Category: Politics

Romney’s Bitter Over “Gifts”

On By WinstonIn Personal Responsibility, Politics, Society, U.S. Election 2012, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Once in a while I suspect people of being psychic. That’s the only way I can explain them saying things that make me laugh so often. Today I would like to thank Mitt Romney for providing another ray of sunshine in my day.

Mr Romney basically said that President Obama used social programs (most already enacted during his first term) as gifts to buy votes from poor people. He bought student votes with a promise to forgive student loan interest. He bought generic poor people with free health care (Obamacare). Latino votes were apparently all about the “Dream Act kids” which will allow some of the children of of illegal immigrants to remain in the U.S. For an extended time. (Ironically those most affected, illegal aliens, couldn’t vote anyway.) The list goes on.

What Mitt forgot to mention were the gifts he was offering to his voters. Tax cuts to the ultra rich and major corporations. Relaxed environmental regulations. Repeal of Obamacare and cuts to other social spending. Increased defense spending. Possibly revisiting Roe v Wade and other reproductive health laws. But of course none of Romney’s platform was intended to pander to his core constituents. Such a thought would never occur to someone who’s entire campaign was predicated on telling voters whatever the pollsters told him they wanted to hear.

What he’s really complaining about isn’t the gift-giving. He’s bitter that there were more voters interested in what the President was offering than the Republican counter-offer. That’s the whole problem with allowing women, immigrants, young and or poor people to vote. Corporate tax cuts are less important to them than affordable health care or more affordable education.

Like so many others, he seems more interested in attacking the winner instead of looking at why he lost. I guess that’s why Romney’s bitter over “gifts“.

Cheers, Winston

My Vote For President

On By WinstonIn Personal, Politics, Society, U.S. Election 2012, Uncategorized, ValuesLeave a comment

I don’t live in the United States, I’m Canadian. Even so, as our closest neighbor and largest trading partner, they have a huge influence on us. We are saturated with American media and culture.

All of this to say that although I can’t vote in their Presidential election, I definitely have a preference. As much as it will annoy a very good friend of mine in California, I truly hope President Obama will get a second term. I’m not about to claim that he has been a perfect President. I don’t believe that there has ever been such a creature.

Even if I didn’t generally prefer Democrats over Republicans, the coverage I have seen of this race has made it clear to me. At no point in the Republican leadership race was there a candidate that I thought should be allowed to run the country. Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich none of these people seemed even marginally Presidential to me. As for Mitt Romney, his sole credential for leadership is his ability to convincingly say whatever his audience wants to hear. He flip-flops so often he’s like a living, breathing rag doll.

Long story short. Good luck today President Obama.

Cheers, Winston

Why Is It Even A. Question?

On By WinstonIn Media, Politics, Rants, Society, Uncategorized, ValuesLeave a comment

Disgraced former media mogul and ex-con Conrad Black is saying he shouldn’t be stripped of his Order of Canada.  Why not?

He is a convicted criminal who served over three years for fraud and obstruction of justice.  What part of that sounds like he should be allowed to keep one of Canada’s highest honors?  Oh, he also renounced his citizenship in order to accept a British Peerage. That’s how important Canadian honors are to him.

Yet now that his appointment to the Order of Canada is under review, he has decided this Canadian stuff is important to him.  So important in fact that the rules about such things shouldn’t apply to the mighty Lord Black.

He was told to submit in writing his arguments for not being stripped of his Order of Canada.  He is now engaged in a legal battle to give an oral presentation instead.  The judge said no, so now con Conrad is appealing.

Of course he is.  If there’s one thing we’ve learned about this man it’s his deep and abiding sense of his own importance.  The rules shouldn’t apply to Conrad Black because he is a great man and great men shouldn’t be bound by the same rules as the commoners.

Lord Black seems to have let his title go his head.  As with the aristocracy of old, he wishes to be elevated above the reach of the laws and obligations of the rest of society.  Unfortunately for him, that’s not how Canada works.

Lying, cheating and stealing your way to wealth and privilege doesn’t make you better than everyone else here.  In fact, in the eyes of many, it makes you a great deal less worthy of honors and accolades.  Like the honor of being a member of the Order of Canada.

In fact, since being a Lord was more important to him than being Canadian, maybe they could revoke the special pass that let’s his sorry ex-con ass stay here and kick him out.  Then he could move to Britain and see if anyone there cares if he’s Lord Black.  Nobody here does.

Should they strip Conrad Black of his Order of Canada?

Why is it even a question?

Cheers, Winston

The Good Thing About Mitt Romney….

On By WinstonIn Politics, Religion, Society, U.S. Election 2012, Uncategorized, ValuesLeave a comment

Anyone who reads this blog knows I’m not a Mitt Romney fan. His comment about the “47 percent” didn’t make me like him any more. It also didn’t make me feel all warm and fuzzy about him possibly being the next President of the United States. I have however found something to make that idea at least a little more palatable.

He’s not Rick Perry. If you are all finished shouting “Thank you Captain Obvious!”, let me explain. While Mitt may be slightly richer than Croesus (look it up), at least he isn’t as scary crazy as Governor God-Botherer, from Texas.

Rick Perry is one of those special people who believe that everyone should live the way they want them to. In Scary Perry s world, everyone would live under Old Testament law. His latest gem was the declaration that the separation of church and state was an act of the devil. Here I thought that was an idea cooked up by the founding fathers.

You see, that’s a big part of what gets up my nose with Governor Slack-Wit and his ilk. They talk about how America was founded on “Christian” principles, then say the bits they don’t like are the work of the devil. The founding fathers were probably not wearing shiny black robes and sacrificing small animals when they agreed the country should be run by its people, and not by the church. It’s more likely they were thinking of the mess they left behind in Europe where church was intimately tied to the states.

A continent where heads of state were allegedly chosen by God and endorsed by the church. Where freedom and justice were determined by what a church backed Monarch felt like allowing, rather than constitutionally guaranteed rights determined by an elected and accountable government.

It would be so much easier for Governor Perry (is a nut-job) to push his hate and fear-driven agenda if his church was running the country. But that’s the problem with his church and state idea. He’s not talking about a moderate Christian church, or a Muslim church, or Hindu, Wiccan or (ironically) the church of Satan. Nope. He’s talking very specifically about his preferred brand of God-Bothering Evangelical Christian faith. That’s what the United States should be guided by.

Now you see why I prefer the stupidly rich guy. Sure he’s got problems with his brain to mouth filter, but at least when he says stupid things its a gaffe not his campaign platform. He may be okay with most of the nation drifting into unemployment and grinding poverty as long as he and his campaign contributors can continue to grow their wealth like literal cash crops, that’s fine. At least so far he hasn’t gone all Blues Brothers… You know… “We’re on a mission from God”.

Give me Mitt “Cash is King” over Rick “The Bible Psycho” any time. That’s the good thing about Mitt Romney….

Cheers, Winston

Bring Them All Home Alive

On By WinstonIn Canadian Military, Global Issues, Politics, Society, WarfareLeave a comment

The NATO mission in Afghanistan just sustained another giant kick in the groin. The head of the NATO mission has just announced the immediate cessation of joint Afghan/NATO patrols. To date, these joint patrons have been the norm and represented the cornerstone in the UN plan to train indigenous police and military forces to assume security duties from UN troops.

Why are these patrols being discontinued? Mostly, it’s because in the past year 51 UN troops have died in so called “Green on Blue” attacks. That’s the term they roll out when “rogue” elements of the Afghan police/military kill their UN trainers. This is probably the single greatest tacit admission yet that the Afghan mission is a total bust.

So how can they fix this problem? They can’t. This is the sad truth. The NATO commander is doing the only thing possible. Refusing to put NATO troops into unnecessary danger. The mission is ending shortly, so why risk lives for no gains? Keep the troops as safe as possible and let them ride out the end of the deployment with absolute minimum exposure possible.

There have been enough deaths to assuage the U.S. rage over 9/11. NATO may feel honor-bound to stick it out to the very end of their commitment, but that’s no reason to sacrifice more troops in this un-winnable debacle. Afghanistan isn’t changing any time soon. There are some parts of the society who long for change. Unfortunately those who want to maintain the status quo are much more aggressive about it. Contrary to all the propaganda that came out later, Afghanistan only got invaded because the Taliban refused to turn over Osama bin Laden. Saving the Afghan people from the Taliban only became a mission when Osama proved harder to locate than a socially conscious Republican.

They never set out to save Afghanistan. That was the worst sort of mission creep. With the impending drawdown of NATO involvement in the Afghan theater, it’s small wonder the indigenous troops are increasingly susceptible to Taliban recruitment. It’s one thing to have joined up to fight side by side with the invaders. It’s a whole other deal if you can show that you just wanted to get close enough to kill them.

Refusing to let the locals build credit with the incoming regime by killing NATO troops is probably the first smart decision made since the invasion. Now let’s make another one and get the hell out before anymore troops die for nothing.

Bring them all home alive.

Cheers, Winston

Chuck, Gena And The Essence Of Hipocricy

On By WinstonIn Personal, Politics, Religion, Society, U.S. Election 2012, Uncategorized, ValuesLeave a comment

I’m a Chuck Norris fan. I have enjoyed many of his movies over the years and have nothing but respect for him as an action star. Politically however….. not so much.

You see, Chuck and his wife Gena just did a Republican PSA to get out the evangelical Christian vote come election time. That’s actually perfectly okay with me. They are entitled to endorse any party they want to. That’s one of the perks of living in a free and democratic society. The problem is their terminology. They talk about how President Obama getting re-elected will lead America into “a thousand years of darkness”. That little Reagan quote is in addition to a remarkably passionless spiel about how their great and free country is under attack.

So which freedoms are under attack by those evil Democrats. The right to love and marry whomsoever ones heart desires? Nope, that’s the Republicans. A woman’s right to make her own reproductive health choices? Ummm…. nope also Republicans. How about the right to learn science instead of theology in public schools? Oops… Republicans again.

All of that is mildly annoying, but no more so than anyone else I don’t happen to agree with. What really set me off is the truly EPIC scale of their evangelical hypocrisy. You see, Chuck has made a mountain of cash and an entire public career by glorifying violence and murder. Furthermore, his recent appearance in “The Expendables 2” seems to indicate a serious failure to repent and change his ways.

Now I don’t claim to be the most devout Christian. I’m still working at sorting some things out with God, but other things are pretty clear. Since the Norrises quoted Reagan, I guess I’ll have to settle for quoting the other guy. “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”. Not sure who I’m talking about? Let me try a quote from his Father, “Though shalt do no murder.” Still stumped? How about my personal favorite from the Son again? “A new commandment do I give unto you that you love one and other. Even as I have loved you, that you also love one and other.”

I don’t remember too many of those ideas coming through in Mr Norris movies. Maybe he missed the idea of being Christian. In case he did, here’s a tip. You’re supposed to live your faith in all aspects of your life. All aspects. Even if it means you don’t get millions and millions of dollars for glorifying violence and murder.

Until that happens, Chuck and Gena will remain the very essence of hypocrisy.

Cheers, Winston

Thank You Rachel Carson

On By WinstonIn Environment, Global Issues, Politics, Society, Uncategorized, ValuesLeave a comment

I just wanted to give a quick shout out to Miss Carson during the demi-Centennial year of her book “Silent Spring”. For those unfamiliar with it, the book described a very near future in which one could walk through any suburban neighborhood without hearing a cicada, sparrow, or any other natural sound. All due to the rampant and uninformed use of DDT.

It was a brilliant and terrifying book and it led to an eventual ban on the residential use of DDT and limited its use in many other areas as well. Before you write her off as some sort of “green” nutjob, look a little closer. Rachel never advocated a ban on DDT, only a requirement to place responsible limits on its use. She was fully aware of the benefits of chemical pesticides particularly in the fight against insect born diseases such as malaria.

The chemical industry however paints Miss Carson in a different light. They portray her clinging to the lunatic fringe, hysterically demanding a ban on DDT. They also tend to hold her personally responsible for every malaria death in sub-Saharan Africa. According to the pro-chemical crowd, DDT spraying in Africa was stopped because she got DDT banned. That’s not quite the truth. Spraying programs in Africa stopped for the same reasons as any other aid program, a lack of funding and political will. It’s perfectly legal to export DDT to Africa and countries there don’t have the same environmental restrictions we do here.

For those who aren’t familiar with it, DDT is a neurotoxin. It is also a cumulative toxin, which means it is stored in fat tissues and builds up in the system over time. Beyond simple deaths, sub-lethal levels present a more insious hazard. It causes reproductive issues and subsequent developmental problems in the offspring.

But wait, it gets better. It also accumulates in the food chain. One bird eats a thousand bugs. One cat eats ten birds. One fox eats four cats. The fox now has roughly forty thousand doses of DDT in its system. That can’t possibly be a good thing.

But wait, it’s about to get better again. It’s also environmentally persistent. So after you spray, it’s in the water, it’s in the soil, it’s in the air. Oh goody. Now that can’t possibly be a good thing. Eventually, all those little droplets make their way through the environment into the food chain. Once they get into there, it’s only a matter of time until they make their way into you and I.

So yes, I think “Silent Spring” was an important book and Miss Carson did us all a huge service by writing it and putting up with a lifetime of vilification. I don’t know what the world would look like without her work, and but I firmly believe it would have been one hell of a lot quieter……. and not in a good way.

That’s why we should all say, “Thank you Rachel Carson”.

Cheers Winston

Welcome To the Mittbot-Gerbil-Zombie Apocalypse!

On By WinstonIn Global Issues, Humor, Media, Politics, Society, U.S. Election 2012, Uncategorized1 Comment

Earlier today I was reading an article about Ann Romney’s speech at the Republican National Convention. This was the latest of the ongoing efforts to “humanize”, her husband, Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney. This raises a couple important questions for me.

The first question that springs to mind is, “Why should I believe anything she said?” Mrs Romney admitted that she was speaking from a prepared text. So she wasn’t giving any deeply personal insights into an incredibly sensitive and deeply misunderstood Mitt. She was just the most convincing voice-over they could find for their product endorsement. It’s not about authenticity or sincerity, it’s just another cynical marketing ploy. It’s like using Justin Bieber to sell acne treatments or having Brooke Shields front for La-Z-Boy. Teens who are losing their minds about acne (or Justin Bieber [or just losing their minds]), are more likely to identify with the Biebs, while Ms Shields and her Calvin Klein jeans are going to resonate better with an older demographic more interested in home decor than zit zapping.

The larger question here is, “Why does Mitt need to be ‘humanized’ in the first place?” If he’s not human, just what is he? Is he a gerbil or a wildebeest? Perhaps he’s a llama and his handlers go about in constant fear of catching a face full of llama loogie. Not to worry, I’ve got a theory. He’s a gerbil. He’s a gerbil piloting a (mostly) human-looking robot. Think anime but without the giant guns or swarms of scantily clad young girls. Then again he is running for the Republican party so there may be a giant gun in there somewhere but Ann isn’t commenting on that. (Come on, could you have resisted that one?)

Here’s the setup. Decades ago, a race of space faring gerbils arrived on the planet. Realizing we are hundreds of times their size they developed a plan to infiltrate us and destroy us from the inside. They want to take over the government (Dan Quayle and Sarah Palin were trial runs at getting someone on the inside.). Romney’s track record at Bain Capital is a preview of the Gerbil plan to destroy the morale of the United States by undermining its economy, creating mass unemployment (shipping jobs overseas), and working hard to widen the gap between the ultra-rich and the peasants they rule.

Because Hollywood assures us the U.S. is the only country able to withstand an alien invasion, once Mittbot has completely ruined and destabilized them, the invasion will begin in earnest. Swarms of Gerbil piloted Republican robots will pour out of their secret underground bases at the poles. To supplement these R-Bots, the Gerbils have developed a technology that allows them to burrow into dead people’s heads and pilot them like bots. Together the R-Bots (patent pending), and their zombie cohorts will complete their conquest of the free world.

While average Americans spend their lives in the grinding poverty of union-free, sweatshop labour camps, China and India will continue to reap the benefits of having been the first to welcome the Gerbil invaders.

It hasn’t happened yet but it could. If Mitt Romney wins, watch for the signs……. like the corridors of power being lined not with rich, soft carpets, but with wood shavings. Then you’ll see that I’m not crazy. Then you’ll see! Then it’ll be too late!

Welcome to the Mittbot-Gerbil-Zombie Apocalypse!

Muaaahahahaaa!

An Exercise In Futility On A Grand Scale

On By WinstonIn Global Issues, Politics, Values, WarfareLeave a comment

I usually enjoy my morning news read. It’s not always good news, I but it always makes me think. That’s normally a good thing, but not this morning. This morning its just frustrating. This morning I was reading about Afghanistan.

According to the Associated Press, Afghanistan is set to receive $16,000,000,000 through 2015. This is intended to show the Afghanistan that even though we’ve gone home, we haven’t abandoned them. While this may ease our consciences, I doubt it’s going to be much comfort to the dead on all sides in this most pointless of conflicts.

Before everyone rushes to remind me about Osama bin Laden, or the evils of the Taliban let me clear up a couple of things. Osama bin Laden wasn’t captured because we invaded Afghanistan. He wasn’t found livng in an Afghan cave, he was found and murdered in a nice suburban compound IN THE COUNTRY NEXT DOOR! That’s probably why it took ten years to find him. The second punchline in this comically unfunny joke is the Taliban.

When it became obvious that they weren’t going to find Osama any time soon, the invaders needed a new justification. That’s when they hit on the brilliant idea of saving Afghanistan (especially its women), from the Taliban. This is such a noble idea that I feel mildly embarrassed calling it idiocy. Unfortunately, it’s idiocy. Yes we kicked the Taliban out of power and installed our own little puppet regime (YAY!) but that hasn’t worked quite the way we thought it aught to. You see President Hamid Karzai is much more aware of local realities than are the minions of the invaders states.

What this means in practical terms is that he has been negotiating a power sharing plan with the Taliban. Ummmmm yeah, those same Taliban we invaded Afghanistan to get out of power. The guy we put in power is offering to bring them back into the government. That sounds like success to me. This is the same puppet president who announced a while back that if Pakistan went to war with the U.S. he would side with Pakistan. Not wanting to bite the hand that feeds (or in this case created) him, he went for the nice, solid groin kick instead. That’s political reality in Afghanistan.

Sadly, it takes more than ten years of warfare and half-assed social initiatives to undo centuries of cultural norms. That’s been the painful lesson learned by every invader of Afghanistan. You can defeat the army and capture the cities, but Afghanistan is neither of those things. Afghanistan is a proud, defiant people bound by centuries of tradition regardless of what anyone else does or thinks.

This was made painfully evident in another news story I read this morning. Al Jazeeara has a story about a woman who was accused of adultery and executed in the street in front of a cheering crowd. Earlier in the week, a woman and two of her children were beheaded by her ex-husband. This was described as the latest in a string of “honor killings”. Violence against women has increased sharply in the past year according to an independent human rights group. Odds are, it’s only going to get worse with the impending withdrawal of the invading armies that have encouraged at least the pretense of change.

The sad truth is that it can’t be changed from the outside unless you’re willing to commit to the long haul which is more in the nature of fifty to one hundred years of unrelenting effort both military and socio-economic. That’s how you make changes. We’ve once again proven that walking in, shooting some people and dropping a pile of cash is nothing more than a tragic and heartbreaking exercise in futility on a grand scale.

Cheers, Winston

Apparently Cancer Isn’t Fatal Anymore

On By WinstonIn Politics, Society, Uncategorized, ValuesLeave a comment

This morning as I was sitting reading the news and enjoying my coffee (Keurig is awesome), I stumbled across an article from the Huffington Post. It seems Republican Congressional candidate Chris Collins was explaining his opposition to Obamacare when he rolled out this gem.

“People now don’t die of Breast Cancer, Prostate Cancer and some of these other things. ”

That’s sure to be a relief to the roughly 68,000 people expected to die of Breast or Prostate cancer this year. Then of course there are all the people who won’t die of “some of these other things”. That probably includes the 500,000 plus who are expected the to die of other forms of cancer according to the American Cancer Society. What do they know though? I’m certain some wannabe Congressman is better informed about such things than the ACS.

Before anyone makes this a partisan question, let’s be absolutely clear about the issue here. I would be just as upset with a Democrat saying something so blatantly stupid to support his party line. This isn’t about party politics. This about a Congressional candidate either lying his ass off because he has no real argument, or being stupid as an oak post. Either way, it’s an embarrassment that he is even allowed to open his mouth in public, never mind running for office.

In the interests of full disclosure I have to say that I lost both my mother and oldest brother to cancer. I can only hope that Mr. Collins never has occasion to test his non-lethal cancer theory. He may not find the results to his liking.

Sadly Mr. Wannabe Congressman, cancer is still very much a fatal disease.

Cheers, Winston