Wil's Rant

It didn't care about nations. It didn't care about borders. It didn't care about conflict, race, religion, politics, or ideology. It was an equal opportunity killer. About the only good thing to possibly come out of all the death is the very fact that none of these things mattered. In the end it was only people without labels. How we respond to this as a species will be more important than any of these labels. In the end all humans must come together to help, morn, and begin the rebuilding process. How can anyone watch the news without sharing in the absolute devastation that nature has wrought upon these individuals caught up in the horror? Nature has a way of doing that. Just when we are becoming more separate, more divided, and ever more hateful, nature can, in one swift move, make all these differences seem very petty.

The Permafrost is melting! Some people would have us believe that this is not a problem. Fact is that this a problem on a scale that can not even be imagined. The arctic contains huge amounts of biomass locked in the ice. As the ice melts this matter starts to decay. The result, enormous amounts of greenhouse gases get released into the air. This is over and above the more direct problems of loss of habitat and destruction of a very fragile ecosystem. Remember that concept of domino affect? This could very well be how it will start. Changes are coming. The question remains as to whether our feeble attempts to stop the damage are going to be enough done quickly enough. Only time will tell. I predict that unless our efforts take an order of magnitude increase, it most definitely will not.

The American desire to dominate global politics is having another affect. The Chinese and Russian militaries are involved in joint exercises. This is the first such combined effort for the two countries. They both clearly state that it is the actions of the Americans which has caused them to seek out this new arrangement. I suspect that a limited alliance between them is not far off. What is even more disturbing is how the Americans are likely to react. Sensing a new threat level, the administration will use this fact to drum up even more support for increased in military spending, effectively bringing the level of tension and increasing the odds of global conflict.

If all the human caused devastation wasn't enough, we are reminded that life throws a few natural disasters our way once in a while. This one is turning out to be huge. Many thousands dead, numbers expected to increase dramatically. All that with only a twenty foot surge. Now imagine ocean levels increasing seventy feet. Having trouble picturing it, no problem, we will all get to see the real thing within the next seventy years if the climatologists are correct. I suspect that the actual figure is going to turn out to be around fifty years if my guess about the exponential affect turns out to be right.

Or at least that's what they are saying. So... In order to make the point they went ahead and slaughtered a bus full of women and children. Now does anyone really believe that this had anything to do with the belief or not in the death penalty. I have the strong suspicion that this is really simply a matter of monsters looking for any excuse to go out and kill. Now I myself do not actually believe in the death penalty. However, I reserve the right to make an exception when faced with Humans(?) such as the one who commit crimes such as these.

That's right, I said it, and I meant it. Not Happy Holidays, actually, Merry Christmas. Now I know this is not very politically correct of me but that's just the point. I don't think a person must actually be a Christian to wish someone a Merry Christmas. I also fail to understand why anyone would be offended by the use of the term. I am not offended when someone refers to Hanukkah. I am also not offended by Ramadan or any other celebration or holy period of any faith. So why should anyone be offended by the sentiment of wishing them a Merry Christmas. It's not like I'm saying that they should become a Christian nor am I insulting their faith in any way. So why shouldn't we all be able to support and even celebrate with our human brothers and sisters when they are enjoying a special day or period in their faith or culture. So I'll say again, Merry Christmas to all, whether you are Christian or not. Christmas is about the spirit of giving and enjoying friends and family. This applies to all people and faiths. For those who may not be Christians and who are also not celebrating Christmas, than I hope you all the success in whatever festival or celebration you may be enjoying at this time of year.

I read an article in Maclean's lately that raised a couple of very interesting points. The affect was to soften a few of the fairly smug attitudes I've had regarding the Canadian verses American position on several subjects. One of these was Kyoto. I have criticized the Americans over their refusal to sign onto the Kyoto Accord. The article points out that while we have signed onto Kyoto, we currently have no workable plan to actually implement it. On the other hand, the Americans haven't signed, yet they have in place more strict regulations regarding emissions than are found in Canada. As a result, the Americans have made more real progress along these lines than Canada has, reducing pollution by a greater margin than Canada has been able to achieve. Another point deals with the treatment of the poor. The American low income families come out well ahead of their Canadian counter-parts in that they pay much less taxes for their income level. So while we take a much more liberal position, in the actual fact, American low-income families fair much better. Even in the area of gay rights issues, while we may be a little ahead, the margin is in fact very small and could even have gone the other way had it not been for court intervention.

The results of all this is to say that in Canada we may take a very smug attitude as far as our liberal policies go, there is an awful lot of work to be done. While the Americans may come off as being behind us in this regard, appearances can be very deceiving. A little more reading and research will quickly show that in fact, when it comes down to the actual day to day implementation of our policies, the Americans are ahead of us in several areas. Perhaps we don't really have all that much to feel smug about.

Yet more religious intolerance is being reported in the Middle East. This time in Egypt. I have suggested in past posts that I see all the signs of a new major religious war starting essentially over Islam but certainly not restricted to it. One might think that in this day and age we would have evolved beyond these types of conflicts. That doesn't appear to be the case.

More and more cases of sex crimes committed by U.N. peacekeepers are making the news. If anything, these crimes are even worse than similar events occurring in these places already. People living in these situations are finally able to have some hope for the future once U.N. forces arrive only to have that hope shattered by criminals within the U.N. who subject them to some of the same horrors that they were already forced to live with. These guys should get the absolute worse punishment we are able to give them.

Firefox continues to eat up market share from Internet Explorer. Reports are giving Firefox 5 to 10% of the market. Almost 20% of my readers are now using Firefox. I made the switch in November and have never looked back. To date, it has worked great and I would recommend it to anyone who is getting fed up with the Microsoft line.

The killing of the pregnant woman in the U.S. surprised me very much. What I find even more surprising is the fact that this happens so often. Most often it is not committed by a woman however. Usually it is the father of the child or another male who feels insulted by her pregnancy by another man. While recognizing that this is a problem, I had no idea how common it is in North America. So high in fact that it is the leading cause of death for pregnant women in at least one state. For much more in depth information on the subject, check out the article.

The Sikhs are protesting a play which involves murder and sex abuse in a Sikh Temple. I understand why this might be upsetting to them. I would be equally concerned about the concept of a Christian Priest, Mininster, whatever, being depicted as committing these crimes in a Christian church. But the fact is, Christians can read about this type of thing almost daily in the papers as having been actually committed, not just depicted in a play. I understand that the Sikh are a very devout people and I have never heard of this type of problem within their community, unlike many other faiths. That doesn't mean that it has never happened, only that I have never heard of it. My point is that this is only a play and as such is not meant to actually depict any historical event. There have been many works of fiction that depict acts which having actually been committed would offend many people. Sometimes, just the fiction offends many people. Should we censor these works because they offend some people? Or should we instead be allowed to form our own conclusions about the work and decide whether to watch or not. I, for one, disagree with the concept of censorship. If it was up to me, most of the severe gore that is shown on television everyday would not be shown. The C.S.I. shows come to mind. Yet these shows are widely popular despite having, what I consider, to be far too much depiction of blood and guts, so to speak. Due to the nature of this particular program, a certain amount of blood needs to be shown in order to demonstrate the subject matter, but this much! In any event, I'm sure the author did not write the play with the intention of offending anyone. She may have simply been examining the subject matter from various angles. Censorship is a dangerous concept. It can be used to deny the rights of people as a whole. It is for this reason that we must allow these types of works, even when we find the subject offensive.

I have long held the view that the laws in some Islamic countries were grossly unjust. This latest round only serves to stress the Point even further. It certainly brings home the concept that it is definitely not a good thing to be a woman in some of these countries. In Iran a woman (?) can be executed for immorality as young as nine years old. For men the figure is seventeen years old. In a current case a retarded girl who was forced into prostitution by her mother is slated to be executed. There are so many things wrong with this picture that it is hard to know where to start. I don't actually believe in the death sentence at all. This stems from the thought that if it is wrong for a person to kill, then it is even more so for the state to do it. At least in the case of a person there may be circumstances that caused the individual to lose their minds resulting in their actions. The state could never use this excuse. Second is the fact that they are effectively executing a child over the actions of the parent. Third is the inhumane methods of execution currently used in Iran. Fourth is the fact that woman are considered less than human there and have no rights whatsoever, a crime against over half the worlds population. If anyone reading this would like to raise a protest they can use the instructions from Amnesty International to send it to officials in Iran. The world seems to be heading for another great religious war. I hope I am wrong but cases like this certainly demonstrate what may cause it. I might think that the women in Iran, and other nations where the laws are so out of kilt with moral equality, would actually fight against the men in their own society with laws like these. The problem is that not all Muslims believe in this type of repression. These more fair minded Muslims will end up suffering along with the bad ones in any conflict which results. In Canada at least, there are many Muslims who have migrated here and live in peace, prosperity, and happiness with their neighbors of all religions and faiths. They even participate in Christmas celebrations, not because they share all our beliefs but because they respect their neighbors and celebrate the concept of peace and giving which is actually a very big part of the Muslim faith as well. This is not a sell out of their faith as opposed to embracing the diversity of life and respecting each others right to practice their faith without the interference of others. I continue to hope that more rational minds will prevail in the world before it is too late. Stories like this one make me think that this will not be the case and the final resolution will come with many deaths and even more intolerance.

I had a lot of fun writing this one so I decided to re-post it after being reminded of it by something I just read. It was written in response to news that scientists had successfully spliced a human and cow embryo.

Saturday, January 17, 2004 Human-Cow Embryos?:

It's all becoming clear to me now. The reason for developing human-cow embryos. It's to compliment the stunning success in artificial insemination. In some cases, during the artificial procedure the fertility drugs cause women to have multiple child births. This can be taxing to say the least not to mention the increased incidence of defects. Solution, the new improved cow-human mother. Think of it, a woman with perhaps six or eight udders as opposed to the restrictive 2 they must suffice with now. Now the woman could feed eight mouths at once. Hold on a minute, she couldn't possibly hold eight children at once. Not to worry, a simple gene splice with an octopus should fix that. The new improved cowmanapus would be able to have,milk, and hold eight babies at once.

Hold on a minute, wouldn't all these improvements to the woman not make the men feel left out. Perhaps we can think of something to give the men more of to make up for it. As well the improvements to the cows would also bring advantages. Imagine cows with human heads. No more herding required. Simply add one or two improved models to any heard. They could act as translators as well as giving cownsell to the others. In addition they could calm the regular cows at time of slaughter. I imagine the conversation going something like this. " No Hector those aren't gunshots your hearing, and that's not blood your smelling. Farmer Jones is making a new recipe and the noise is simply Bessy having one of her spells. Now everyone stay calm and everything will be over quickly." The benefits go on and on.

So there you have it, I just had to think of things in a rational manner for it all to make sense.
# posted by William Smith : 8:52 PM

Well, I knew I attracted a diverse audience but Satan himself, wow! Satan has stopped by to a comment about my last post. This is my first deity to visit and comment and I'm hoping more will follow his lead and add their insights. This should not stop my regular mortal readers from commenting, as I value your opinions every bit as much as the devil's. Of course this may be just some Intelligence figure in the employ of Satan but I'll consider it the real thing as far as these comments go. Now that I know your reading this Blog, Satan, I have a question for you, is George Bush an unknowing disciple or is he fully aware that he's supporting your ambitions? Another question, how long do you think it will take before Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld come out of the closet, so to speak, and openly declare their support of your cause? Oh well, so many questions and so little time to address them all. I also would not want to take up too much of your time, knowing how busy you are with the wars, famine, suffering, disaster, and all the U.S. military campaigns. Of course this may have been just some ultra-right wing neo-fascist who takes exception to my blog. The last thing in the world that these ultra-rights want to see is anything resembling true democratic discourse. It might also be some kid thinking it's fun to imitate Satan, but I suspect that I don't generally get that many teenagers here. If it is some teenager I might suggest you pick a better role model to imitate.

A new trend seems to be emerging in the struggle for people to acquire children. That is they find a pregnant woman and kill her. They then cut the baby out of her body alive. Just when I thought I couldn't be more surprised by the monstrousness of humans.

A short note about this one. I have had the misfortune of watching this show a couple of times. I find the majority of the videos shown as anything but funny. In most of them the person has done something that has either hurt them or could have severely hurt them. What's funny about that? I wouldn't have a problem if the clips were shown on Real Video or some other reality show, but funniest videos? In some cases, parents are shown placing their children in dangerous situations only for the purpose of creating a "funny" video. There are many funny things that people and children do, getting hurt is not one of them.

According to one report, a group of North Eastern States is planning to create it's own version of the Kyoto Accord. This will without doubt generate a lot of resistance within the Bush administration. They are currently examining the plan in hopes of finding some way that it violates American law. More and more the administration's stated position on the matter is coming under attack from outside the U.S., and now from within. Kyoto is shortly to become international law. Now, can anyone take a guess as to whether the U.S. will comply with international law, as any good democracy should. Or will they instead simply continue to argue the validity of the global warming debate, despite all evidence, and completely ignore the wishes of the rest of the world. You gotta love the American version of democracy. In the U.S., the version of democracy that is generally supported is one in which the U.S. gets to dictate all the rules and any globally, democratically enacted laws are simply ignored if they are not placing the U.S. in a very advantageous position. That, my friends, is not democracy at all but simply rule by exaggeration, misinformation, and ignorance. It's time to step up to the plate with the rest of us George. The result of not negotiating in good faith, ignoring the wishes of the rest of us, and continuing down this blind path that they seem to be following, is to risk another world war as the effects on the climate become more severe, and the entire world grows more desperate. The U.S. policy positions have long isolated them from the global community. As the self appointed leaders and savior's of the free world, they are an abismal failure, leaving ruin, death, and civil war in their wake more often than not. Most often the situation they leave behind is far worse than what was there to begin with. Keeping that in mind, one has to ask oneself what the real motives for their actions are, certainly not helping the nations that they invade. Perhaps they feel that after they have tried this approach often enough they will finally get it right. I suspect what it really has to do with is the infamous " American National Interests" which have absolutely nothing to do with the good of any other nation involved, while telling the American people that they are there to help. I wonder how long the American people can be fooled into believing this, and how long the rest of the world is going to continue to allow it. As the global community grows larger, and stronger, sooner or later they're going to say enough, and when that happens...... another war....a big one.... and this time, it's likely to be fought right here on North American soil. There are many good, honest, intelligent people in the U.S. who are trying to change the ignorance so prevalent there. I have the sincerest hopes that there efforts will not be in vain, before it is too late.

The provided link in this sentence leading to an article from the American Policy Center illustrates how certain people will not see the truth no matter what. This guy blows the whole global warming problem into an attack on American wealth and uses a bunch of misrepresented data to prove his point. I would counter with this article by a man described as the worlds leading climatologists who refuted the center's claim all the way. And to finish my point I will end with the largest iceberg in recorded history about to cause yet another major environmental disaster in Antarctica. You be the judge. The Policy Center guy will be standing on top of his house while the water rises still yelling about how it has nothing to do with us. He will watch the forests burn and people die. He will continue to twist figures to fool the ignorant. He will insist that any compliance with Kyoto will cripple the U.S., industry will fail. I guess he believes in democracy, but not on a global scale. He also must not believe that the great capitalist way will save the U.S. from these new regulations despite the fact that everyone else will have to follow the same rules. In the pure Capitalist view the law of supply and demand will solve all evils if left without interference by any outside forces. He obviously does not believe this to be the case. The real problem is that there are too many who will read his words, be soothed by them, and use it to justify their doing nothing, to the doom of us all.

I grow ,ore and more concerned that the War on Terror is poised to quickly become the War on Islam. I am seeing many signs that this is coming if more rational minds don't intervene. Another Arab television station has just been banned from France. With the seemingly endless reports of American casualties and the never-ending reports of kidnappings and bombings, the rest of the world begins to question all Muslims instead of just the ones who are committing these crimes. Islam was once considered the most tolerant religion in the world. Now the voices of those who only seek peace and freedom to practice their faith is overshadowed by the echo of explosions. Peace loving peoples of both side are watching children die. This breeds anger and hatred and finally more killing. The U.S. must learn to take a more co-operational approach to their world assistance program, if one chooses to call it that. It might start by not making the art of war such big business for the U.S. If it does need to send liberating or peace keeping troops somewhere, this should not represent a major financial windfall for American Corporations who sweep in to rebuild.
There are many signs that progress is being made in Lebanon and Israel, Iran and Afghanistan. However the American action in Iraq tends to undo all the progress that is being made. Many people are working to soften the American boot in Iraq, but what it really in the end comes down to is American National Interest as so many administrations have been so fond of saying.

You really have to admire the aid workers all over the world. Two more were killed yesterday. These individuals show remarkable courage and strength every day that they go to work. In many cases they are working in the most dangerous places in the world. They are far braver than I am. I doubt I would go there without being a part of some military force armed to the teeth. Yet they keep going. There are more people than could be counted whose lives have been saved by these workers. They have my greatest respect and admiration for there efforts. The U.N. should erect a massive monument to their sacrifice and courage that goes largely uncelebrated and unnoticed.

Now here's a conundrum. I can understand a person being pro-life ( against abortion). I can also understand someone being pro-death sentence. That doesn't mean that I agree with either, just that I can understand their point of view. Now here is what I can't understand. A person who is pro-life and pro-death sentence. How can a person both argue the sanctity of life while at the same time arguing that another person has the right to take a life? A mother can't terminate an unwanted pregnancy, but the state can terminate an unwanted criminal. Go figure!

Add birds to the ever growing list of species in decline, going extinct, or are expected to go extinct in the near future. According to the reports, somewhere between 10 and twenty-five percent will go extinct in this century. Again. I find these figures somewhat conservative in that they are only taken from current levels and do not take into account the cumulative affect of damage to multiple species and the eco-system over-all. We are seeing this over and over. When examining the state of affairs currently, scientists generally isolate variables for a given species and make the resulting predictions. This is the only way to come up with any reliable data at all. Unfortunately, the real picture does require a much more complex model than this to some up with an accurate analysis for all species. So complex in fact that we don't have an accurate system to date to take into account all the variables at work. It is for this reason that I almost always think that these predictions are conservative and that our understanding will grow leaps and bounds as we see with our own eyes how this affect compounds at what I suspect will be an exponential rate. At any rate, what good is it to have a 100% understanding of the thing that kills us all, once it's too late to change any of it.

There are those who keep insisting that the damage we are seeing from global warming has nothing to do with humans. This despite the fact that every scientist in the world practically has now conceded that we are largely to blame. If in fact this was the case, then we would see evidence of huge extinctions every ten-thousand years or so not every 75 million I should think. That's the evidence our time is going to leave behind. It already has and is. We are suffering huge numbers of extinctions in the past fifty years and these numbers are expected to increase exponentially over the next fifty. Trees everywhere are starting to show severe stress. We see this in Ottawa and have been seeing this decline in health for at least five years. Hopefully the damage is not so severe everywhere but Germany at least is having very bad problems with their trees. The current prediction is for a twenty foot increase in sea level over the next seventy years. I suggest this is very conservative and doesn't fully factor in for exponential increases. It also doesn't take into account a concept that I've discussed before and that is threshold levels. In other words, at what point will our environment reach a level of damage so severe that a domino effect begins. This would cause the exponential rate to go off the scale. People who continue to wage the argument are going to have the point proven to them relatively quickly, I suspect. Their debating the issue at this stage only serves to delay our response, to all our ruin.

More and more dissent is growing from within in the Bush administration. Everything from the troops complaining over equipment to complaints over the extensions to their contracts. He's facing severe criticism from within the government over North Korea. The CIA is experiencing a significant number of resignations over the state of affairs and now one of it's own is saying he was fired for not faking the Iraq intelligence reports. All this mess is the result of leading by dishonesty and misdirection. In the end nobody believes anything you say, even when you may be telling the truth. Even when the majority of your people want you as President, you're still unable to govern because you're unable to get the support for your programs you need to get anything done. Even your supporters don't trust you. You may be making some feeble attempts to repair some of the damage you've created with your friends, it's not likely to work because they simply can't trust you. You've made a complete mess of your economy, foreign relations, and tax structures. Sooner or later you start running out of ways to hide all this. Through it all, you don't apologise for any mistakes, in fact don't admit them at all. You are simply not mature enough to accept responsibility for your actions and make it right. You gotta go George, for the good of your country at least. Resign or retire it doesn't matter, just go.

George assures Martin that missile defense doesn't go hand in hand with space weapons. What surprises me about this one is the fact that anyone even mentions what George assures. His assurances mean nothing as he hasn't mastered the little concepts of honesty and integrity in government. In fact, the very point of him assuring us that it doesn't convinces me that it does, so to speak. It will be much more difficult to get rid of these weapons than to install them I suspect. So my opinion remains the same. Tell George to keep them out of Canada at least until the U.S. starts acting within international law.

George has recently stated that he sees ultimate victory in Iraq. What would be amusing about this comment if so many people weren't already dead is the fact that he declared victory and the end of major combat operations some time ago. Meanwhile, retiring CIA staff are saying that the country is falling into chaos with civil war the likely outcome. We have to give George some credit. History will remember him, that much is certain. He has broken all speed records for throwing the country into a major financial crises. He has gone a long way towards destroying democracy in his own country and continues with the process by trying to legalize even more stringent monitoring of our activities. As for the troops, recruitment continues to decline, returning troops are telling stories of dead civilians and existing troops are suing for breaking there contract by extending their stay in Iraq. He also continues to refuse to get on board with the rest of us about the environment and sign into Kyoto. He continues to argue against the critics from every corner. The man just won't listen, doesn't care, and supports the most a very small portion of the population, the ultra rich. What is amazing is that there must obviously be a great many Americans who will believe everything their President tells them and won't simply pick up a few world class newspapers and do a little reading. Having done so, they couldn't possibly deny the truth, could they?

So the latest view is that American missiles might not hit the evil North Korean Missiles in time resulting in pretty good odds that Canada will get hit anyway from the fallout of a late hit putting the missile over southern Canada instead of Northern. My question is this, after we get hit by a missile from either side or the debris therein, do you really think we're going to give a shit which one of the two equal partners in this scenario fired the actual one that killed us? Does anybody out there actually get it? We don't want missiles fired at us, over us, under us, or because of us. When it comes to the nukes, there are going to be no winners, we all lose. Another reason that the U.N. needs to sharpen it's teeth, so they can prevent these types of rogue states and regimes from threatening all our children. The U.S. must stop acting alone and start following the same laws which they hold over everyone else. Only then can they truly be the leaders of the free world.

They wouldn't get away with this crap if the American public wasn't so eager to accept it. Pat Tillman is dead, that much is certain. How it all came about is in serious question. The story told by U.S. Army Spin Doctors is an awful long way from the truth. Now that the real story is coming out, we see that the tale told by the Army is a fiction, and not a very good one at that. The web of deceit spun by the current administration has few equals. Is it any wonder that Kerry didn't really want to be President at this time. He could not win no matter what he did. If he became President, he would have two choices. One would be to pull out of Iraq, becoming the President that lost the war. If he stayed in Iraq, he would have to fight a war ad naseum that he could not possibly win without the support of the Iraqi people, support that is not likely to come any time soon. Iraq was absolutely no threat to the U.S., so what is the U.S. doing there. The plan might have had a chance if George had listened to anyone else and gained the support of the rest of the world, but then the Americans wouldn't have been in charge of all that oil. As it now stands, there is no clear solution to the problem. Democracy will not come through the efforts of the Americans because lets face it, very few people in the world believe one word George says, much less the Iraqis. Combine this with the very long list of broken promises the Americans have made in the past, especially to the peoples they have tried to FREE, and it is no wonder that they haven't exactly been lining up in Iraq to assist the cause. Is it any wonder that no one believes the American assurances anymore. Is it any wonder that the U.S. has less and less allies that are willing to support them in these causes. It is simply that no one believes the talk of freedom and democracy that the U.S. keeps insisting is their true goal. Hell, the way it stands now, the U.S. is looking less and less like a democracy and more and more like Nazi Germany. And as for missile defense.... The biggest threat to Canada is the possibility that a missile aimed at the U.S. might go off target and land somewhere in Canada or the Americans will invade Canada directly. We don't believe one word George says about the subject nor should we. The man has built his career on lies, endangered his country with lies, caused the death of honest American forces personnel with lies, caused the death of over one hundred thousand Iraqi civilians with lies, destroyed his countries economy with lies, and virtually destroyed the reputation that the U.S. has held, all with lies. He continues to control the American Media so as not to give the American People the chance to learn the truth, you must look elsewhere if one wants to learn the opinion of the rest of the world.

I actually heard an American report on George's visit to Canada. In the report, they were shocked at the protests over George. They even stated that they were surprised that we were not more concerned that he might try the same thing with Canada that he had with Iraq. I might point out history for those not informed. What happened the last time the U.S. invaded Canada? I seem to remember something about the need to re-build the White House, nuff said. The very fact that anyone in the U.S. would even make the suggestion that this is a possibility is scary enough. The thought of the world war that would ensue should George or anyone else for that matter decide that invading Canada was a good thing should be enough to dissuade more rational minds. But then again, what we are seeing in the U.S. today is anything but rational.

They are blaming it on mosquitoes. Apparently, these foreign mosquitoes are causing the native birds in Hawaii to get sick and die. The problem of invasive species will continue to grow until we find a solution. The problem stems from the new global economy which encourages travel and shipping on a scale never before seen. This problem will get worse. There is no accurate way to know just how much damage has been done worldwide but just the damage from Zebra Mussels in the Great Lakes is estimated in the billions of dollars. Globally the damage is beyond the ability of anyone to estimate, and all because of humans. One might think that by now we'd be getting the message that our approach to life on this planet has significant flaws. Humans are now damaging or destroying more than we build or can ever fix. So long as we have the Bush's of the world to distract us with his insane foreign policy, we will never spend the resources to look at the more serious problem of our species survival and that of the rest of life on this planet. So keep it up George, the waters are rising, all life is dying and the bullets keep flying. I still have hope that the general level of intelligence in the U.S. will improve and that the media there might just start telling the people the truth. I read in Nieman's report that 80% of Americans think the world approves of the Iraq Invasion. This can not be farther from the truth. In fact less than 23% of the world approves. This doesn't even approach the subjects of WMD and the El Qaida connection, both of which have never been found and yet the majority of Americans think that they have? This is directly related to the media reports there. It is also the reason that I read news from every part of the globe except one, the U.S. I do not read any of the major news reports coming out of the U.S. as their fact base is almost non-existent. For more factual and complete reports I go elsewhere or read New Yorker, Nieman's, etc. Fox, CNN, CBS, NBC, and the rest of the main stream media is simply fodder for the ignorant masses.

Is it any wonder that Canadians don't want missile defense, don't trust George W., and generally don't want anything to do with American foreign policy. Good government is not based on lies, secrecy, and propaganda drives. These types of initiatives serve only to degrade the fabric of a democracy and in the end only hasten the decline of the American Empire. The ideals of America are great ones. There implementation leaves a whole lot to be desired.

A Buck A Song. That's the average price that they are charging to download a song from the internet. And they wonder why people don't want to pay. When we download music, we save the recording companies all the costs normally associated with CDs. Instead of passing these savings on to the consumer, they simply increase the profits one- thousand fold. If the companies wanted to take a more ethical approach, they would charge something like ten cents instead of one dollar. This would increase the incentive for people to buy online. Currently I have yet to purchase any music online. I'm much more inclined to go to the store and buy the CD as this gives me a hard copy, and it's the same damn price per song anyway. The fools in the recording industry just don't get it. They want it all for themselves without passing on any of the savings on to us. In actual fact, they could probably charge us one cent per song and still make the same profits as before. I would love to expand my collection without having to buy the whole CDs but I refuse to play into this new ripoff. So, I'll just keep getting the whole CD until these guys catch on to the fact that we are not all idiots who will be fooled by this latest scam. Anyone know of any alternate sites to purchase music that is priced more equitably? I don't want to rob the artists, but at the same time I don't want to be cheated either. Selling on the internet for the same price per song as the CDs is just a plain ripoff that we don't have to accept.

No more Arctic Ice Cap. Sea levels over 20 higher than now. All in only seventy years. Those are just some of the predictions coming out of the report by over 300 scientists on what we can expect over the next few decades. They have tied the data into the survival of the polar bears. Essentially, if we save the bears, we save ourselves. If those predictions are even partly accurate, we should all start moving to high ground. Most of the major cities in the world are going to be below sea level. This is going to happen in many of our lifetimes. There is still time, but not much. Whether Kyoto will be enough to slow the change is not at all certain, but it is a start. One that the U.S. still refuses to commit too. Unfortunately, by the time the American cities start to drown, it will be too late for them, and us because the affects of anyone's irresponsibility is global.

Looks Like a recount in Ohio may just become a reality. I am surprised at how difficult it has been for the proponents of the recount considering the accusations of irregularities there. One might think that in a democracy, this would be a little more automatic. Anything less than a clear winner is an insult to the democratic system.

He seemed to fade into the background lately but this may be about to change again. There are rumors of new charges possible and the court proceedings are about to get under way in earnest. Things are looking pretty bad for Mike. Innocent or guilty, he's one very strange puppy. I can't quite understand how a parent would have let one or more of their kids go stay with him in the first place really.

The locust that have caused so much damage are almost dead. They are nearing the end of their life cycle which has spared the Canary Islands where they now are. Their are reports of spraying to kill them which I fail to understand as they are now dying anyway so why bother spraying?

Looks like the deadly heat wave that hit Europe last summer is not going away anytime soon. In fact not so far in the future, it is going to feel like last summer was quite cool. It's quite hard to imagine what the total affect of this will be. Could Europe turn into the worlds next great desert. Europe is beginning to take a much more aggressive approach to global warming and it is these efforts which will in the end determine had bad things are going to get there.

I find it interesting to read the reports of flooding in the Philippines. They are blaming much of the flooding on illegal logging. I would suggest that any clear cut logging procedure will produce the same result. There are firms using newer techniques that harvest selectively and thereby maintain the ecosystem where they are working. This must become the norm if we are to survive. The other option is much larger scale commercial farms to produce the fibers we require.

Well George is on his way safely. Now there's a load off my mind. There is always the chance that some extremist will try something when it comes to George. The same goes with the protesters. It only takes one to start a riot. In the debating on the issues a friend brought up a very good point. Well actually several. If George had waited for the U.N. to finally decide to do something, the world would in all likeliness be waiting to this day. Saddam while not possessing WMDs, would have continued to try to get them. The people of Iraq would still be suffering under him, and the region would still be living under the threat that he would attack another of his neighbors. All of these points are true. While I agree that he had to go, my problem continues to be the manner in which this was and is being done as well as the real motives behind it as I fail to see how Saddam, at the time, was any threat to the Unites States. Attacking him for the sake of the neighbors doesn't make sense as none of the neighbors wanted him to attack. If the U.N had become powerless or so tied down in bureaucracy to be effective, then it must change. The U.N. or it's security council must have the strength to make a difference in these cases. Once a decision to move militarily is made, it's military commander must have authority to act without
having to wait for instruction from headquarters, much as national forces due. In any case, my discussions today led me to rethink my position on the whole George and Iraq question. I think now that he is really only half the problem. At least half must go to the U.N. for not having the cahones and unity to see the problem and act. Having done so, the force present in Iraq today might be one that the Iraqis and their neighbors would not so strongly oppose. All that is now in the past so the question now is where do we go from here?. How do we stop the death of innocents that is going on there by both sides, American forces and terrorists? It's an awful mess there now and the paths and sides have become very tangled. I can see no clear way out at present. I only know that for peace to come there, in the very least the Americans must now be replaced by a more international force. The people of Iraq are now suffering more than ever. As this was supposed to have been done to help them, I'd have to say that it has failed. The U.N. has failed repeatedly to stop genocide before it was too late. The peoples of the world must unite to fight genocide and terror. Failure to do so will continue to provide countries, such as the U.S., the excuse for dealing with it on their own with the current situation the result.