rants and outright lies.

I could rub the noses of Ezra's minions in this steaming pile of clearly documented lies and censorship, but you know how well Ezra has them believing he is the Second Coming of Christ, but at least the few people who read my Grumpy Hobbit rants will know the truth and will have more documentation and evidence to back it up.

I would dearly love someone in the real media to hold Ezra's feet to the fire about this,... sigh, well Grumpy Hobbit can dream can't he?  Heck, you don't even need to give me any cred for it, take it, run with it, it is all yours if you want it.

Have a Very Happy War on Christmas Everyone

Bah-Humbug

Now that Remembrance Day is over, we can talk about the next Great War to come, The War on Christmas, where brave Christians loose life and limb because their Starbucks Coffee Cup doesn't have a snowflake on it. Where these brave Christian Warriors line up for hours to buy the latest crap that they don't really need. Where our shopping malls have rivers of blood flowing through the aisles because someone said "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas"
Enjoy the faux outrage over the non-existent persecution of Christians in North America.
PS, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month

WE REMEMBER
It is a shame that we seem to have forgotten the lessons of history.

E-FLAP #000008 - The RWNJs at The Rebel Is Going To Do Sciency Science

Oh God, the impending hilarity that is going to ensue with this series from Joshua Lieblein at The Rebel Media.  Yup they are going to reclaim science for Conservatives and be like all sciency I guess.  So who is Joshua Lieblein?  I guess we should know who we are dealing with first.  Jashua is;

1. A Pharmacist by Education and Employment
2. He is also a member of The Toronto Tax Payer Federation, or at least he was back in 2011 when he wrote this Mayor Ford awarded a ‘B’. Though, since this article, has not written anything else for them, and I have no idea why, so I will not speculate. UPDATE : According to this internet cached article he serves as Research Director for the Toronto Taxpayers Coalition and the York Region Taxpayers Coalition, from April of 2015
   
3. He claims to be a blogger and activist by night, ya well join the club Joshua, we even have tee-shirts.
4. He writes for The Rebel Media, I guess this is his nocturnal blogging and activisting activities.
5. He also seems have been working for and paid by the Manning Foundation for Education.  , or maybe the Manning Think Tank paid to have it published and Joshua got jack-squat.  Who knows, who cares, the thing is he has work hand in hand with Consevative *Think Tanks*

Which brings me to the internet cached article.  I am not certain as to the original source, it is from an internet Google cache, but it appears to be from one or Preston Manning's non-profit charity think tanks and septic tanks.  I have include the full text of the article below, plus a screen shot at the end of the article.  Red or green text has been highlighted to point of the interesting tidbits.

Since the Harper government, and conservatives generally, are usually out-gunned in this environment, they try to protect themselves by using language that stretches the meaning of neutral words and phrases to suit their objectives, a phenomenon noted by George Orwell in his famous essay, “Politics and the English Language.”

AND

The Harper government is well practiced at word-stretching. The titles of its legislative bills are often euphemistic pile-ups such as the Marketing Freedom For Grain Farmers Act (which eliminated the Canadian Wheat Board) or the Protecting Children From Internet Predators Act (which expanded the government’s ability to track Canadians’ activities online). Such titles anticipate negative reaction and seek to neutralize it with language that is unassailable. 

AND

“Economic Action Plan” in response to the 2008-09 recession. A more accurate title might have been the “Borrowing Billions to Bail Out Automakers, Build Infrastructure and Buy Votes Plan”

From reading this article I almost get the feeling that Joshua is admiring The FORMER Harper Government's ability to, coin George Orwell, use DOUBLE SPEAK. 

So now Joshua wants Conservatives to *Reclaim Science*, I have to wonder if Joshua will be using the well tested method's that Ezra Levant uses.  Believe me people, this is going to be hoot.  As for Joshua's Rebel Media article "It’s time for conservatives to start reclaiming science" is only an intro and I assume the series will continue, where Joshua is going to try be all sciency.  As for an intro article he spends most of his time constructing silly strawmen.  BTW, he doesn't slay the strawmen, he just seems to assume that you will think he did, jesus talk about lazy.

Like I said before, this is going to be fun and hilarious and I hope Joshua as more to come.

C2C: When newspeak is written by the mob

Sunday, April 12, 2015 - 16:30

Prime Minister Stephen Harper usually gets the best of Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau in Question Period, and their recent exchange over the niqab and citizenship ceremonies seemed no exception. After Trudeau accused the government of “going after minorities in an irresponsible way”, Harper pounced. He said the niqab is “rooted in a culture that is anti-women”, and asked why Trudeau didn’t understand that “almost all Canadians” oppose it. The implication was clear: Trudeau, the supposed progressive, was defending anti-women practices. In the moment, it looked like another win for Harper.
But the moment didn’t last. On Twitter, a new hashtag – #dresscodepm – was born, and within 24 hours it was trending nationwide. The PM was roundly mocked for his own fashion choices, for slandering Islam, and for presuming to suggest how women should dress. Suddenly, Harper was the one who looked out of touch.
The incident illustrates how difficult it is for governments to exert “message control” in the age of social media. Political actors have always competed for public attention and 1influence, of course. The successful ones dominate the medium and the message. But as Machiavelli observed, it is much harder for a ruler to hold a territory where the inhabitants speak a different language than it is to conquer the territory in the first place. He recommended establishing colonies within conquered territory, believing that colonized people will adapt the language of the colonizers, making them easier to control.
To gain and hold voter-rich territory in social media, then, it becomes all the more important for governments to control the language spoken there. Since the Harper government, and conservatives generally, are usually out-gunned in this environment, they try to protect themselves by using language that stretches the meaning of neutral words and phrases to suit their objectives, a phenomenon noted by George Orwell in his famous essay, “Politics and the English Language.”
The Harper government is well practiced at word-stretching. The titles of its legislative bills are often euphemistic pile-ups such as the Marketing Freedom For Grain Farmers Act (which eliminated the Canadian Wheat Board) or the Protecting Children From Internet Predators Act (which expanded the government’s ability to track Canadians’ activities online). Such titles anticipate negative reaction and seek to neutralize it with language that is unassailable.
The opposition MP (or Tweeter) who wants to criticize such laws is at a disadvantage before they even begin. Not only do they risk landing on the wrong side of Protecting Children or Marketing Freedom, but they inadvertently advance the government’s objectives every time they talk about it.
Perhaps the most effective – and certainly most ubiquitous – branding effort of the Conservative government was its “Economic Action Plan” in response to the 2008-09 recession. A more accurate title might have been the “Borrowing Billions to Bail Out Automakers, Build Infrastructure and Buy Votes Plan”, but obviously it would not have won the government the strong polling on economic competence it came to enjoy. The branding was so successful it still headlines the government’s economic messaging today, five years after the recession ended.
But as the niqab incident shows, government wordsmiths can’t hit home runs every time. While Harper’s “Get out of Ukraine” shot at Vladimir Putin was at least a triple, his attempt to link Trudeau to “anti-women culture” landed foul.
Another challenge facing governments is keeping up the evolution of the meanings of words. In the 500 million-tweets-a-day universe, yesterday’s term of endearment can quickly become today’s patronizing insult. Or a once-reliable insult can become a target for opprobrium. And entirely new words spring up overnight to advance political or social agendas, as occurred when advocates for the transgendered invented “ze” as an alternative to the third person singular pronouns he or she.
Certainly there is something empowering and maybe even democratizing about thousands of citizen-Tweeters picking apart a Prime Minister’s talking point, but there is also a great danger, one Machiavelli and Orwell could not have foreseen. The question is: Why should we trust these hashtag activists, these crafters of the new Newspeak, to speak truth any more than their word-twisting counterparts in government? Put another way: Harper may not speak for all women, but it’s just as unlikely that the #dresscodepm Tweeters do.
~
Joshua Lieblein is a Toronto pharmacist, blogger and political activist. He is currently serves as Research Director for the Toronto Taxpayers Coalition and the York Region Taxpayers Coalition.

Topic: 

Arts & Culture

Note: This content was paid for by the **Manning Foundation for Democratic Education**, a registered charity that falls under the Manning Centre trademark.

Screen Capture of Google Web Cache. Nov, 10, 2015

 

E-FLAP #000006 - The Ezra Levant Spinoff Fanboy Club

They call themselves "Life was Better Under Stephen Harper" and really are nothing more than Ezra Levant - The Rebel Media - regurgitation crew.  Yup, you will normally first see Ezra make something up, and then these little peons will puke it up on their own page,... I said normally, but occasionally these pea brains try to do it on their own and fall flat on their faces.  Lets watch them as step on rakes.

 

I quote "will they be treated as heroes by their bosses and the media?  Or will they be MUZZLED?"  Let me reword that so it fits in with their unadulterated hero worship of their Dear Leader, Stephen Harper. "will they be treated as heroes by their bosses and the media?  Or will they be MUZZLED LIKE UNDER STEPHEN HARPER'S GOVERNMENT? Cause you know, life was better under Stephen Harper"  Seriously, do these morons even spend one second in thought before the write this crap?  My guess is no.

On another note, it seems that the Stephen Harper Fanboy Club doesn't approve of MUZZLING people, but I could be wrong.  So lets run a little test.  Here is something I posted on their page a few days ago, it is the only post I made.

 

And the very next day, my comment is removed and I am blocked.  It seems on the so called Conservative Right, where they claim to champion Freedom and Freedom of Speech, censorship and MUZZLING is alive and well.  No opposing opinions allowed.  These guys make it too easy, it is like shooting fish at the fish market.

Watching The Alberta Vote

Watching The Alberta Vote

I have never paid much attention to Alberta Politics, but tonight could be just ground shacking not to watch.

Yes I am hoping for an NDP Alberta victory, if only to watch RWNJ heads explode across Canada.  Harper and Ezra exploding heads will great fun to watch

A Grumpy Hobbit

May the Fouth,... blah blah blah

A Grumpy Hobbit

These are the Rules of the Hobbit Hole

These are the Rules of the Hobbit Hole

Yes there are going to be rules.  When I first started blogging back in 2005 (The Wingnuterer) I really didn't have rules.  It was more of a free for all, but after a decade of blogging on and off, Facebook and the Twitter, I have come to adopt some rules.  If you don't like them, then don't even bother.

RULE #1 - The Rules are not up for debate.  If you feel an over compelling need to discuss or debate the Rules you may contact me via email at agrumpyhobbit@argumpyhobbit.ca
RULE #2 - You will follow the rules, even I have to follow the rules.  I know that sometimes things can get heated, but before you hit POST button, take a breather, calm down and rethink your posts/comment, edit it so it complies with the rules.
RULE #3 - No name calling.  Yup, if you have to degenerate to name calling, then you really don't have a point.  If you have a valid point, then you don't really need to name call.  Simple eh?
RULE #4 - Please, always try to support your argument with related links.  If you or I posit an idea or claim a fact, it is incumbent on you, not others, to support your argument.  Now I know that there are times when you may have read an article on line and tried to go back and find but can't.  If this is case, at least give us a hint so that others may have a chance to find it.  Now there is some give and take on this rule, if you feel your point is well known, and therefore not in easy dispute, then ya, give it pass, but if some one asks you to back it up.  Simple, go look up the link and provide it, don't dance around and not provide it.  If you can't find it, then just say so.  If your point/observation is an opinion, then just say so.  Honesty is the best policy.
RULE #5 - No over abusing the demand for asking people to backing up their facts or information by demanding "You gotta a link for that"  This will be consider Trolling and violation of Rules #9 and #10.
RULE #6 - NO SEGUES, seriously, If I make a post about Rob Ford doing "X", then the topic up for discussion is Rob Ford doing "X".  Now if you feel that Rob Ford doing "Y" is relevant, then it is incumbent on you to demonstrate that discussion of "Y" moves the debate forward.
RULE #7 - No Bullying, if you are having an issue with another commenter on this blog or from other sources, well sorry, just leave that issue at the door.
RULE #8 - Opposing opinions are welcome and encouraged, But please remember Rules #2, #3, #4 #5, #6, #7, #9 and #10 are in effect
RULE #9 - Obey the Wil Wheaton Rule of Life (hereby known as WWROL), don't be a dick.
RULE #10 - No Trolling.  If  I warn you that you are trolling, stop it, it is not up for debate.
RULE #11 - I reserve the right ban people who do not follow the rules.  Oh and Rule #8 is entirely up to me enforce, so don't even bother pointing it out to me.  I will attempt to be fair in this application, as I will attempt to fair in the application of all the rules.
RULE #12 - It is your responsibility to know the rules, not mine or others.
RULE #13 - The rules of my blog apply here not elsewhere, if you notice me not following these rules on Facebook and/or Twitter, well those place are not my blog.  Though I am attempting to follow these rules everywhere I go, sometimes it is, shall we say, difficult.

Here Endeth The Rules
A Grumpy Hobbit