G20 Fallout

It's one year since the G20 fiasco in Toronto and the local newspapers are full of comments and stories about individuals who experienced the wrath of the police that weekend. I know I felt disgust at the images of rioters on Younge Street that Saturday afternoon. We do not burn  police cars Toronto and in Canada. (We saw cars burning in Vancouver this month and it was equally distrubing.) 

          We were all angry that the police let the rioters run wild when there were thousands of officers stationed just a few blocks away. Was this done to justify the expense of all those cops by saying we told you this could happen?

        The next day the cops took out their frustration on the general public and arrested 1100 plus people in a most humiliating way. Our support for the cops started to diminish as images of their brutality emerged. 

         As the months went by more stories emerged and the cops began to look worse and worse as they tried to cover their collective asses . Only two officers have been charged because no one recognized their own buddies that weekend inhibiting full investigation of complaints by the SIU.

          Chief Blair and Union President McCormack obfuscate the issues and will not admit that the behaviour of some officers might have been criminal. Maybe they are embarrassed by what happened under their watch. 

          The cost in public support is high. People will look at cops with suspicion for a long time to come.

Stanley Cup

I don't have to eat my words. Boston won 4-0. The Canucks couldn't even score one goal.
We, that is many Canadians even in Toronto, were hoping the Canucks would have won. We were encouraged in the first two games amd then in the fifth game but the sweep made by Boston at home was a harbinger of the final game.
Ah well, next year the Maple Leafs.

Stanley Cup

The hockey game tonight has been another disaster for Vancouver. It was so bad I didn't watch it. How can the Canucks play so poorly in Boston and be so LUCKY at home? Yes, I believe they have been lucky at home.

        The game on Wednesday will be a cliff hanger again since the Canucks do not seem to win by more than one goal. Boston just has to play like they did tonight and the cup is theirs.

         I believe Boston will finally win in Vancouver. Maybe I'll eat my words again but I doubt it this time.

On Men and Women

Mankind’s first conflicts must have been about water, food and women. Through the ages men have waged wars, created mayhem and done stupid things for women as mates, concubines, slaves and bearers of sons. Men are driven by hormones that override their common sense at certain times in their life cycles. It might be likened to a battery that is trickle charged until it must be discharged or it will burn out or explode. 

Men and women make a bargain when they marry. Traditionally men provided for the woman in general terms and the woman looked after the man in many ways including discharging the battery.

In recent years there have been stories of many powerful men who have been discovered discharging their batteries away from the marital couch. (For a partial list go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_state_and_local_political_sex_scandals_in_the_United_States)

The most recent story is of a guy named Anthony Weiner. He was found to be looking for women on the Internet in weird ways. Why would a man do it? Heather Mallick writes an often entertaining and insightful column in the Toronto Star. In a recent column she wrote in part; " I don’t do a Weiner. Women don’t. Why? Because we don’t have to. Sex is available to us. We just stand around being ourselves. It’s not like that for guys.

It’s difficult to be a grown man and indeed, many women argue that it’s beyond them. Why, men, why?

        The answer is that, generally speaking, if men want to meet an attractive woman, they will have to make the first move. Rejection is intensely painful."

Women are the gatekeepers even for their husbands with the exception of abusive marriages. She can have sex if and when she wants. Single or attached women can go to a bar and with little trouble go home with some guy even if he isn't the man of her dreams. Funny thing about Mr. Weiner; he is newly married to a beautiful woman who is in the first trimester of pregnancy. She must be doing her duty but in general a woman or wife who wants to keep her man must make him happy at home. He may not be romantic but he won't wander. Many wives, busy with children, forget to look after their men and the men, struggling with their career, forget to engage in the foreplay women need to be aroused for sex. Many times the man will meet an attractive woman and begin to fantasize the loving he isn’t getting at home.  

            If a powerful man, like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Eliot Spitzer, DSK from France, and others in business and the professions, starts to wander many women will make themselves available to him. He begins to think he can do anything and some get into serious trouble and expensive divorces when reality strikes. Simpler men do the same thing but with less publicity.

            We can’t blame it all on the women but why is it so common in our society? Other societies have solved the problem with polygamy and a more liberal perspective on mistresses. Why is prostitution the oldest ‘profession’ practiced in all societies if it isn’t to help men, married men, relieve their tensions? Of course mature women have needs too and some are known in bars as cougars.

            Many divorces occur after twenty five years of marriage when the kids are grown and excitement in the master bedroom has become routine and probably disappeared completely. What’s the answer? Religion? Islam allows a man four wives. He can even marry a woman for an hour and divorce her immediately after. That doesn’t seem like the answer for men in the west. Our women have achieved a degree of what they call ‘liberation’ but they are more frequently practising male domination.  Wives must become more flexible as the sexual energy of their husbands wains but his desire remains strong. Wives or partners can help their men in many ways both emotionally and physically using a little imagination. It doesn’t bite and there might be reciprocal delights for her too. Try it, age is not a factor.

            Unfortunately it won’t happen and men will continue to stupidly do whatever is needed to discharge their batteries. Sad but true.

             Do you have an opinion or suggestion? Don’t be shy. Use the comment box and tell us.

War on this and that

I don't usually write two days in a row but our one spring day has turned back to clouds and rain.  Please bear with me.

           I was listening to a commentator talking about Fighting Global Warming. It made me think everything seems to be a fight or a war. Fight Cancer, War on Drugs, War on Terror, etc. etc. It strikes me that rather than fight things that are beyond our control we should ADAPT to them.

          Let's not Fight Global Warming but instead Adapt to Global Warming. Changes in weather patterns are natural phenomena  that have gone on since the worlds beginning. Imagine an ice age is coming. Shall we fight the ice age. No, we'll adapt to it and mitigate the results so we can continue to live as a society. 

          We can Adapt to Global Warming by becoming green as the environmentalists and doomsayers want because doing so will make better use of the worlds resources. We'll develop new technologies to meet new conditions as people have always done. Life will go on even if changed. Populations may rise and fall depending on water and food supplies. War will still happen as the 'have nots' want what the' haves' have so don't worry about not needed a military for protection. 

          The War on Drugs has been unsuccessful. People have used various drugs for pain relief, recreation, mood alteration and other purposes since time immemorial. Just because the US government decrees a war on drugs doesn't change human nature. We can adapt to the use of drugs in the population. We do it with powerful drugs called alcohol and nicotine.

           People Fight Cancer by adapting to it if they or loved ones are stricken. I guess calling it a fight encourages people to donate money and to run in marathons. 

          War on Terror  is a clarion call to fight and send young men to kill and die. Terrorism is not new. A terrorist lit the spark that started WW 1.There is a root cause for the existence Al Qaeda that can be changed or adapted to. We can adapt to the Taliban too. Some other people will have a harder time adapting to the Taliban than we in Canada, I hope.

           I won't go on but I hope you catch my drift.

Holiday weekend in Ontario

It has been very wet here for the last week or so but the sun is up this morning. It is a glorious spring day at last. God is in his heaven and if some people are correct about the end of the world today many others will be there too. 

           Obama went way out on a limb this week asking for reason in the middle east. He is a brave man and could be a great president and leader. I've made predictions that went south a few times and I hope this is one but I suspect he will be ground up, chewed and spit out by the Jewish lobby, the military industrial complex, big oil and Christian evangelicals who all have different reasons to prolong the conflict. 

         The Israeli's want the whole west bank and will displace all the Palestinians to achieve their goal. They believe God gave them the land and have divine right to it. What can be a stronger motivation to kill and steal from other people?

        The Arab world will not rise up to protect their brethren since they are in Washington's pocket for various reasons. There are many American writers among others who openly criticize the duplicitous US policy of promoting democracy for some while supporting friendly tyrants. Obama is between a rock and a hard place this time; logic and justice has nothing to do with it.

         It's amusing that the Israeli's claim the 1967 borders would be indefensible. Wouldn't peace make defensible borders redundant? Canada has indefensible borders with the US but we have peace and while the Americans want to fortify the border I don't think they fear an invasion from Canada.

Thoughts on Islam

The death of Osama Bin Laden has provoked violent reaction in some parts of the Muslim world particularly Pakistan but we can expect it to expand elsewhere. Hopefully our police and security forces can prevent situations like the subway bombing in London and the rail bombing in Madrid. We hear of the arrest of cells of young radicals in many cities in the west including Toronto. Why do followers of the Prophet act like barbarians? Generally they have done so for generations but in addition the Shias have no problem killing Sunnis. The Shia sect in Syria has been busy killing Sunni protesters in the street just as Qaddafi was willing to murder thousands of his people until the west stopped him. This begs a huge question about Egypt where the mass murder during the uprising which everyone expected would happen didn't happen. Maybe President Obama had enough influence in Egypt to prevent it. 

             Winston Churchill was the leader of the west for much of World War 2 and he had been active in the late 1800's during the height of the British Empire.He observed the Muslims (Mohammedans as they were called in those day) in many of their home countries and here is what he wrote;

"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries!  Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy.  The effects are apparent in many countries, improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live.
A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement, the next of its dignity and sanctity.  The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.
Individual Muslims may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it.
No stronger retrograde force exists in the world.  Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith.  It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome ."


              The sheltering arms of Christianity and science he speaks of have dramatically weakened in the west since he wrote these words. Our only protection may be military power, specifically the US military, but it may not be sufficient to support western ideals over the long run since the Mohammedans now live among us. Maybe they can adopt western values, maybe not. Western values are almost diametrically opposite the Sharia laws and the interpretation of the Quoran. I would not want to predict the world one hundred years from now.