Wounded

Alas rotasIyari Feria.

-21 de Mayo,

2006

Rendida sobre un lecho de rosas:

con las espinas clavadas en mi serLa sangre se derrama por mi rostro,

Las lágrimas son charcos en mi piel

Evoqué el recuerdo de algo que no pasó

Evoqué mis letras de doloruna

noche de locura..

un desquiciado temor..

Pieza por pieza, la remembranza de aquel día

Yo, con mi gemido de ansiedadTú,

que lo opacaste, con tus frases de amor.

Susurraste, apesadumbrado, un 'Te amo

'Suspiré.. te miré

"¿Por qué ya no te creo?

Eso duele.."

Lloré

Un silencio te invadió

una lágrima escapó.

Confesaste con pesar:

"El corazón me has arrancado.."

Callé y temíNegué con la cabezala

desesperación sentí

"¡No era esa mi intención!"

Pero mi grito se apagó..

Todo se hizo tinieblas

Todo se volvió humedad

me sumergiste en azul

y mi aliento se marchó..

Ahora sólo hay frio

Tú, mis alas rotas

Tú, mi muerte deseada

Tú, mi anhelo diario

y los sueños esfumados...

Tu, río de mi tristeza..Y allí donde los pájaros...

transitan a la hora de su muerte sin

palabras

donde predico mi auxilio

donde me embriago de pasado y delirios

yo aguardaré por ti.

The above poem was lifted in its entirety from this blog site. This is not to rip anything off in any way, but is actually intended as a tribute. I found this to be a beautiful and powerful work, and I am very impressed by it. If the owner (Iyari Feria) wishes me to take it down, I will, however, I will continute to direct people to the site. http://kusa-no-chi.blogspot.com/

The truth is out there!

I am a Canadian, and a former military member. One thing which really pisses me off is when somebody poses as a soldier when they are not. Happens a lot, surprisingly enough. This is an interesting story I ran across on Malkin's blog. Tell me what you make of this jackass!

(cut and paste follows....)

Another fake soldier tale debunked May 24, 2006 by Michelle Malkin Meet "Jessie MacBeth." He's the latest cause celebre of the anti-war Left -- a "former Army Ranger and Iraq war veteran" who accuses his fellow troops of committing a litany of atrocities against innocent civilians. Anti-Vietnam War veteran John Kerry and the Winter Soldiers cast a long shadow. In his 20-minute Internet video interview at peacefilms.org, which promises that watching the video "will change your life," MacBeth (who also claims to have served in Special Forces) says: -- Superiors told him "our job over there is to strike fear in the hearts of the Iraqis . . . to be brutal and to not feel" and that "the Geneva Convention doesn't mean crap." -- He would "do night raids, pull people out, on their knees and zip-tied," and if a man didn't answer the way he wanted him to, he "would shoot his youngest kid and keep going." -- "By my hand alone . . . almost 200 people were taken out by me. That's just a rough estimate. A lot of them at close range . . . they would actually feel the hot muzzle of my rifle on their forehead . . . we'd do stuff that would scare them first . . . beat 'em up or kick 'em or hit the wife . . . slaughtering 30-40 people a night sometimes, women and children . . . I was trained, you know, in all the Ranger school, 18 months of that crap . . . I got disappointed in my country . . . but I didn't say anything because I would have been locked up." -- "Other things they told us to do, man, we were ordered to go into a mosque. This really hurts me a lot. My nightmares come mostly from this . . . we infiltrated the mosque . . . a couple hundred of people of all ages were praying . . . we started slaughtering them, we started shooting them, started taking them out . . . we would burn their bodies, hang the bodies from the rafters . . . after a while, it's just sickening to think that I took part in that . . . " -- "Kids threw rocks at us before and the guard command officer told us to take them out . . . Our job was just kill, kill, kill." -- "I'm so disappointed in my country. I'm ashamed to have actually served in Iraq."

On the Military.com website, to which anyone can contribute, a profile of MacBeth claimed he had three basic combat jumps, service in Afghanistan as well as Iraq, and several awards including a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. There's just one problem: According to Department of the Army spokesman Paul Boyce, there is no record of "Jessie MacBeth," a.k.a. Jesse Adam MacBeth, having served in either the Rangers or the Special Forces -- or in any part of the Army at all. Boyce told me Tuesday that a check on MacBeth's credentials came up empty. "At a minimum, this appears to have been concocted" and "some sort of hoax," Boyce said.

Special Operations Command and the State Department have been alerted. MacBeth's story started to crumble after my colleagues at the Hot Air blog (www.hotair.com) called attention to the Peace Films video interview and asked military bloggers about MacBeth's appearance and claims. Harnessing the specialized knowledge of the blogosphere, military bloggers debunked a photo purportedly showing MacBeth in his official uniform (with his beret backward, incorrect flashes and tabs, and missing wings). The Army's Boyce told me the uniform issues were a major "red flag" -- as were MacBeth's incredible claims to have entered the Army at 16, served as both a Ranger and in Special Ops, sustained various stabbing and shooting wounds, and exited at age 20. Not to mention all those unsubstantiated, slanderous smears against the Army Rangers (who suffered similar attacks by another lying anti-war veteran poseur, Micah Wright, in 2004).

Anti-war zealots initially defended the bogus soldier's tale, but are now moving quickly to cover up the MacBeth stain. The video was yanked Tuesday afternoon. But not to worry. I hear former CBS producer Mary Mapes, champion of "fake but accurate" journalism, is interested in publicizing Jessie MacBeth's tall tales. Michelle Malkin is a syndicated columnist and maintains her weblog at michellemalkin.com. She has also authored books such as Unhinged and In Defense of Internment. Submitted by Rocky

Reference URL: http://townhall.com/opinion/columns/michellemalkin/2006/05/24/198572.html

The Conservative Agenda

I can't believe this new government! The budget just came down, and if I ever saw a budget designed to buy votes with our own money, this is it! Here is a list of some of the things I would like to see them get into, instead of the stupid, trough wallowing list of half baked initiatives. Let me know if there are any problems with it, and if there is anything I left off! I know there are several things I didn't even cover, but this is a start!

This post was originally a comment on the self styled "Conservative Blog of Canada". Its not worth the read, normally, but it had a list of things the guy would like to see. Like "a job for everybody" and "Jean Cretien should be in jail". Yeah, pretty lame. I think I can do better.


Give farmers an even playing field.

Increase the number and training of food testing inspectors, and create a Canadian FDA.

Demand that contractors have a federal license and that they post a bond to ensure responsibility.

Create a regulatory board which works with the unions to ensure that homeowners don't have to call in Mike Holms to fix their deck. (They do that now with electrical and gas...)

Change the building code to require better insulation, site orientation, ventilation and fire resistance. (U of Man standards, the R2000)

Build a better and more complete Codis, Afis, and firearms registry with serious safeguards against unauthorized hacking.

If you can't use the firearms registry to prevent crimes, than scrap it. (Personally I would like to see the banning and destruction of all short arms including police. Then arm the police with seriously good shotguns, not cheap modified hunting guns. Then anybody with a pistol is automatically charged with carrying a prohibited weapon. But thats just me being reasonable.)

Bring in federal initiatives to get cookie cutter environmentally sound small scale ethanol plants spaced all around the country. Owned and operated by municipalities who will get the profits that they can use for local initiatives. Use the same model as water purification plants.
I think it is too draconian to pass laws demanding oil companies MUST install 70% ethanol pumps, the way Brazil did, however if they drop the federal tax on such fuel, market demand will do the rest.

Re-vitalize the railroads. Increase ridership. Use a fraction of the money we spend on building roads to create more light rail. Better advertising, better marketing.

Reduce the tax burden on small business, and make grants and subsidies available for small business to start up, and more importantly, suceed against the drag of paperwork, taxes, and municipal bureaucracy.

Demand to all provinces that they issue driver's licences that have a box to be checked if the owner does NOT want his organs to be used in a transplant in the event of a death. In this day and age of the internet, I would love to see a web site where a doctor could key in your driver's license number, and read the living will you left there as a condition of getting your licence.

Increased border patroling, particularly on the East Coast to stop drug smuggling. There is so much of it going on, and so much getting through, that it is a national disgrace. The North has the "Canadian Rangers". A good initiative, but hardly professionals. There are barely enough of them to be listening posts. As global warming takes its course, the North will become a more viable route for people, drugs, and foreign nationals looking to stake claims in the arctic. Right now, we have a dispute with Denmark over territory they claim which belongs to us. France is claiming the bulk of the offshore oil fields on the strength of two little islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The US is claiming that they can hammer through our sea ice with great "Manhattan" ice breakers carrying oil. Its time we started caring about our territory, or we will simply lose it.

Speaking of national disgrace....is there some way to get rid of that seal hunt? It takes in, what, the same as a medium sized MacDonalds'restaurant every year? Can we not find some gainful employment for seal hunters besides risking their lives on the ice for f-all?

A national federally funded mental health facility to a) take the pressure off the provinces, and b) to come up with ways to treat mental illnesses effectively. A centralized data base where medical records can be kept (again, with serious controls against unauthorized access or tampering) Associated with that would be doubling the number of mental health case workers on the "front lines". Don't think we need it? Drop into your local court house Monday morning around 7AM, and tell me again we don't need more case workers.

Federal laws against phishing and identity theft. You know, there are none right now! And it is getting to be a problem.

Federal monitoring and licencing of pharmaceudical products and drug marketing agencies to ensure that inferiour product is not shipped to other countries.

Increase the number of inspectors at container ports to watch for contraband. If Canada customs has to go through my socks when I come back from Columbia, then they should go through a container I have delivered to my house!

Require all auto manufacturers to add armour plates to the inside of doors of cars to prevent theft. Also, required anti theft devices to be built into all vehicles. There are too many to list here, but they exist. Too many vehicles are stolen, broken up, or shipped off shore to ignore, yet as long as the insurance agencies are allowed to increase their premiums to cover their losses, then why should they care.

Insurance reform....see above....but apply it to everything from auto body repair to roofers. And ask yourself why insurance costs so much.

There. This is a start. Conservatives are in power right now. Lets get started!

Tai Chi Musings

(from the blog....http://dynamicbalancingtaichi.blogspot.com/)
(click image to enlarge)
Form tuition

A few people have said that they particularly enjoy whole-class form tuition. This approach will be used on occasion but is not a sound teaching method as a general rule. Whilst it gives an overall sense of the sequence, it is not detailed enough. And for a new starter it is useless. If you are near the front, you see more, but near the back you are copying the line in front of you. This is Chinese whispers. If you can't see, you turn to look and in so doing, distort the form.

Also, there's the copying... You should never lean on your teacher and use them as a prop - it shows a weakness of character and is a sure sign that you don't really know the sequence. A copier is not necessarily learning.

Classes need to be broken into small groups that address a segment in detail, with one or two people wandering around offering personal corrections (when applicable). Most of your form time should be spent working it through for yourself. That way, it becomes your own form.


Great ultimate?
‘Tai chi chuan’ is sometimes translated to mean ‘Great Ultimate Fist’ and some people claim that this represents the superior status of the art. The term ‘great ultimate’ refers to the yin yang principle rather than fighting prowess.

No martial art can reasonably claim to be superior or inferior to another, and should only be assessed in respect to what the art sets out to do. How effectively does it perform its intended purpose? What are the pros and cons?When all values differ, how can you compare?Tai chi claims to offer health and self defence.

It also is said to be 'easy'. Assess tai chi on this basis.

(click on image to enlarge that jellow map of....hmmm...what IS that a map of?)
My friend Piltdown Man (http://piltdownman.blogspot.com/)was complaing about how the little neighbourhoods in New Orleans were wiped out...that they have now lost so much. The small neighbourhoods which created NOLA Jazz, crab gumbo, blackened catfish... There are blogs from people ( http://slimbolala.blogspot.com/) who are IN New Orleans, and their attutude is a little different! Most seem to feel that some of the slums which got wiped out are better off gone. That possibly (horrible thought coming...brace yourself...) that people really didn't want to live there. And that possibly the fine jazz and good food had been replaced by gangsta violence, methamphetamine and crack use, and a crushing poverty.

He felt that the suburbs were soul-less, gasoline hungry carbon copy environments. Hard to argue with that. And gosh knows...when the great gasoline crunch comes, the suburbs will be mighty expensive places to raise your kids! I have always loved the idea of small neighbourhoods, villages in the big city so to speak. I have watched them change character over the years...usually they seem to go upward, but occasionally a nice little neighbourhood goes to hell in a handbasket. Below is the comment I put on Pilt's blog....

There is a perception that any nice little neighbourhood will turn into an isolated devalued introspective ghetto with little warning. Example...I watched a 9th ward resident complaining bitterly about how "those unemployed Vietnamese were coming in, cooking their fish heads and taking jobs away from po blacks." A telling example! So, people move the suburbs where housing prices are always on an upward curve, and it never becomes ghettoized. Example, Toronto's Chinatown. Example, Ottawa's Marconi road (the Italian Quarter if you will). People growing up in these tight little communities don't think of them as particularly dynamic...they think of them as restrictive, insular, run by moustache Pete's and old women who cook cabbage all day. Next thing you know, a couple of Pathans have moved in next door, and its "T'hell wit dis, Marta, we're going to the suburbs. Nice thing about the 'burbs is that it is always the same...you don't get a bunch of "those people" moving in to threaten your daughters. You have a nice yard, a dog, 2.5 children, and the local shopping mall which will act as a surrogate village to raise your kids. How you gonna turn that around?

Thats a fair and valid question. How DO you turn it around? How do you bring the jazz and the blackened catfish back to a neighbourhood full of MacDonalds and Walmarts?

Softwood Lumber dispute? Get Real!

Was just on a nice fellow's blog site and he, a Conservative apologist, brought up the whole softwood lumber dispute... I believe that the whole softwood lumber dispute is all smoke and mirrors....a wild card designed to deflect attention away from issues of mutual national security and bad foreign economic relations. I know this is not a popular view here in Canada, but if you think about it, there are points of interest.
Point one...most of the major softwood producers in Canada are US firms like Wayrhouser and MacMillin Blodell (now wholey US owned). So the duties hurt US firms! How weird is that?
Point two...this problem has gone on for longer than the working life of any lumberjack in the forest today. They seem to be employed even with all the duties being levied. There is a lot of Canadian lumber going to rebuild New Orleans! So there is NO widespread unemployment as a result of US-Canadian fiscal policies. (Well, there is BSC, but thats another subject which does not really stand up under scrutiny...lets stick to one thing at a time here...)
Third interesting point....China is purchasing lumber companies and oil companies as fast as they can get their hands on them. (google search...I did!). The Conservative government is on record as stating that "Canadians should not just be hewers of wood and drawers of water"! Yet they have allowed industries which "value add" to our natural resources to collapse and languish. Steel mills close. Wire plants close. Beef cutting plants close. Sawmills close.

At the same time, crack and methamphetamines are flooding our cities, DNA samples from rapes are languishing in freezers awaiting funding to process, AFIS and CODIS are only gradually coming on line, illegal immigration is bringing thousands of children and girls into North America every year to face conditions of slavery, and people are having to advertise on the internet to get a kidney in order to beat the two year waiting list!

I think the new Conservative Government needs to have somebody give it some direction! Or at least give it some priorities!

Arar case dismissed by US judge

WASHINGTON (CP) - A U.S. federal judge has dismissed Maher Arar's lawsuit against American officials claiming he was deported to Syria as a terrorism suspect to be tortured.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/WarOnTerrorism/2006/02/16/1446987-cp.html

I am just sick about this. As I see it, it is a clear indidication of power politics played out with people as pawns....admittedly something which has been done for centuries. Supposedly we were above that though.

Methinks she doth protest too much...

"Methinks she doth protest too much"....W. Shakespeare
NOTHING hurts more than to be ridiculed over something you would prefer to hide...be it sexual performance, a toupee over a bald spot, or exposing the lie that your religion is a peaceful one.
Imagine how furious you would be at an ex-girlfriend who was hanging with a bunch of your mutual friends and made comments about how poor your sexual performance was that night! (it was the booze dammit!) And then published cartoons about it. (ouch!) Or imagine somebody grabbing your toupee and waving it above the crowd as a big joke on you!
(Oh don't blow smoke and tell us alcohol didn't cause you to pass out one night before you could get it on!!!! Its happened to all of us! The point is about what comes afterwards...)
The idea of Islam as a peaceful religion is pretty much blown out of the water....it was founded on powerful schisms, and military might. (A visit to Malta would illustrate this perfectly....143 miles of fortifications to stop a peaceful people?) But, like Goerings "Big Lie", it doesn't stand up to the daylight of modern journalism and global communication. So, like me getting pissed off at a kiss and tell girlfriend, Muslim leaders get pissed off at "kiss and Tell" cartoonists.
And please stop the bombings...we are running out of virgins!!!!

Confidence

One of my favorite columnists in Toronto wrote about the latest kerfluffel in the schools there. It seems that a girl was sexually and emotionally abused by a small gang in her school. Not unexampled...though certainly the events were extreme. However, just to stir the pot, the parents of all these little darlings are grasping at the race straw instead of pointing the finger of blame at their own bad parenting. Hey, its a gang..it just happened to be black, okay! And its a "small G" sort of gang...the kind that forms in every high school in the nation, not really a "gang", but rather a group of kids who all sort of hang together. (thats a gang....duuh). And this led me to wonder about the nature of groups, gangs, and high school clusters in general. Lots of good books on the subject.The big difficulty with these perps is that they had no idea where to draw the line. I suspect most of them are basically good kids, but they crossed several moral, ethical and legal lines in their behavior. This bahavior went on for what..a year and a half!

Great column...."follow my rules and you won't get expelled". Yup, that about sums it up!http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Blizzard_Christina/2005/11/16/1308676.html

As a boy going to school in the late '70s here in Ontario, I was heavily targeted by bullies. I went through years of soul searching, wondering why the teachers couldn't stop this nonsense. Like most boys, I skinned my knuckles a few times, got into a bit of trouble, got out of it, and eventually graduated. It was a traumatic time. However.........after I was grown up, I looked back on what was a pretty much miserable time, and tried to figure out how I could have done it better. Ms Blizzar's contention that even the teachers have an unclear idea of just what behaviour constitutes bullying resonated, and I believe now that my misery was largely self induced. That as a boy of 15, I knew nothing about real abuse, real injury, real death, and reacted to unimportant things as if they were important.I didn't think so at the time, but I was wrapped in cotton wool, and I had to make my own stressful environment. A very artificial environment. An environment where fighting, drugs, sex, rebellion and angst played a part, and the most important part was our over-reaction to what amounted to mild stimuli....a fight because somebody thought I wore the wrong colour socks for instance. This was pretty low level stress, but the reactions were all there! (reactions? yes, we had suicides, overdoses, pregnancies in our school...these are pretty severe reactions!) Its interesting looking back on it as an adult, and wondering "What was I thinking to fall for THAT!"
Most adults learn to cope with "jackasses" in high school. No point in expelling them all, or you won't have ANY students left! My school expelled the problem students, and their little "lieutenants" just stepped into their shoes! So there WILL be low level violence, (shoving in line, stealing pencils!) In fact, my dear old Ma always said that you didn't go to high school to learn Math, you went there to learn how to deal with the twits of the world! And maybe, just maybe, to learn how NOT be a twit yourself. If this was true though, how come it isn't on the curriculum? Something like "coping with angst 101"? Or, "the motorcycle, the road, the bridge abutment and you?" At least they taught us to drive! So you have to put up with the low level b.s., clamp down hard on the high level b.s. like riding motorcycles down the hallways of the school and gangstas. I know, radical idea, encouraging the low level "violence" (boys interaction with boys, duuuh!) in order to give them the tools to cope. But NO! They drop the boxing courses. They drop the wrestling courses. They drop the Judo courses. They drop the shop courses (we made a hot rod in MY shops class!) They make zero tolerance policies on pocket knives and name calling. Is this sensible? Its not like this is a new problem here dudes! Same students left high school where they terrorized the teachers, drove like maniacs, drank like fish, smoked up like Cheech and Chong, bonked like minks, and went into adult life. I went into the military with these guys, and discovered that all the stupid things I thought were important were, well, stupid. Can you imagine if any of them threatened a military instructor with a knife like what happened to a teacher friend of mine in Toronto last May! Oh My Dog! There is a difference though....the military treats people like adults, the school system treats people like high school students. Wrapping them in cotton wool.

(insert hit single "I'm an Adult Now!" here....play to fade...)

Mercy Killing!!!!

I have heard that Doctors in New Orleans euthanized several patients when the lights went out. Lordy Lordy Lordy!
Jennifer asked the bunch who read her blog to answer the question....do you think it is ever right to do so?

I would hesitate to euthanize a patient, I would not take such a step lightly or without subsequent nightmares and 4 AM quarterbacking, but I would do it if it was the right thing to do. In fact, I have done so. Or rather, signed the paper to allow the doctor to do so. Trouble is, I have actually been in the position of that fellow on the bed, and that experience has, well, sort of coloured my opinions a bit.
When I was lying dead on the bathroom floor (anaphalactic shock leading to cardiac arrest for those that care), I am glad my wife didn't just pick up her bible and say "well, God's will be done". Heck no, she called 911, and 20 minutes later I opened my eyes. When the doctor said to her "well, if he lives, he will be a vegetable for the rest of his life (he did say that, the bastard!) my wife said "well, I'll see what happens". I am thankful to her that she did wait to see what would happen, it would have been so easy to simply say....."He wouldn't want to live like that, don't resucitate him." I had always told her that if I was in such a situation, to not resusitate me. Glad she didn't listen to me! I never asked them to "turn out my lights", I fought for every single measely hour, every minute, every second sometimes. I was barely conscious, barely on this earth, and I fought hard to stay here. I died three more times that night. Finally, I was stable. I could go on and on, but my point is this....nobody wants to leave. We might have to, as responsible adults, help them to enter God's kingdom. Trust me on this one...making that decision for the right reasons will not jepardize your place there. If you do nothing, that too is a decision, and you WILL be judged on that decision. I have been there. I am NOT afraid to die, I have SEEN what happens after you die. But I will still fight! Most people will. A grown up will assess the situation and do the proper thing. Sometimes the proper thing is to bring the old geezer back to life....other times, it might be a mercy to "punch my ticket on the night train". I find it hard to judge somebody who finds themselves in that position, I mean its not like its your dog, lying there with a broken back from an automobile, and licking your hand, asking you to make it better. Or maybe it is.....

Oh my, what a speech! I surprise myself at times!

God's Judgement upon His Errant People

The Tsunami and the earthquake are God's judgement on the Muslim extremists, who are the true "enemies of God". I know, they don't think so, but honestly, open your minds you bozos and see where God is setting His flaming sword down! I think you are taking God's name in vain! God's judgement is pretty final, and not especially discriminating...after all, if you are an innocent, you get called a little earlier than usual...if you are a guilty, then you are facing judgement...um, yup....today! If they were NOT enemies of God,then Allah would have spared them from flood and earthquake and destruction. It says so right here in the Koran...quote....

008.013 YUSUFALI: This because they contended against Allah and His Messenger: If any contend against Allah and His Messenger, Allah is strict in punishment.
PICKTHAL: That is because they opposed Allah and His messenger. Whoso opposeth Allah and His messenger, (for him) lo! Allah is severe in punishment.
SHAKIR: This is because they acted adversely to Allah and His Messenger; and whoever acts adversely to Allah and His Messenger-- then surely Allah is severe in requiting (evil).

008.014 YUSUFALI: Thus (will it be said): "Taste ye then of the (punishment): for those who resist Allah, is the penalty of the Fire."
PICKTHAL: That (is the award), so taste it, and (know) that for disbelievers is the torment of the Fire.
SHAKIR: This-- taste it, and (know) that for the unbelievers is the chastisement of fire.

this is from...http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/
008.qmt.html

Note that those verses say the God will do all the punishing...not the Al Quaida or Hamas the CIA, or whatever extremist organization is out there. The Imams are going to have a hard time blaming this one on the United States!Unlike the angry God though, I feel for the women, children and innocents who get caught under His sythe when he mows. So I am donating my blood to the Red Cross today, and as much money as possible to go to relief. Blimey, I didn't want to vent about that! Doesn't make me feel any better....people are dying all over the place (35 thousand last estimate! and Winter coming in!)

And no, don't go telling me that the "fire" is some afterlife hell, these verses are all about here on Earth, and waging war. Unlike a lot of people, I actually READ these things before I stand on my hind feet and expound upon them!

Here's a prayer for you..."God, if it so great in heaven, why do you spare so many people to suffer on here on Earth!"

from "Collective Sigh"

I have enjoyed Collective Sigh for a long time now, and as usual, cannot help but give a big "Hell Yeah" to this fellow's rants. Of course, he spends a lot of time on American Politics, a failing of so many bloggers, but for once, here is a blog that makes sense. Not that I agree with a single word of it you understand, just that it is so well written that I am in awe of the talent.

Here is a sample. From.....http://collectivesigh.blogspot.com/2005_09_18_collectivesigh_archive.html#112741414561783791



Wednesday, September 21, 2005
CheerleadingIf you look inside the 9/26/2005 print edition of TIME magazine, you'll find a selection letters from readers.Responding to TIME's coverage of the Katrina catastrope, Suzann Soliday of Fresno, California writes:
How dare anyone blame the president for this disaster. The left-wingers have criticized the Bush Administration constantly. How can anyone - politician or member of the news media - not support our government? The critics have gone too far. We must work together, and those who can't must stay out of the way. I am tired of the divide in this country.You see, Ms. Soliday, it's not JUST the Katrina disaster, but a whole trail of destruction all over the world. And it's not JUST St. George, but the whole host of incompetent, deluded advisors who give the poor boy incredibly bad advice.We left-wingers are simply following the stellar example set by the right-wingers during the Clinton administration; strike early and often. And we actually have reality-based, valid reasons.As Bill Maher said of our Fearless Leader, "On your watch, we've lost almost all of our allies, the surplus, four airliners, two Trade Centers, a piece of the Pentagon and the City of New Orleans".Opposing the Bush administration isn't hard at all, Ms. Soliday. In fact, we left-wingers are quite pleased to be divided from you and the rest of the sheep cheerleading for President Catastrophe.
postCount('112730911254998633');
Comments (5)
postCountTB('112730911254998633');
Trackback (0)
// posted by andante @ 8:58 AM

Crimes and victims

Here we have the ultimate Orwellian fantasy...when is a victim not a victim? Case in point...a lot of folks, bloggers and writers of letters to the editors of many newspapers are going on and on about how the victims of Hurricane Katrina are actually not victims at all, but rather stiff necked head-in-the-sand folks who shoulda got out when they got the chance. Well, I dunno...I have a lot of sympathy for most of those people....I would probably have stayed right here in my home too....especially since it would have withstood dozens of hurricanes over the years, and who would have thought it would have got as bad as it did! But I am happy I did not have to make that decision.

Be that as it may...clearly some folks made an error in judgement, and that puts them at risk. I think that makes them a victim, if only a victim of their own mis-judgement. There is a real person here...who is hungry, de-hydrated, and falling ill from Hepatitus A and B, and maybe a dozen other diseases.

Now contrast that to this article I got from the CyberLaw blog. http://hdc-cyberlaw.blogspot.com/

Here is the cut and paste of the summary.... of the Washington Post article...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/07/AR2005090702067.html

The increasingly common law enforcement tactic of having adult officers pose as children in Internet chat rooms to arrest potential sex offenders came under legal attack on September 7 when Maryland's highest court ruled that the law does not allow the prosecution of people who merely believed they were dealing with children. The Maryland Court of Appeals unanimously overturned the Frederick County Circuit Court conviction of Richard J. Moore, saying he could not be found guilty of committing a crime with a nonexistent victim."Court Overturns Child Porn Conviction

This really makes you think now don't it! The police officers who are protecting our most vulnerable have been told that their "sting" operations are not valid! This will make ANYBODY sit up and say WHAT the HELL?

Originally I could not believe it, then I got thinking about it. Here is a perp who is trolling for underage nookie. He finds a cop pretending to vulnerable and underage. The perp falls for it and ends up in court. However, there never WAS a real live victim. So therefore, no victim...no crime. Ahh, (you say) but there was "intent". Well trouble with "intent" is that "intent" is a "Thought Crime". Remember the term "thought crime"? It came out of George Orwell's book 1984. I can walk down the street and "think" about robbing the store with all the jewelry in the window, but until I pick up the coping stone and actually THROW it...it is not a crime.

My head just hurts from this line of thinking. Here we have live victims in a flooded city who are not really victims, and "virtual" victims who never existed at all but are real enough to put a guy in jail! No wonder the court in Fredricksburg overturned the conviction!

So, by extension, how many other "crimes" are there which don't have a victim? Dr. Keon who picked up an undercover cop in the market thinking she was a hooker...shall we overturn this conviction?

I invite others to comment on this....

Economic Meltdown!

Economic meltdown....
A casual walk through the hardware store showed me yet again that we are heading for a serious disaster. Everything for sale is made in China. So what does China DO with all that money? They buy treasury bonds, of course. I am honestly not looking forward to the back lash....and just because I predict it, doesn't mean I can do a damned thing about it! However, I am trying to become a little more self sufficient. Hard to do without electricity, but a machine shop in my back yard is a start. Fencing to hold in a flock of chickens or pigs might come in handy as well. Sealer rings and sealer jars came in handy according to my grandmother, who lived through the great depression. Tool, tools and more tools. Hard to say...Here is an article in "The Australian" that says it better than I can. Dumping of US dollar could trigger 'economic September 11'There is a potentially fatal flaw at the heart of the global economy: the strong possibility of financial meltdown following a collapse of confidence in the greenback, Clyde Prestowitz tells Bruce StannardAugust 29, 2005THE nightmare scenario that haunts global strategist Clyde Prestowitz is an economic September 11 -- a worldwide financial panic triggered by a sudden massive sell-off of US dollars that would lead inexorably to the collapse of economies around the world.If that happens, Prestowitz predicts: "It would make the Great Depression of the 1930s look like a walk in the park."Australia would be sucked into the vortex of such a recession, which would cause great hardship throughout the world, he warns.Prestowitz is not a doomsayer, neither is he alone in his views. As president of the Economic Strategy Institute, a Washington think tank, he is in regular contact with the most influential US business leaders, several of whom -- Warren Buffet and George Soros included -- have taken steps to hedge their currency positions against the possibility of a cataclysmic plunge in the greenback."Right now," he says, "we have a situation in which the US is running huge trade deficits -- about $US650 billion ($766 billion) in 2004 -- which are financed by borrowings from the central banks of Asia -- mainly the Chinese and the Japanese. All the world's central banks are chock-full of US dollars -- they're holding many more dollars than they really want. They're holding those dollars because at the moment there's no great alternative and also because the global economy depends on US consumption. If they dump the dollar and the dollar collapses, then the whole global economy is in trouble."However, some countries have a bigger stake than others in maintaining the status quo. China and Japan have a big stake in maintaining the flow of their exports to the US and keeping the US economy humming. Russia, on the other hand, does not export much to the US. India doesn't export much to the US. Yet Russia and India are also big dollar-holders. They hold many more dollars than they really want or need."It doesn't take any great stretch of the imagination to see what could happen if one of these central bank managers decides to dump dollars. We had a situation recently when a mid-level official at the Central Bank of Korea used the word 'diversification'. It was a throwaway remark at some obscure lunch, but there was instantaneous overreaction. The US stock market fell by 100 points in 15 minutes because the implication was that South Korea might be shifting out of US dollars."So picture this: you have a quiet day in the market and maybe some smart MBA at the Central Bank of Chile or someplace looks at his portfolio and says, 'I got too many dollars here. I'm gonna dump $10 billion'. So he dumps his dollars and suddenly the market thinks, 'My god, this is it!' Of course, the first guy out is OK, but you sure as hell can't afford to be the last guy out."You would then see an immediate cascade effect -- a world financial panic on a scale that would dwarf the Great Depression of the 1930s."Prestowitz says the panic could be started by something as simple as a hedge-fund miscalculation."We had exactly that scenario in the US recently," he points out, "when a big hedge fund called Long Term Capital Management went belly-up. These guys were pros. They had two Nobel prize-winning economists writing their trading algorithms, and their traders were the creme de la creme among New York bond traders."They made a big bet -- a trillion dollars leveraged 20 to one, and they blew it. They went belly-up. That threatened to bring down the whole system so US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan had to organise a bail-out through the Federal Reserve Bank of New York."Now consider this: there are currently 8000 hedge funds in the US alone. Every day $6 trillion of derivative instruments trade on international markets. If there are four people in the world who understand those trades, I'd be surprised. So the potential for another disaster is not insignificant. This is why Warren Buffet, chairman of investment giant Berkshire Hathaway, is betting $US21 billion against the dollar. This is why currency speculator and hedge fund manager George Soros has also made a big bet against the dollar."Soros is one of the greatest currency speculators of all time. He was the guy who broke the British pound in the early 1990s by betting $US10 billion it would fall. He made a quick billion when it did. In 2002, he warned that the greenback was in danger of losing a third of its value. Of course, it could be argued that Soros is a professional hedge fund manager whose job is to play the ups and downs of currencies and his remarks could be seen more as manipulation than prophecy. And yet, in conversations with me, Soros has expressed concern about the market fundamentalist view that prevails in Washington and parts of Wall Street."This is the belief that markets are self-correcting and best left alone. Soros calls this a dangerous siren song. Far from being self-correcting, he emphasises, markets tend to excess. They over-shoot. Anyone with any experience of markets knows this."When markets are going down, all the weaknesses get concentrated, and you need intervention at the right time to stop things from getting out of control. If the dollar started to melt down, the results could be really nasty. A 1930s-style global depression is not out of the question."To underscore the point that he is not alone in this, Prestowitz cites Paul Volcker, head of the Federal Reserve before Greenspan, who has said publicly there is a 75 per cent chance of a dollar crash in the next five years."No wonder people look at this and say, 'Holy cow!'," he says. "No one knows for sure what will happen, but clearly the global markets could implode very quickly. The lack of an alternative to the dollar is the only reason it hasn't taken a big fall already."Prestowitz, formerly a trade adviser and negotiator for former US president Ronald Reagan, believes the US will continue to be the world's most powerful economy for the foreseeable future. But he foreshadows an inexorable decline, a trend that is likely to continue "depending on the way we play our cards"."Right now, we're playing them just about as badly as it's possible to play them, and that has geo-political implications." he says. "We've outsourced trying to deal with North Korea to China, we really can't deal with Iran, so we've outsourced that to the EU, which is struggling, and Iran is cozying up to China. Other bad actors like Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and Sudan are cozying up to China."America's global hegemony is already under challenge, and that challenge is going to become more and more evident as the extent of the relative US economic decline becomes evident. Right now, the US dollar is probably 40 per cent overvalued versus the Japanese yen or the Chinese renminbi. How's the US going to look as a global power when the dollar is at 50 per cent of its current value?"Three Billion New Capitalists by Clyde Prestowitz is published by Basic Books at $US39.95

Tarrifs, Trademarks, and National Identity

I remember when Walmart first showed up in Ottawa, and even before they put shovel into ground, they took on a little mom and pop operation for name copyright infringement. Wool-Mart had been in Ottawa longer than Wal-Mart had been in Canada, but that didnt matter to the lawyers. (an out of court settlement allowed Wool-Mart to change their name to Wool-Time) Then a few years later, Rockin' Johnny's restaurants are popping up all over Ottawa. A well established US company called Johnny Rockin' again took them to court,same reason, even though they were in a separate country, and no competition can possibly occur. Don't really know the results of that case, but the owner sold one restaurant in South Keys, but is still hangin in there on St Laurent blvd.
Now I see that the Supreme Court of Canada granted US toymaker Matel Inc permission to appeal rulings by the "Trademarks Opposition Board" (ever hear of that before?) that allowed a Canadian company to continue business as Barbie's BBQ Restaurant. This case is a little different though.....seems they really are blatantly ripping off Mattel, who registered Barbie and Barbie's marks many years ago for Doll related items, but neglected to register them for restaurant, and presumably clothing related items.
I am reminded of when KFC used to be Kentucky Fried Chicken. Until sometime in the late 80's when the state of Kentucky demanded huge licenceing fees for using their name...so they changed it to KFC. So why KFC Canada? Another lock step move from the parent company I suppose...
Ahh well...I remember when my friend D'Arcy came up from Texas and we drove all around the Milton Oakville area looking for the UPS depot. She said it looked so much like West Texas that it was uncanny! Same little strip malls, same big box stores, even the big traffic signs over the highway had a sort of universal look to them. She noted at the time that Ontario was looking more and more like just another midwest state every year. I wonder if that is all bad though....

The usual bullshit....

WASHINGTON (CP) - High-profile U.S. conservative Newt Gingrich has agreed to retract his statement that terrorists involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks entered the United States from Canada. The move came Wednesday after Canada's Ambassador Frank McKenna fired off a letter of complaint.

Gingrich, former Republican speaker in the U.S. House of Representatives and a potential presidential candidate in 2008, "deeply regrets the error," said spokesman Rick Tyler.

"That's become accepted conventional wisdom here. But he'll help to correct the record."

"He wishes he had not repeated that error and had checked it out," Tyler said from Lincoln, Va.

"We're in complete and utter total sympathy with the Canadian ambassador and all Canadians, for that matter."

Gingrich, appearing Tuesday on a Fox News Channel political show, said: "Far more of the 9-11 terrorists came across from Canada than from Mexico."

McKenna, who became Canada's top envoy in the United States last month, wrote Gingrich's comments "perpetuate an urban legend that can take on a life of its own, especially when repeated by people whose opinions are deeply respected in the United States."

"Canadians and Americans are great friends. And great friends can tell it like it is."

"In the interest of that friendship and to set the record straight I ask that you retract your statement."

McKenna noted former U.S. attorney general John Ashcroft is on the record saying: "None of the terrorists from the Sept. 11 carnage came to the United States through Canada."

A 9-11 commission report has also detailed how the terrorists entered with U.S. visas and none came through Canada.

The faulty perception began shortly after the attacks, when U.S. news reports wrongly said some of the hijackers crossed the border.

The ambassador also wrote a letter to the New York Times newspaper last month after an editorial alleged terrorists routinely cross the enter the United States from Canada.

He noted Canada has spent over $9 billion Cdn on security since the attacks, especially on implementing the so-called smart border plan.

Gingrich plans to personally reply to McKenna, said Tyler, and will do what he can to debunk the claim.

"He's a public figure and I'm sure he'll be asked about it. He'll correct the record whenever he's asked."

Oil for Food....the Canadian Connection

Man oh man......Why does Maurice Strong's name keep coming up? Now we discover he is the number two man in Kofi Annan's son's corrup Oil for Food program.

I am just too depressed....check it out for yourself....http://www.primetimecrime.com/Articles/Oil%20for%20Food.htm

On Strategy....William Lind

It is useful to think that there are some people still thinking about strategy, tactics and low level philosophy. I have always liked William Lind....here is his classic statements on strategy. In this article, he warns of "maximalist" strategy..that is to say..."all or nothing" strategy. Bill Lind uses America's War in Iraq to illustrate some of his points.
http://www.d-n-i.net/lind/lind_4_15_05.htm
I like his last line....An administration that has made loyalty to the White House’s maximalist objectives its most important test is not likely to encourage consideration of alternative strategies. When it becomes clear that we will not attain those maximalist objectives, there could be a sudden, desperate quest for some way out that leaves a few of our tail feathers intact. At that point, the thoughtful work of a small group of Marines might find an audience.

Bike week in Metcalfe....

What a great day for motor bike racin'!

So instead of blogging here...I think I'll get the wind in my hair, the mosqitoes in my teeth, and burn off all the old gas in the tank.

Softwood Lumber disputes....kuuul...

For as long as I have been alive (some four and a half decades I guess) there has been a dispute on Canadian lumber being sent to the US. There is HUGE US lumbering lobby which has always hated the competition, and have, for the last century or so, demanded AND RECEIVED huge duties to be paid by anybody with the guts to send lumber Stateside. Yup, you heard that right...the duties are collected at the border, and sent directly to US lumber interests. Not to General Revenue as you might suppose! Note please that this does not lower the price of a house....actually, it keeps the price up nice and high...as anybody who has purchased a couple of two by fours in the last couple of years can testify to.

Now the reason why I find this whole thing so kuul is the simple fact...THERE ARE NO CANADIAN LUMBER INDUSTRIES!!! Yeah, seems MacMillan Bloedel is wholely owned by Werehouser Corp. Beaver Lumber got bought up by Builder's Warehouse, and in fact, only 8 percent of lumber sold in Canada is cut and sold by Canadian companies. And none of the lumber being shipped to the states comes from a Canadian company. So all these duties supposedly paid by the Canadians is actually being paid by the American subsidiary. Essentially, they pay a stiff duty at the border, and get it back from Uncle Sam the following week. This keeps the prices up, and their fat profits rolling in! No damned wonder there has been no movement on the softwood lumber dispute in the last half century!

So get this...the Canadian government has decided that what works for the Goose also works for the Gander! So it is slapping big duties onto cigarettes (hah! no surprise there!, big tobacco is always a fair target) oysters (like we don't catch our own....well, subsidies to our fishing industry is pretty normal too) and live pigs. Well, they don't want our cows, which keeps their prices up, so we stop bringing in porkers, which should keep the price up here in Canada.

Sounds like a win win situation, the only person losing is anyone who wants to build a house, or salt down a pig!



Cut and past follows of part of this article....
(CP) - Canada has turned up the pressure on its largest trading partner, slapping rarely used sanctions on the United States to force an end to an internationally condemned trade law.

The stakes are high: if Ottawa fails in this fight against the U.S. law known as the Byrd amendment, Canadian softwood lumber producers stand to lose more than $4 billion in duties paid so far in the longrunning trade dispute.

Even worse, the Byrd amendment would then hand all those Canadian payments over to their American lumber competitors.

To pressure Washington, Ottawa announced Thursday it will slap a 15 per cent surtax on cigarettes, oysters, live swine and some fish imports from the U.S., effective May 1.