The Gift of Memory

I have been watching a show about Clive Wearing. He has the worst case of amnesia ever recorded. He cannot remember more than 30 seconds and thus lives in the perpetual 'now'. Actually he lives in the 30 seconds since he woke from his coma. Every moment is the moment he woke up. The only person he recognizes is his wife, which brings me to my small observation. Every time she walks into a room, Clive greets her like she's been gone for months. With pure innocence, he lavishes love on his wife.

Romantic Cold War History

If you listen to the Berlin speeches of JFK, Ronald Reagan, and Barack Obama, you will notice a massive difference (aside from 2 being presidents and one a senator). Kennedy and Reagan understood the reality, Obama basked in the outcome seemingly oblivious of the costs. Obama literally rewrote history when he claimed the 'world stood as one' and the Berlin Airlift succeeded and the Wall came down (thank you John Bolton). Not really sir, the world was divided (thus the wall) and even then the west was divided.

Listen to JFK's speech" "There are some who say in Europe and elsewhere that we can work with the communists...let them come to Berlin." That is not a uniting message, it is a challenge for the appeasers to see how wrong they are in their assessment of totalitarianism. These same appeasers got their knickers in a knot when Reagan called the USSR an evil empire. Far from unity, the West was deeply divided on the question of communism. Ford and Carter thought the softer line would work and were rewarded with quasi-annexation of Eastern Europe and the invasion of Afghanistan. Even after these aggressive Soviet maneuvers of the 1970's, the mass protests in Europe (much of which was KGB funded) called for a softer line on the USSR and Warsaw Pact. It was tough leadership that tore down the wall. Leadership unafraid to unify around the truth of what the USSR and its allies were all about.

Obama painted a caricature of reality in his Berlin speech. I am sure there are many old-Berliners who were insulted by this lack of homage.

Enough Already!!

Over the last few months i have heard numerous news stories on the radio, TV and internet about the increasing number of foreclosures. Yes it is sad that people are losing their homes. Should the government step in and do something about this...... i'm really not convinced. Now I have NEVER EVER bought a house. But i would imagine there is a fair amount of paperwork that needs to be signed. I'm sure that mortgage companies are not allowed to keep the monthly mortgage payments a secret in that paperwork. I'm positive that a prospective buyer needs to read through the papers before they sign them. But somehow people are "shocked" at their rate increases! Enough already!! If you did not read the paper work before you bought the house, that's your fault, not the mortgage company's. If you were so enamored with buying a home that you didn't care about the rate increases, then again, your blame on the mortgage is unfounded. Should the government bail you out? No!

I do feel for those how have hit, for lack of a better expression, a run of bad luck. Lost your job, haven't been able to find a new one etc. That is sad, but i still don't think the government should be the one to bail you out. Sell your house before the bank takes it back, and rent something smaller until you can get back on your feet again.

Our culture -- both Canada and the United States -- is so fixated on the material. We want stuff. We want land. We want to own. None of those are necessarily bad things. Goodness knows i would love to buy our own place. But sometimes those dreams just aren't realistic and we need to deal with that rather than spending outside of our means. And perhaps, finding a roommate can help with the housing costs. This lust after the material needs to stop and we need to stop looking to the government to fulfill our every desire or bail us out when we screw up.

What You Think Is Good News...

Is not good news. Having just moved into a ridiculously energy-inefficient house, one looks for ways to save on energy bills. So we put the AC at a higher temp. We get rid of an old fridge, and we don't burn lights except in the room we are currently inhabiting. All this hard work saved 706 kWh. Hazzah to the housekeep! But no, those 706 hours translate into an $8 savings. Actually, looking at the bill is not very helpful at all. There is no baseline of usage to compare. They give all these convoluted reasons for this increase and that decrease, but in the end it means nothing. All I do know is that rates increased by 18% and it wiped out all of my energy usage reductions.

Root Causes

One of the main topics of conversation since 2001 has been: what are the root causes of terrorism? Today, Obama has once again laid it at the feet of class warfare. Poverty, ignorance, helplessness and despair are to blame for terrorists doing what they do. The pervasive philosophy underlying this argument is Marxism. 3 of the 4 pieces to Obama's argument are materialistic in nature.

While material stuff may be incentive to some, I think the true believers are more ideological. The 2001 terrorists were not poor, helpless, despairing men. They were upper middle-class men who had an agenda justified by their ideology. Indeed, OBL is an extremely wealthy man and his organization receives millions from very wealthy kindred souls. The people that Obama described are used by the true believers as cannon fodder. Again, the justification lies in the ideology.

So, I think the Marxist argument for terrorism is facile at best. But that is Marxism's Achilles' Heal. True Believers fall outside the parameters of class struggle.

Protesting

A Warning to Parents

This just in, Australia has determined that fairy-stories are dangerous to children. The remedy is to put a warning at the end of each story telling children not to attempt what the children in the story do. So, no talking to wolves, or sleeping and eating in a bear's house, or eating a witch's gingerbread house. Dang, I now need to strike these from the list, to-do-before-I-die.

The Indispensability of Charcoal

Indeed you may find this a peculiar statement to make. However, I have three reasons to support my theory. First, charcoal cooking is absolutely delicious. The gas grill does not flavor food as well. Second, Jack Daniels filters its product through charcoal...enough said. Finally, it creates fertile soil. In the Amazon, they are starting to believe that the natives from 500 years ago and beyond supported a population of millions in the jungle by turning the soil with charcoal. There is this rich black soil which is found all over the Amazon and it has embedded charcoal. So there you go.

Independence Day

It's July 4. Today many will take to the outdoors for a bit of flag waving and fireworks to celebrate the acceptance of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress this day in 1776. So I thought it would be fitting to look at the Star Spangled Banner and hear what it really has to say. Many lefties think it is a militaristic qua imperialistic song and explains why the US is a terrible and violent country. A simple reading will prove otherwise.

Oh say can you see by the dawn early light.
What so proudly we hail at the the twilights last gleaming.
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight.
O'er the ramparts we watch were so gallantly streaming.

And the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air
Gave proof through the night, that our flag was still there

Oh say does that star spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Yes there are lots of bombs bursting and rockets glaring, but those are British bombs and rockets attacking the USA! You see F.S. Key was residing on a British prison ship in Baltimore harbour looking towards Ft McHenry as the battle raged. The US held the fort at twilight. The battle raged the night through and much to Key's delight, the US held the fort in the morning. If the shelling had stopped, the fort was lost. Upon seeing the US flag flying over the fort in the morning, Key knew that the US had won this battle and the US was still the land of the free and home of the brave.

This is not a song of empire but of survival. So stand strong and lift your head, the anthem is good verse.