Sunday musings

So, two Sunday elections in Europe. One apparently will see the defeat of the sitting French President Sarkozy and the other may see a reshaping of the Greek Parliament. In France this means a probable change in the co-operative approach with Germany in driving an agenda of strict austerity driven budgets in different European countries. France will probably turn towards a less program, services and employment reduction strategy and more of a financial stimulus program similar in style but not scope as the United States did. If the Greek government falls, critics suggest that the country may opt to default on financial debts and leave the Euro in favour of a return to the Drachma.

Something tells me the money markets are not going to sleep well for a long time if this happens.

In Iran parliamentary elections resulted in candidates supportive of the ruling clergy and opposed to the policies and person of the President, Mr. Ahmadinejad, routing  supporters of his. This will make the remaining time of his term, lasting into early 2013, very ineffective. In all likelihood this marks the end of his career and influence. Possibly his future may include imprisonment – who knows what will happen in that interesting country?

In sad proof that the war on drugs in Mexico is struggling, over 20 corpses were found laying in the streets of the border city Nuevo Laredo the other day – victims of cartel violence apparently. It seems ironic that the majority of weapons used by the drug cartels come from the United States. If the Americans really wanted to stop the flow of drugs into their country, you would think that they might actually try to stop this flow of weaponry wouldn't you? It seems that their strange love affair with weapons and the supposed right to own any type of weapon such as an AK 47 or machine gun, bazooka and the like is more important that the safety of the public. Tell me again how a hunter of deer and such needs a machine gun?

On Monday Mr. Putin returns as President of Russia for a 6 year term. The country has changed since he last was President and I wonder if he has as well. I think that the old way of “my way or the highway” approach to running of the country will not work anymore. The people are slowly becoming used to some form of democratic participation in local government and wanting their needs addressed. It should be interesting to see how this develops over the next few years.

Japan has closed down its last nuclear reactor this week. One wonders where it will get the energy that is now gone from the grid from all those plants. Will it mean more coal burning high polluting power plants?

If so, will the tree huggers protest at all or will they be conspicuous by their absence?

In the province of Quebec, it seems that the striking students have reached some sort of agreement to end the seemingly endless strike that they have been on to protest a miniscule hike in yearly tuition rates (subsidized massively financially by money transfer from mainly the provinces of Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan). One assumes the lesson in this is that if you disagree with something your government does, riot in the streets and get your spoiled way and all will then be forgiven.

Bloody wonderful eh?

In America yet another state has banned funding for an organization called Planned Parenthood. Yet another example of the power of the extreme right wing radical Tea Party group. Tell me how helping women gain control of their bodies and reproductive choices is wrong? Is it better to have many unwanted babies thrust upon social welfare rolls better? And if this is not available – what then? Let them starve? Where is the humanity of those people? Can they not see that it is less costly to the system to be proactive in matters such as this?

One wants to weep.

Under the heading, hooray for Canada, Canadian stunt woman Jolene Van Vugt was flushed with pride Wednesday after setting a new land speed record for the fastest motorized toilet as recorded the Guiness book of Records.

This week has been a rough one for us as we had the sad duty of taking our cat Timmy to the local vet for his last visit. He was one month short of his 18^th birthday. I know some would say that he was just a cat so why the emotion? Well, he was the third cat that has lived with us over the years and every time one leaves us the sadness is great. They are more than “just a pet”. For better or worse they become almost like one of the family. They give in return for food, lodging and safe living conditions, an unconditional love and companionship. I know that in the times when I was away from work for a while, my mental health was improved by the cat of the day.

I will miss Timmy, and I do not know if we will ever replace him.

Take care out there,

flatlander52