Saturday, May 28, 2011

Sunday musings-well, actually late Sat. but Sunday will be busy!

Well the game is afoot with Jack Layton and the socialist NDP here in Canada in regards to the Canadian federation and Quebec's role in it. As I had mentioned before, a lot of  his party representatives in that province have soft independence leanings. He was forced to confirm his party's position that in the case of an independence vote that a vote of 50% plus 1 vote would be enough to allow Quebec to leave the country of Canada. Then on Friday he has started to back pedal and say that a strong Canada includes a separate, distinct province of Quebec. He also has stated support for legislation that would require the language of business in Quebec to be French and placing English in limbo. Meanwhile in the rest of Canada (ROC) bilingualism is mandatory in the Federal government offices but not in Quebec or if so, the person requesting English service is disrespected to say the least. The fallacy of the 50% plus1 is instantly apparent when one considers that in Canada getting a voter turnout of 63% is good. So what about the rights and votes of the remaining 37%? That is a question that I think is up to the Supreme Court to resolve and the sooner the better.
Have you heard of the Huffington Post blog site? If not it is a blog that has a decidedly right wing slant to it in the United States. They have opened up a Canadian version of the Post which has mainly the same features as the parent but also includes a number of articles from Canadians and news stories from Canada. After all these years of left wing Canadian Broadcasting Corporation ( funded by the way with taxpayer money) opinions it is refreshing to get a different perspective and one that is one that I tend to agree with most of the time.
There is a new book out that tells the story of how the Vatican and the Red Cross helped many Nazis flee Europe after the Second World War to avoid prosecution and probably death by the Soviets. My question is why is this such a newsworthy item now? It was a well documented fact that this occurred and that the American OSS helped bring in rocket scientists from Germany to kick start their own program. The OSS and their successor CIA helped former Nazis with new identities in Germany and the East Bloc in order to start their spying on the Russians after the War. Not everyone was convinced that the Russians were truly "good" guys and were to be trusted. I would think that if and when the classified documents on that era are made public, they will make fascinating reading and make many back room people appear to be geniuses.
The arrest of Ratko Mladic in Europe signals the possible start of the end of the war crimes trials with one of the 2 most sought after now behind bars. It was of interest to see and hear opinions from people on the street and the majority seemed to favour him and in some cases regard him as a hero. Quite the opposite of what other reports first suggested over the years. In fact during the years when I have talked to people that lived and participated in the Second World War, some had feelings about Hitler that echoed those mentioned earlier.
Is there a lesson in this for us?
I think that first off, one should not read too much in what those people expressed. It may be that time has modified memories of what actually occurred and the bad memories have dimmed more than the good. And to be sure there would have been good memories in those days, because a bad leader (dictator) would not survive very long if certain classes were not afforded priviledges not allowed before.
 Hybrid cars - what do you think of them?
With the price of petrol climbing all the time, many people are looking at getting one of these in order to save money. Well, I hate to burst a bubble or two on this but I think I should talk about the following. Studies have shown that with the premium you pay for the privilege of owning one, you would need 8 years of ownership and driving to start saving money. Secondly no one ever talks about the cost of replacement batteries and the impact on the environment of the old ones if they cannot be 100% recycled. I think a better idea for control of the price of petrol is to eliminate speculators from the market as they control 70% of the market without actually handling,storing or producing a barrel. It is about time that something was done about these people and their impact and the world economy.
Well how is your garden doing?
Ours is coming along quite well and there is greenery all around, even if I have daily fights with birds to keep them from having snacks from all the tender shoots. I must admit that at this stage they all resemble weeds so it is a good thing my wife points out the ones that are keepers and the ones that are not.
So on that cheery note, have a great day and take care out there,
flatlander52.

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