Sunday musings

Insanity and evil knows no boundaries.

In this great land called Canada a madman has emerged from the shadows to shock the nation. A man identified by police as Luka Magnotta filmed his actions on murdering a man and then cutting off parts of the corpse that were mailed to a pair of federal political party offices.

Then the madman posted the video on the Internet in a sick attempt of self gratification.

How sad, how terrible.

How does this happen?

No one will ever be able to tell adequately understand or explain this horror.

No country has a lock on evil.

None at all.

So Queen Elizabeth celebrates her diamond jubilee.

So what?

I cannot believe that a modern democracy like Canada allows her to remain as head of state. And the Prime Minister acts like a boy with his first crush on a girl when he talks and deals with the Royal Family from England. He acts as the fool in this matter. A side consequence of this pathetic infatuation is the resurgence of alienation of the Quebec citizens towards the rest of Canada.

Remember how I tried to understand the financial worlds all consuming attraction to the internet company Google? And how it seemed crazy to have such a high value placed on the shares being offered to the public? Well, after a couple days of bidding frenzy, cold reality set in and the value of the stock has dropped like a stone. Probably not hitting bottom just yet I think.

The tech giant RIM is looking very weak these days as well. They have hired a couple of high powered American companies to figure out a survival strategy.

For crying out loud – they need this kind of outside help? 16,500 employees worldwide and they need this help to formulate a vision and set of goals? Unless some other company (hello Samsung or Google or Microsoft) steps in and buys the company- the future looks quite eerily like that which the now defunct Nortel Networks followed – bankruptcy.

In this hi tech world you either innovate and improve or you die.

Brutal but simple.

Hey you hear about the so called 1% that the protesters last year ( and to a lesser degree this year ) railed against and held accountable for all the woes of the world and wanted to have them support them? A recent study in Canada shows that a large number of the so called exploiters are doctors and others in the medical profession. How is that in your country? Anybody have the courage to reduce those peoples wages?

That is what I thought.

Time to find a new target I think.

Hosni Mubarak of Egypt has been found guilty of crimes in an overlong show trial this week. He was sentenced to life in prison. Apparently he had a “health” issue while flying by helicopter to prison and once again resides in a posh wing of a Cairo hospital.

Right.

Hey, if Mr. Putin really wants to prove to the world that Russia is a superpower, how about stopping the carnage in Syria? His government is actually propping up that regime and supplying it with weapons to murder its people. Can or will he show that he is capable of doing good? Or is the old Russian bear of badness never going to change?

In one of my favourite countries, Germany, another sad story has emerged.

The northern German city of Hamburg was caught up in a three-way battle between neo-Nazis, anti-Nazis and police on Saturday, hours after numerous police vehicles were set on fire.

That poor country. It has tried so hard to put the horrors of the past and the National Socialist Party ( Nazi ) behind it in words and actions and yet like a virus bubbling to the surface this happens. As Europe reels from the Greek/Spanish/Italian fiscal mess, more and more of the ordinary people turn to extremist political parties, especially the far right wing ones, to find any kind of social and fiscal relief.

History always repeats itself and this way will not work. And the effects will cut deep and hurt and be long lasting I am afraid to say.

Another sign of the deepening fiscal malaise spreading from Europe to Germany is the report that the insolvent German drugstore chain Schlecker is to be broken up with the loss of 13,200 jobs after a panel of creditors decided there was no way forward for the beleaguered business, administrators announced on Friday.

I sometimes wonder if the swiftness and length of this present world fiscal depression is partly caused and sustained by the effect of the instantaneous video and audio communication that we now have in the world. It is not the fault of the Internet but it has not helped.

Before it might take weeks for bad news to travel around the world or even to spread very far, but not now. A bank fails in a small town in Spain and that is world news and investors stampede.

Maybe it is time for a close look at the influence of investors and speculators in world stock markets. Look at the price of oil – below $90 a barrel US and yet prices at the pump remain high. Not completely the fault of the oil companies. Speculators drive up the price by buying future shipments based on what their greed figures the world will pay.

Maybe there should be controls put in place but is there any government brave enough to face down the powerful lobbyists?

I really doubt it.

In a sign of how absurd values have twisted - a rare 1932 hand-drawn cover of a Tintin comic goes for 1.3m euros at auction in Paris - setting a new record for the genre.

Really – 1.3 MILLION Euro's for a blasted comic?

Does anybody get it?

I sure do not.

OK, today in history time-

1875 Alexander Graham Bell makes 1st voice transmission

1083 Henry IV of Germany storms Rome, capturing St. Peter's Cathedral

So all our plants are in the outside pots and slowly growing and sprouting soon to be flowers. In the garden little green shoots are peeking through the ground and will later this year bring forth product. We have already taken our first round of rhubarb off and have been using onions and chives for a while now in meal preparation.

So, take time for a walk around your residence and enjoy the summer.

Take care out there,

flatlander52