Moment of Clarity

May 3/2015

Just when you think you have seen and heard it all something you can’t even imagine, the people of Alberta have had a moment of clarity, an epiphany you might say, and as a result the NDP would appear to have a chance at forming the next government in Texas North (Alberta). 
Hell might freeze over, but there it is, after all the trickle down right-wing bullshit a little light at the end of the tunnel. 
Typically when the People of Alberta get disgusted enough with their dismal right wing governments their usual answer is to just move further to the right, if that is even possible, maybe someone finally realized that Quote “Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.” ― Albert Einstein“ might just be true. 

It has been quite an long and costly 80 year experiment, since 1935 the right has been using and abusing the province and people of Alberta, are they really now open to try something else?

It might help to compare Alberta and Norway which have comparable populations and oil production, Alberta started it’s Heritage fund 15 years before Norway and has produced 18 percent more conventional crude and natural gas than Norway not even counting bitumen and Alberta has 17.2 billion in it’s Heritage fund while Norway has a cool trillion to show for it’s exported non-renewable resources, so even if oil were to cease being a cash cow tomorrow the people of Norway will have a huge cash cushion to ride out the fall, unlike Alberta which even when oil prices are up consistently runs a deficit, and any hiccup in oil prices brings the province into survival mode. 

The obvious difference between the two countries is that in Canada the one percent get the money from our non-renewable resources and Canadians get to clean up the mess and live with the pollution and resulting health problems, but in Norway the Norwegian people get the money for their resources, maybe it is time for Albertans to take an alternative proven path instead of the failed economic model they have been following for 80 years and have something substantial to show for future resource extraction, unlike the 24 billion barrels of oil that has already been extracted from Alberta with not a whole lot to show for it except for pollution.

It is time for the people of Alberta and Canada to take a leap of reason and do the rational thing.

The truth is there is probably lot’s of oil left as it would appear that peak demand for oil has already occurred and as alternative energies take off and get cheaper by the day demand will shrink even more until oil will just be used for products that there is no replacement and there doesn’t seem to be many of those items.

PS May 6/2015 the voters of Alberta did the rational thing and voted for change which means the first NDP government, it is going to be interesting to see how this works out, you can bet the Federal CONS and the one percent will undoubtedly try to make this change of direction fail, keep tuned in it is going to be interesting.

Paper Tiger

Talk about shameless exploitation in a feeble attempt to cling to power, Steven Harper is a paper tiger using fear and exaggeration and gratuitous rhetoric against a paper dragon (ISIS) to make Canadians afraid. Be very afraid he says, I am the only one that can save you from ISIS. 
First of all ISIS is 20,000 religious fanatics, the Arab nations armies surrounding so called ISIS outnumber them 250 to 1, Jordan 180,000 troops, Egypt 1.4 million, Iraq 800,000, Turkey 991,000, Saudi Arabia 250,000, Kurds 250,000, Lebanon 280,000, Syria 600,000, and even if you don’t count Iran's 913,000 armed forces a grand total of 4,751,000 troops which in my view makes it in fact a paper war, in other words it sounds like a severe mismatch to me, not to mention a regional problem that even America is reluctant to get into. 

Now you are going to tell me what horrible despicable people they are, yes they chop off heads, cut off hands and feet, stone people to death, crucify people putting the various parts on display around town, whip them to death with a 1000 lashes, in my opinion a fitting description of cruel and unusual punishment, but wait I am not talking about ISIS, although they are just as barbaric, I am talking about Saudi Arabia and they are supposedly our allies and Canada sells them armaments, and they hate everything we stand for, freedom, democracy and most of the most severely punished victims are guilty of promoting democracy or women. 
How is it any different when our supposed allies do these barbaric atrocities, but when some other faction does it it is unacceptable.

This is a sectarian war and Canada has no business being involved, as the numbers show this is a local problem that can easily be solved by the local affected nations armies. ISIS is no threat to Canadians other than the fact that Harpers ridiculous posturing has made Canada a target, even so you have a better chance of being killed by lightning than being killed by a terrorist and the only threat to that statistic is Steven Harper as he changes Canada from being a peace keeping nation into just one more warmongering puppet.

Hero

I went to see American Sniper and I have to say I have not been so shaken by a movie ever. I am not sure what Mr. Eastwood wanted us to take home from this movie but as a Canadian I certainly did not find it to be a pro-war movie, on the contrary the supposed hero might have been a legend in the core but he did not come off as a hero to me. There were many savages, was much bravery, courage, wanton violence, basically all the elements of war, the bravest act in the whole movie were done by a woman and a child fighting for their home.
I hate how the language has changed so a man fighting for his home is the insurgent and the only crime you have to be guilty of to deserve killing, is being in the wrong country at the wrong time in your own home. Mr. Kyle is obviously a brave uniquely skilled warrior and obviously a legend but I don't think that someone well protected and 2100 yards from the field of conflict is a hero anymore than a drone operator is a hero unless carpel tunnel syndrome is considered a life threatening injury, these remote assassins regularly kill the innocent as well as soldiers on the opposing side, there probably is not a whole lot you can do about that fact, as is is the fact of death by friendly fire in modern warfare. It was just as sad to see the damage done to the soldiers including Mr. Kyle that even managed to come back alive from the cluster fuck that was Iraq.
Watching the stupidity that is war, the one thing that kept running through my head through the whole  spectacle was that the whole horrible waste of lives and resources was based on deliberate lies and would never have happened in a just rational world. The fools that gave us the Iraq war should all be in prison as the war criminals that they are.