They Lack the Will and the Stomach

Time Magazine. The 21st century War to Save Mankind - plant a tree.

For those men and women who will not and cannot fight to save our planet from Islamo-fascists, they will fight the new danger and no it isn't Islamo-fascism, rather it is global warming.

The above magazine cover defines better that nearly any single issue, what it is that distinguishes liberals from conservatives. Liberals believe that they are fighting the equivalent of an Iwo Jima - saving the planet from global warming. That issue for liberals is paramount. All other issues can be debated and compromised - liberals are not willing to wage war, for that would be counter-productive to the green movement. After all, war never solved anything, they believe. Their condescension for those who fought, and for those men and women who fight for us today, is evident.

Europeans are tired of war. They believe that laws prohibiting hate speech saves the day, tolerance for other religions saves the day - these issues are the single issues all rational and intelligent people care about. Only the bitter gun-toting right-wing do not understand the gravity of the threat. Just as the Nazis were a threat, so to, the left believe, global warming is ever more a threat to humanities survival.

For the left, Islamo-fascism is not a threat. For the left, they are people who, if left alone would leave us alone. They have a peaceful religion and only want to be left alone. The left has bought in to the propaganda of the Islamo-fascists, and why not, they hate Bush, he started it, why not accept, lock-stock-and barrel everything the Islamo-fascists claim. It actually works well, the Islamo-facsists use the leftist view points in their arguments against the West -they are mutually reinforcing.

Some would have us believe that the term Islamo-fascist is too judgmental. I can only respond - so what. It characterizes the enemy better than any other two words. When we called the Germans Nazis, we did not indict ALL Germans. When we said the Soviets were Communists, we did not indict ALL Russians. When we called the Japanese an imperialist state, we were not indicting ALL Japanese. The label is just that - a descriptive label of the enemy we face. We do not face criminals. One million supporters of bin Laden are not called criminals. They are the face of Islam as far as we are concerned. Just as the uniform and helmet of Germany defined the Gestapo and officer - the Islamo fascists are defined by their strict adherence to their belief system - Islam.

It looks like Islam is winning. The Europeans do not have the stomach to fight, to wage war. They are more interested in compromise and negotiation. They are looking for the good life and anything that will allow them to secure peace, is fine with them. They have forgotten their history and consequently we are at a crossroads - in one direction, Europe will learn what it is like to face Islam, and will do so alone. The other path, Europe can stand up to radical Islam and take the initiative against them, wherever they are found.

There is some question as to whether Americans are willing to bear the cost. Financially we are also at a crossroads. The issue will be - elect a candidate who will capitulate to European demands for negotiation and compromise to save money; or elect candidates who understand the threat to mankind comes not from global warming but from an evil more insidious and more dangerous than the most extreme fear mongering by the global warming alarmists - Islamo- fascism.

If they act, the US will act in concert with our allies. If they fail to act, we will do it alone when the time comes, and we will prevail, but the cost will be incalculable.

Too Late.

At what point do you realize it is too late - in a class, work, home life. As a student, when do you realize there is no hope for a good grade. As an employee - when do you realize, or do you, that everything has gone to hell and it is the end and now you await the moment, the anticlimax. At home - what is the moment you realize that the relationship or marriage is over - is there one moment and do we know it.

In science, is there one moment we can pin it down to when we knew that everything had changed. When science took a leap without looking into the unknown and we are now playing catch up and failing miserably? Can we, is there, do we know or is it something more uneventful, it just happens and we meander on for weeks and months until the anticlimax drops ... and we never realized that specific moment.

I was thinking about families today, and the importance that societies, throughout history, have placed on the family. I was also considering those moments when the family unit was weakened as a political or authoritative unit, and the resulting political repercussions.

Whether Mussolini or the Emperor Qin - the family is something to be denied and reduced in importance in order that all may gaze upon the leader as their father, and source of sustenance. Perhaps we can trace attempts to install fascist states, to attempts at undermining the family structure and its importance, creating the extended family, where everyone raises the child and parents are simply the biological donors. Perhaps we are able to trace the rise of fascism in any state, at any time, to this social development. Perhaps.

Perhaps in science we will be able to trace our god-complex back to Dolly. We are after all Humans and we control our environment, our planet, our futures ... we are Humans. Makes sense to me that we have god-complexes, and Dolly is as good a place to begin as any. Maybe it is Korea, or maybe it is in England. Maybe it will be shown, in the future, that it all began in Newcastle and I do not mean their beer.

April 2, 2008. Time Online headline: We have created human-animal embryos already, say British team.

Embryos containing human and animal material have been created in Britain for the first time, a month before the House of Commons votes on new laws to regulate the research.

A team at Newcastle University announced yesterday that it had successfully generated “admixed embryos” by adding human DNA to empty cow eggs in the first experiment of its kind in Britain.


"experiments of Frankenstein proportion"

Written by Mark Henderson, Science Editor

J. Michael McConnell, Director of National Intelligence v. The Losercrats

Spy chief seen as an agent of Bush
J. Michael McConnell has been cast in the political role of White House lobbyist.

By Greg MillerTimes Staff Writer

Washington — On the eve of a House vote on controversial wiretapping legislation last month, the nation’s intelligence director, J. Michael McConnell, convened a secret weekend meeting in northern Virginia with members of the House Intelligence Committee.

The two-day session was designed to promote a calmer atmosphere for discussing an array of intelligence issues, including the nation’s eavesdropping laws. But participants said the event ended with a series of acrimonious exchanges.

Democrats accused McConnell of making exaggerated claims and of doing the bidding of the Bush administration, according to officials who attended the event. McConnell bristled at the Democrats’ charges, and chastised members of the committee for failing to defend the intelligence community amid a barrage of bad press.

As lawmakers return to Washington this week to resume negotiations on legislation that will shape the government’s ability to intercept international phone calls and e-mails — and compel U.S. telecommunications companies to provide extensive access to their networks — House Democrats say that relations with McConnell remain frayed.

Spy chiefs have often seen their support in Congress fade after embarrassing intelligence flaps. But McConnell has drawn lawmakers’ ire largely because the Bush administration has put him in the unusual role of intelligence community lobbyist.

“I think people recognize that McConnell is very bright, very capable, and wants what is best for the country,” said Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), a member of the House Intelligence Committee.

“But I do think that he has not overcome the initial impression in the House that, rather than speak as an independent voice for what the intelligence community needed, he instead carried water for the administration,” Schiff said. “I think that created a cloud around the DNI that carries forward to this day.”

[NOTE: So, explain the contradiction between the above italicized comments!]


The tensions underscore the extent to which the softspoken McConnell has struggled with the political dimensions of his job. A retired U.S. Navy admiral, McConnell came into the position with the reputation of a technocrat who was expected to operate largely behind the scenes, fixing broken pieces of the intelligence bureaucracy.

Instead, he has been pulled into politically charged debates over intelligence issues including CIA interrogation tactics and how much authority the government should have to eavesdrop on phone calls going into or out of the United States.

[Note: So this guy was a technocrat - a bureaucrat ... he was a fixer, one of those lifers who do their job and do it well ......and suddenly he became political. Now seriously, how realistic is that accusation? Or is it politically motivated.



“He’s in largely unknown territory here,” said Mark Lowenthal, a former senior CIA official and previous staff director of the House Intelligence Committee. “No previous DNI or [CIA director] has had to engage in such a public political debate about the authorities of the intelligence community.”

McConnell’s role as the Bush administration’s point person on espionage legislation is particularly unusual. U.S. intelligence chiefs have periodically been at the center of political storms over botched spy operations or pitched nomination fights. But they have traditionally been expected to remain insulated from policy issues, not to function as administration lobbyists on controversial pieces of legislation.

A spokesman for McConnell said that the director’s dealings with Congress were “always in good faith.”

[Note: To believe the accusations in the paragraphs listed above (red and green)necessarily requires you to believe that he is now lying when he states that his actions have always been in good faith (and for the benefit of the country and not political.]

“He values the relationship with Congress,” said the spokesman, Michael Birmingham. “He works at it, and he invites and welcomes the oversight they provide.”

The House defied McConnell and the Bush administration last month by passing an eavesdropping bill without provisions that he and the White House had called essential.

The main point of contention has been over whether to give retroactive legal protection to U.S. phone companies that are facing dozens of lawsuits for letting U.S. spy agencies monitor calls and e-mails traveling works.

House Democrats have resisted granting such immunity, saying it would give companies a pass for taking part in what some describe as an illegal spying operation. But both sides have agreed on giving the companies legal protection for current and future assistance.

Beyond their differences over that issue, some House members said they had become disenchanted with McConnell because of his role in the extended debate.

Many trace the animosity to last year, when Democrats accused the director of backing out of a deal they thought they had reached with him on a comprehensive eavesdropping bill.

McConnell denies the two sides had reached a deal or that he succumbed to White House pressure. Aides say McConnell has not been doing the administration’s bidding, but has taken positions that reflect his own views.

[NOTE: Why, when he takes a position that aligns itself with Bush is he an agent of Bush and not independent and a technocrat doing what is best? Answer: It is contrary to the political position held by the Losercrats.]

Nonetheless, Democrats have since complained that McConnell has employed pressure tactics, including making alarming claims about the consequences of failing to pass the wiretapping legislation favored by the White House.

In letters to lawmakers, McConnell warned that prolonged debate by the House was making the nation “more vulnerable to terrorist attack and other foreign threats.”

In a newspaper interview last year, he said that merely debating the issue meant that “some Americans are going to die,” because terrorists and other adversaries would learn more about America’s surveillance capabilities.

More recently, at a House hearing in February, McConnell was accused of offering misleading testimony when he warned that allowing temporary eavesdropping authority to lapse would cause phone companies to quit cooperating. “No, that’s not correct. That’s not correct,” Rep. Anna G. Eshoo (D-Menlo Park) shot back. Democrats have said that the temporary law provides for continued private sector cooperation through the rest of this year.

[NOTE: I will assume Anna has decades of intelligence experience, military experience, and is privy to secrets not given to every girl and boy in Congress for fear they will reveal it to the media for political gain.]

When the law did lapse, officials at the Director of National Intelligence Office and the Justice Department held a conference call with reporters to say that they were already seeing reduced cooperation and emerging intelligence gaps. But the next day the White House said that the major companies had all resumed complying.

Last month’s closed-door meeting involving McConnell and members of the House Intelligence Committee was arranged in part to allow them to discuss the issue away from the media glare. Some participants said it was successful.

“I think the fact that it was open and argumentative at times was very positive,” said Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.). “I think he improved his relations [with the committee] just by communicating.”

Neither McConnell nor the ranking members of the House Intelligence Committee would comment on the meeting.

The House and Senate have approved differing versions of the wiretapping legislation, and are expected to begin talks on reconciling those bills. Congressional officials said prospects for finding a compromise — as well as the role McConnell will play in that process — were unclear.

“I feel he’s an honorable person,” Ruppersberger said. “Some of my peers feel he’s compromised. I would say that on the majority side, we were not happy with some of the positions he took.”

greg.miller@latimes.com


And Mr. Miller (LA Times) has regurgitated politically spewn crap by individuals who are less interested in national security than in political attacks - that much is quite clear.

Nobel Winners and their foolishness

Whether Gore and his idiocy or Doris Lessing - predicting the demise of Obama should he be elected. afp. 2/9/08.


She says that if "Barack Obama becomes the next US president he will surely be assassinated."

Why? Because he is "a black man in the position of president. They would murder him."

So who does she think should be elected? Hillary.

First - deconstruct this foolish woman's reality -

Obama is elected president. That means more than (assume ONLY two people in the race) 50% of the popular vote and or electoral vote. Many people would have voted for him - at least 50 million.

There is between a 10-30% African American population that would not vote for him. Either Republican or not registered or anti-Obama and pro someone else.

Hispanic vote - a percent would not support him due to his race.

That means Ms Lessing, please pay attention, I understand what a doddering old fool may find difficult, but try to keep up - that means WHITES would put him in the White House. THEY you refer to ... are whites and it would be WHITES, you doddering old fool, that would put him in the White House.

And for that majority of the voters to put him in the White House means we have moved beyond race, you stupid old doddering fool ... and if someone were to act in a criminal and evil manner, is not a reflection on WHITE as much as it is on EVIL or CRIMINAL. You may wish to continue racial divisions, old doddering fools tend to be very set in their ways, but the majority have moved past that, even if they do not all vote for him it will be because they do not like his insipid liberalism - you know all those inconvenient truths that doddering old fools like yourself are so beholden to.

More Inconvenient Truths

I attempted to consolidate other news bits dealing with greenhouse gasses / global warming under the posting on Gore, but, alas, too many and maybe it is easier to paste them in as they appear.

Seattle Times article taken from the NY Times by Elisabeth Rosenthal - Biofuels make greenhouse gases worse, scientists say. 2/10/08.

So all the biofuels billed as better than carbon (fossil fuels) are really much worse!

So you want to save the planet, scold an SUV driver and drive an ethanol vehicle, and ruin the planet faster.

The journal Science has several of these articles all supporting this point.

Plus we are starving the poor in our desire to save the planet for all the people who have no voice. Yet we are ruining the planet faster and starving people while we are at it.

Useless Nations of the World

Academics do one thing very well - compartmentalize their irrational logic to enable them to bemoan the US and Bush and the great horrors of this administration while simultaneously championing anyone else. There have been polls - mostly from Europe, in which most respondents believed it was a good thing that the US as a sole superpower was ending or should end and that China would balance the US. I'd bet that 95% of all academics polled agreed. They are so enlightened.

The problem is, those same useless wastes have neither the fortitude nor honor to fall upon their swords - or pens. China is now requiring the Olympic Committee to require from all participants a signed statement that they will not criticize the Chinese government.


They will require the statement and wash it down with comments such as - the Olympics are not political and the individuals can say all they want but they are here for sports ... unless it is in the US.


Sort of like the photo the Daily Mail made available with the article.





1938, UK Soccer team - the Nazi salute was required and they complied.

I am sure academics the world over saw no issue with the salute.


UPDATED: 3/8/08

Athletes and intellectuals will dismiss the requirement and pass it off as a quaint little Chinese thing, of no real importance and nothing to get all stressed out about. The more important thing to worry about is the 1-2 occasions the US used waterboarding. That should get you apoplectic.

On the other hand, perhaps we can tell how the Chinese treat their people - if we ignore Tiananmen Square (or June 4th incident) in 1989 killing hundreds of people, and the Gorges dam ... and consider how they deal with their animals - cats and dogs. Apparently, the Chinese want a clean city and to get the clean city they will rid it of animals. All will be killed at a secret prison camp.

The Sky is Falling Part 2

No need to explain ...


20mph limits 'increase emissions'

David Williams, Evening Standard 25.01.08

Cutting speed limits in London to 20mph could increase emissions of carbon dioxide by more than a tenth, the AA claimed today.

Slowing vehicles down makes engines work less efficiently, and the AA has calculated that even on free-flowing routes, fuel consumption in a petrol car going 20mph can be 5.8 miles per gallon worse than at 30mph.

This is enough to produce an extra quarter of a tonne of CO2 every quarter mile travelled. On congested roads the effect can be even more marked, especially with small-engined cars.
Mayor Ken Livingstone has told London's councils to launch 20mph "safety zones" after evidence that they cut accidents and injuries by half.

But the AA said it wanted "detailed research" into the effects of the lower limit before it became widespread. Its president Edmund King said: "It would be a bitter and unpalatable irony if local authorities that have targeted owners of larger vehicles with environmental charges are found guilty of pumping up CO2 emissions through indiscriminate use of 20mph restrictions."

The London Assembly Green Party said the AA's claims were "misinformed" and its tests, conducted on a proving ground, bore no relation to "real" driving conditions in London.

• Haringey is set to become the first London borough to have a 20mph speed limit on all residential streets in an attempt to cut fatal accidents. Haringey already has 20mph zones in Tottenham, Seven Sisters and Muswell Hill. There are more being considered in Wood Green, Crouch End, Stroud Green and Muswell Hill.

World Opinion - Sept: Oh Canada ...

The United States is a very large country. We are a country with over 300 million people living at any given time, within our borders. According to recent accounts, we add one new person every 30 seconds, and that new addition is not from birth increases. We have as many opinions in this country as we do people - on every subject.

At any given time we have Jerry Springer guests, some believe Elvis is alive, that UFOs fly our friendly skies, that bigfoot and creatures from middle earth transform into what appear to be earthlings, all the way over the ledge with the 9/11 conspiracies. We do have our share of fruitcakes, nuts, fools, idiots, and retarded rodeo clowns, BUT that number is, as a whole, statistically insignificant.

Less than 1% of a population at any given time is irrelevant as to what their opinions are, and we tend, generally, as Americans, to be middle-of-the-roaders (not to be mistaken for middle -earthers although the US is or could be in the middle of the earth depending on ones perspective.

The number of fools and idiots, nuts, and fruitcakes who believe the nonsense listed above are deserving of a strong suggestion that they not reproduce, for all our sakes. That is generally how Americans regard idiocy.

Then we have the flavorful retarded rodeo clowns who run around screaming and hissing about repairing American relations around the world to a chorus of Amens. For me, the chorus is even more problematic than retarded politicians. Mindless fools who like the sound of something and Amen it to death, who repeat the same mantra without evidence nor purpose - simply because they are the chorus. One presidential candidate said they would immediately send two former presidents on a round-the-world tour to tell the world we are back (and open for business I presume) and work very hard to repair relations with all the nations of the world that have, for seven or eight years been trampled upon. I assume that also means the Lincoln Bedroom would also be back up for sale.

A wise owl would ask - who are these nations we must repair relations with. Anyone who does not ask that question is neither wise nor very useful, instead they play to rhetoric and the retarded rodeo clown mentality (aka Jerry Springer guests).So who are they, these esteemed nations we must work so hard to rebuild relations?


Canada our closest neighbor and trading partner.
In 5 parts.
Part 1:
What can you say about a country that until very recently (2005-2006) and perhaps it still does - permitted anyone into their country that wanted to drop by. Imagine the following: a very lonely person living in the back hills of a far away country, without passport or papers, just money for a ticket and a visitors visa, lands in Canada and yells out - I am a refuge, I am seeking asylum. That person is given a pass, taken to a room, questioned, fills out paperwork, given a hearing date several months down the road, given a meal ticket and the address for a free lodging and sent off. Guess what percent ever show up for their hearing?? Now, realize that some of those 'refugees' are not, and some are al qaida and some used Canada to sneak into the US.

Part 2:
I have been to Canada. I went in April 2007. I went for a funeral. I took with me a medium size suitcase filled with a suit jacket, jeans, shorts, socks, pair of shoes and as I recall a book or two, plus some papers to read. I was stopped in Vancouver

Sidebar: When I appeared at LAX for my direct flight - my suitcase was scanned once at the ticket counter and then again as it rides through the suitcase area to the plane. I was scanned at the security checkpoint - legs out, arms up, shoes off.

I was stopped in Vancouver by a very unhappy woman who probably hated men. I was wearing shorts, no jacket, nothing in my pockets (because I was trying to minimize any issues in LA getting on the plane). She asked me some questions and as best as I can recall the conversation went something like the following:
(H)er: What brings you to Canada?
(M)e: A funeral
H: Who's funeral
M: My aunt
H: When did she pass away/die
M: I don't recall, a couple weeks ago or so
H: When did you buy your ticket
M: I don't know, I assume after she died.
H: How long are you staying
M: Less than 72 hrs
H: Why so little time
M: I am just here for the funeral and then I am returning home.
H: Where do you live
M: Los Angeles
H: What do you do for work
M: Teach
H: Where
M: You wouldn't know the name if I told you
H: What's the name of the school.
M: [School name]
H: What do you teach
M: History
H: What type of history
M: I teach all subject areas.
H: Ok (flipping through the ticket) Where is the funeral
M: On Vancouver island in a place called Courtney
H: When is it
M: Tomorrow
H: Oh, what time
M: I don't know
H: You don't know. You're going to a funeral and you don't know when it is? (Pause and she is flipping through the ticket for the umpteenth time) Ok, so you say you bought the ticket after she died, and she died a couple weeks ago. So, why is the ticket dated a week before she would have died according to what you just told me? (She was looking at the ticket and it had the date I purchased the ticket).
M: I didn't buy it before she died, I bought it after.
H: Do you have any other family members in Canada.
M: No one other than her husband.
H: he is still alive?
M: yes
She is flipping through the ticket for the 30th time. She stamps it, writes something on it and hands it back to me. She is fully armed and is behind a shield/glass wall wearing a bullet proof vest.
I move on to the next checkpoint. They look at the ticket and tell me to go to a counter and wait for an inspector. I wait. A woman comes up, looks at my ticket and asks me to open the suitcase. She runs her hands through, pulls out some things, rummages around, tells me I can put it back and go.

Now - what was wrong with that incident?

Canada allows any cretin to enter their country, free meal ticket, free transportation, free lodging and some are most certainly al qaida. Me, coming from the US to the great white north, having gone through more security and tighter security than you will find any where but Israel - me, a person who could not have a weapon nor drugs nor a toothpick, me they decide to search. As if Americans are flooding in to Canada to bring them drugs! A country where possession of a small amount of virtually anything is a minor violation akin to jaywalking. But me they will grill, search, and recheck. The al qaida they offer dinner and a movie to.
I don't care what her bloody excuse was - it would be impossible for me to get in to LAX, through the ticket counter, get my suitcase on the plane, get through security if I had anything but clothes on me or in my suitcase. What a bloody waste of time and very telling of Canada's ineptitude - they let the killers in but have a problem when someone wants to go to a funeral.

Part 3: What can you say about a country that less than 10 years ago, ran in to financial problems and opted to review its budget for possible cuts. It found some.

Sidebar: In World War II, Canada had about 1 million men under arms. The total population of Canada at the time was about 12 million. Today thge total population of Canada is less than the state population of California - about 33 million. The total armed forces of Canada are approximately 80,000.

`Canada had been closing bases since the 1970s. The last batch really did them in. There were ten bases across Canada and they closed eight of them. That left two fully operational. Would seem its time to cut back the manpower. Too many men under arms for two operational bases!

Part 4: A country that has 1-2 television stations. Perhaps by the 21st century they have a couple more - gardening and maybe the snow channel. The bulk, all of their stations come from the US and boy do they watch TV (what else can you do when it is winter eight months of the year - either sub freezing, freezing, very cold, bitterly cold, cold, or cool and wet) yet they resent American culture like nobodies business.

Part 5:
Medical - Canada has the universal plan HRC and Obama want for us. What a great system, if you are dead. I am at a loss how anyone with a 1/5 of their brain operational would choose a system that kills off its patients. Why do I say this? Not complicated. Canada has 10 provinces. For medical purposes, Canada is likewise divided up into parts. I don't recall if it is 5,6, or 7 regions, but it is divided up. Each region received X amount of money from the federal government each fiscal year based upon the number of people/claimants from previous year.

For purposes of my example we will have one fiscal year run from Jan 1 through Dec 31. I have no idea what a fiscal year is, but we'll imagine it is the same as a year for the rest of us. Our region has 1,000,000 claimants. The government budgets 10,000,000 for the region. Claimant 1 needs a heart transplant and a pacemaker - cost $350,000 plus another $50,000 for rehab and meds. Claimant 200, 239, 457, 894, 1349, 7983, 10342, 53987, and 12 other people all need the same surgery as number 1 at a cost very similar. A total of nearly $8.5 million. broken legs, x-rays, meds, beds in hospitals, wheelchairs and we have another 1.5 million. Oops, its 10 million and we are only at November 1. Now what happens in this universal health care system???????????????????????????????????????????

If you had an axe fall on your head and you are bleeding to death, they will patch you up, provide the necessary care and tell you to see the doctor Jan 1. goodbye.

If you have some pain in your neck or back or even in your head, but all is functional - they will schedule you for Jan 1 or after. You better hope you get in soon or the appointments will be in Feb or Mar.
Now assume you go in to see the doctor Jan 1 for the pain in the head and the doctor does x-rays and it comes back cancer, but its too late - they send you home. And that's just how it works. Ain't life grand.
When someone really needs medical care, they come to the US. Within the last six months a story of a woman who was about to have quadruplets. She lived in the midwest in Canada, perhaps Alberta. The problem - Canada only had so many rooms for women who were about to have quadruplets. They had to fly her to the US. And that's just how it works. Ain't life grand.

The HMO system in the US ... that's the foundation for the universal system. Each person would have a primary care doctor they can choose, choice, free will ... and any time you need to see another doctor: dermatologist, pulmonologist, cardiologist, internist ...you would see your primary care doctor first and he would tell you whether you should see anyone else. His choice, not yours. But you do get to choose him. And that's just how it works. Ain't life grand.

They guard their borders unless you are al qaida and claim refugee status. They provide free health care unless they run out of money. They have a military unless they run out of money and close the bases - imagine, a military without a base.

They have a culture - it may be white and cold and wear mukluks or snowshoes, but they also have beer and moose. PETA should head north - visit the moose. Which brings up my final comment on Canada - animals and their loathsome treatment of wildlife.

Each year beginning at the end of March, Canadian fishermen/killers, slaughter over 350,000 seals. In particularly gruesome fashion.

Sidebar: There are always exceptions. If someone has a fishery and fifty seals are sitting outside eating all the fish as they leave, I can understand the need to take some action.

They take their pelts and sell them. If it were to save the fish, pelts wouldn't be needed - just slaughter the seals and be rid of the problem. That isn't the reason, entirely - around 1986-1988, the Canadian government very nearly abolished seal hunting. The numbers went from the hundreds of thousands down to ten thousand or so. It was on its way to extinction and then ... the fishermen in Canada were caught in an international fish conundrum. Major fishers from Japan, Scandinavia, and the US were fishing Canadian fish and the Canadian fishermen couldn't catch any because everyone else got them first and seals ate a few more. So the Canadian government decided to use the seal hunt as a means of underwriting Canadian fishermen. The seals were meant as a subsidy - kill the seals and profit off them. It wasn't anything as noble as saving salmon for spawning. It was a subsidy.

And that's just the way it goes. Ain't life grand. Especially if you are a seal and it's March.

Finally, polar bears. There are 22,000 or so in the world. We hear enough in the US about the poor polar bear and Bush is drowning all the cubs in global warming and how unkind he is and how sad the bears are and we need to save the polar bears from drowning ... so the Canadian government can kill them! And that's just how it works. Ain't life grand, unless you're a polar bear. ONLY CANADA (where there are approximately 15,000) allows NON native peoples to kill polar bears. In the other 7-8 countries where polar bears live, only the native peoples of that country are permitted to shoot or kill a polar bear and those numbers are regulated. In Canada, you purchase a license for approximately $12,000 which includes the tour and accommodations and the right to skin one polar bear you shoot. Now, to be fair, many who take up this offer are not Canadians - although a growing number want a nice warm rug for those eight months of winter.

And that's just how it works. Ain't life grand.

A country that has sat on the verge of collapse for over 30 years. The division between the French and English is as real and very nearly as similar to the North and the South in the 1860s. The federal government throughout the 80s and 90s bribed Quebec to not vote for separation. Capitulation after capitulation to Quebec and the french at the expense of the English speaking Canadians. The result - political parties in the West of Canada that aligned themselves more closely with the US than with Eastern Canada. They pull back from the precipice only to climb out on the ledge every 10 years or so. They will try it again soon enough.
Let's see - am I missing anything eh? Hmm. Bobs your uncle and oh yes, we purchase 20% of our oil from Canada, making them one of our biggest trading partners. In fact, Canada has for quite some time been sending us nearly twice as much oil as we get from Saudi Arabia. Moose and Beer and eh and O Canada and all that white stuff they call snow. I think I've covered about everything.

They have a Prime Minister at the moment who is a reasonable sort, he has apologized to the US for his predecessor. We have no need to send any team to Canada to tell them we're open for business. No need. Save the dogsleds.

That sorts out Canada. Next, Mexico.

************************************
UPDATE: July 2008
Montreal - The summer tourism season has arrived in Old Montreal, but the tourists have not.
The streets, restaurants, and boutiques of this picturesque 18th-century neighborhood are usually crowded with Americans on holiday. But this year, they're eerily quiet, and area businesspeople say this could be the worst year yet for an industry that's taken a beating since 2001.

"Each year there's been a challenge: We had 9/11 and the SARS outbreak, the exchange rate, and high gas prices," says Gisele Beauvais Olivier as she arranges Quebecois ceramics in her boutique on Rue St Paul. "Americans are very good customers who appreciate handicrafts, but they are not here as usual."

It's a situation being played out across Canada, where visits by Americans have been plummeting for years. In March, the last month for which official statistics have been released, visits by Americans fell to their lowest level since record keeping began 36 years ago. Data released June 28 showed foreign tourist spending in the first quarter fell to the lowest level since 1999, and that the number of US visitors has fallen by nearly a third since 2003.

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Maybe the number of Americans visiting has dropped because of women like the one I ran in to at the airport. It was enough for me to say - never again. I don't care if she was a one time anomaly. She was enough.

Snow in Baghdad

Reuters, January 11, 2008
Snow falls on Baghdad for first time in memory.

South America experienced the coldest winter in decades.
Snow in Baghdad (Middle East)
The polar bear capital of the world - more snow in longer than most people can remember.


Southern continents - cold
Northen continents - cold
Middle East - cold

According to the World Meterological Association in Oslo, all that means is global warming is happening.

It works for me.

When it is cold - it's global warming.
When it is hot - it most assuredly is global warming.
When it snows, rains, floods, or when there are droughts, hurricans or blizzards - global warming.
When there is no snow, rain, flood or hurricane - that is also an indicator of global warming.

Nothing on earth or in the heavens can contradict the fact that global warming is happening and the fact you try indicates global warming has already settled in, on your brain.

I would like to thank the Academy for ...

... creating or contributing to the creation of world starvation. The Academy in this case is not television of Hollywood, although some of them have fed this feckless and reckless idiocy. Rather, it is the use of corn - the world food staple item - for fuel, to save the planet from a nearly non-existent global warming catastrophe ...

What is known with absolute certainty, not questioned by anyone, nor does anyone doubt its existence or impact - world starvation, in large part because of the rapid depletion of corn for fuel.

I would like to thank Mr. Gore and his idiot counter-part, Leo DiCaprio, and every other of those fear-mongers who will have contributed to and in large part caused this new famine that will further destabilize the world, but we will have less warming while we starve.

I wonder if it will make a difference to the billion or so people.

The Lie

Someone asked me a question / posed a statement concerning the seemingly (for some) age old statement of fact, agreed upon by 3/4 of humanity - he lied. My response: The biggest lie is that he lied.

It stands.

There are moments when I would like to fly off to Amsterdam (before they ban all their drugs) and get drugged up for the rest of my life to avoid dealing with the most irrational, illogical, emotionally draining nonsense.


People who believe he lied TEND to be (generalizing) liberal. They tend to believe he has implemented a police state, violated our civil liberties and believe that big business is controlling the government and or media in his favor, or at the very least, in the favor of big business. The notion of brainwashing and kidnapping, torture, and lies is so pervasive ... and so bloody simple. Simpletons.

Follow me here ... assume for one second he did not lie (which he did not) then you have been lied to and you believe a lie, spread a lie, and argue using that lie as your evidence. That lie is spread by the media and by other simpletons to the point now where someone too busy with their personal life to spend hours and weeks reading news clips, statements, and the facts, will believe the lie. They have been brainwashed.

The greatest fear the left has is self-created, and they are now living in a world of their creation with boogeymen they have created, and they are terribly afraid.

Conversations

I thought the following was interesting for its various perspectives.

Three characters: Bob, Sam, and John.

John parked his car and began walking toward the orchard.
In the orchard, Sam and Bob ran in to each other after many months of not speaking and Sam began ranting and raving about insane ideas - Sam was a follower of conspiracy theories and was explaining why September 11, 2001 was an inside job. he explained the roll Bush played, bin laden was really a puppet for Bush, that it was all fabricated to allow the US to invade a middle eastern country to seize its oil and ... and Sam kept going, explaining all the holes in the official story until finally, after twenty minutes, Bob interrupted him. At that moment John was making his way through the orchard and was in time to hear Bob exclaim: '...believe that Bush did it all, he caused it all to happen, he was the mastermind and it is all a fabrication, a lie, and Bush killed 3000 people to get gold and oil ..."

John stopped then continued forward into the opening and Bob stopped in mid sentence, John believed it was because he was trying to hide or prevent anyone from hearing what he had previously been saying aloud. Bob dropped the conversation and began talking to John, telling him that he though Sam was a bit nutty.

When john got home he called Bob's wife and expressed his concern to her over Bob's erratic behavior. He told her that Bob was trying to cover things up and if he was covering up wacko beliefs, who knows what else he was trying to hide.

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I thought that was a reasonably interesting story. My thoughts on it are - John should immediately apologize for being an idiot, for wasting another persons precious time, for being so childish and foolish and for appearing so to everyone. Then John should cease being annoying and make every effort to not annoy anyone ever again.

Fairness

I overheard a half dozen or so people talking amongst themselves the other day. The subject was how to conjugate the verb etre and aller (in French of course). I intruded on their conversation and explained that I had a fair amount of French in my past and asked who among them knew French. No one raised their hand, although 2-3 of them stammered a bit and said that didn't matter - they knew 'these things anyway' because they understood Spanish and English.

I was a bit taken aback by that statement and suggested maybe I had a little more authority on the subject and suggested they let me explain it to them and I did explain how the verbs were conjugated in French starting with etre (to be) ... 'Je suis ... Tu e..' and they interrupted me and told me I was being unfair and they had an opinion on the issue and I was not being respectful of them. Furthermore, one person among the group suggested I was not clear on my explanation of the verb conjugation anyway.

I repeated the conjugation, wrote it down for them and asked if anyone was unclear - no one raised a hand. I left and continued on walking. The next day I received a note from my neighbor who had no role in the prior days events except he received a note from someone who had listened and was actually quite vocal. The note explained how unclear I had been, how inconsiderate and disrespectful of others I had been and how I just confused a subject they already knew.

Then I woke up and realized it had been a nightmare.