In France a madman kills 2 soldiers and then 3 French Jews before being found and killed by security forces. The spin on this tragedy by 2 different faiths is sad. The people of Jewish faith see this as an attack on Jews in general and evidence of a rising tide of antisemitism in Europe and all the more reason for Jews in the world to move to Israel for self defence. On the Muslim side cries rise against fears of Islamphobia – and what the Hell is that about anyway? It seems that anyone who questions the results of fanatical Muslim faith based killers is somehow prejudiced against all Muslims?
That is an easy way to deflect hard questions. And this type of vapid defence is not the defence of only the Muslim faith. We see it trotted out by almost all religions nowadays.
The hope that religious fanaticism was on the decline in this so-called modern era is quickly becoming a vain one. The more “civilized” society becomes, the more inflexible towards the religious views of others that it, it becomes.
And yet all the religions base their foundations on respect for others. Whether by faith or by gender or by sexual orientation.
Maybe someone should hold the leaders responsible and deal out justice to them accordingly.
Dick Cheney, former vice president of the United States had a heart transplant this Saturday. Amazing even now, that a heart can be transplanted and the person can survive and live a number of productive years. Critics might decry this as a sample of rich people getting better treatment than the poor – but honestly, this has always been the case in history and always will. You can only hope that either by birth or hard work will you be one of the wealthy.
Here in Canada the NDP believe (as did the Marxists of Communist Russia) that it is better to drag all people down to the lowest common denominator so that there is no one group more favoured than an other. Of course history has shown that the party ignores these concepts when it comes to rewarding party faithful, and relatives! What is the incentive for people to work hard, save money and be fiscally prudent when they see others that have never worked a day in their lives collect monthly cash amounts, get subsidized health and housing benefits, indeed see a system that installs day cares in schools for teen age mothers and then also give them living/spending money with no obligation to pay this all back?
The same applies for retirement where a person works hard and puts fiscal plans in place for when they stop working and then see others who deliberately did not pay into public pension and supplemental pension plans – collect from them! Where the Hell is the fairness and justice in that? Indeed, you are penalized for planning for your retirement by having to pay income tax on your pension income!
And the federal politicians who for decades have created and expanded this unfair system do nothing, indeed they have their own self managed and non accountable gold plated pension to fall back on and the mundane shit like having to worry about inflation and medical costs will never have to disturb their leisure days in retirement!
And they wonder why the public loathes them?
There is only 1 taxpayer and I have to tell you that he is getting real tired of becoming an over used and shrinking resource.
In Quebec students are protesting plans to increase university tuition over 5 years to become the third lowest in Canada.
Spoiled brats.
Get in step with the rest of the working world. Give up your cell phones, get a summer job, take out loans as the rest of us did- then complain, but not until then!
I see Hugo Chavez flew back to Cuba Saturday for chemo treatment for his latest bout with cancer. Somehow I think that he does not have long to live. If this is the case, it will bear watching as to how events unfold in Venezuela as well as the reaction and policies of the United States towards it. There has been a love hate relationship between the two countries ever since Chavez came to power.
Indeed it seems that the political spirit of the States is becoming a little confused. The rise of the Tea Party and the influence of religion in a supposedly non religious style government in world policy is of concern. The Republican Party seems to have been hijacked by these people who espouse extreme values such as imposing chauvinistic morality on woman in terms of abortion and reproductive choice. It seems perfectly right to these people to pass a law denying access to birth control pills to women. In fact one of their arrogant mouth pieces, a Mr. Rush Limbaugh said if they were to get access then they should post videos of their sexual acts on the Internet. What a pathetic excuse for a thinking man – and I use both those words in despair in his case. Also they have passed in a number of states a law requiring a doctor to insert a ten inch ultra sound probe into a woman to force her to see the unborn before allowing her to get an abortion. Would these heroes react the same way if it was their bodies that were so subjected?
I doubt it.
Cowards all of them.
Speaking of changes, this week we decided that we are going to move from here in the middle of the Prairies out to the West Coast. A dream we have had for over 30+ years. Not an easy decision but one that had to be done. I mentioned last week that we had been to see an ill friend and that visit changed my outlook on a number of things. Perhaps the biggest was the realization that time no longer is my friend and that things put off for years are now at the stage where they either get done or be forgotten. I turn 60 this year and do not want to blink my eyes,find out that I am 70 and in poor health and unable to do things I once had wanted to. If this makes me selfish, then so be it. I owe it to myself and my long suffering partner to do this. I am eager to start this new phase in life and look forward to the challenges ahead.
So that is it for this week, wish I had more space for there were a number of other things I wanted to discuss but those will have to wait until next week.
Take care out there,
flatlander52
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