SORE and SORE

I'm sore. Liz, Adam S, Feiner, Glenn, Heather and Becky checked out the tree top obstacle course/zip line course yesterday http://www.aventurelafleche.ca/en/index.php . It was most sithum and a lot of fun but a few of the obstacles required more upper body strength than I could muster given my ratio of body mass to upper body strength. That said it was all worth it and tons TONS! of fun.

Oh and they also lost our reservation 3 times and 'customer service' in the span of 5 minutes insinuated that I was lying to them and told me that if I got rude so could they... some customer service. The result of the ensuing 'discussion' was that we got reservations for yesterday afterall and 1 free ticket. YEAH!

Secondly I'm sore that Canada has elected a detached, visionless Conservative government. Here's the latest: They intend to use the ENTIRE surplus to pay down the debt http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060925/surplus_payment_060925/20060925?hub=TopStories

So I guess our cities don't need money for infrastructure, I guess provinces don't need money to reduce medical wait times (one of your 5 ORIGINAL priorities that you've not talked about since you realized it was really provincial jurisdiction), I guess our children don't really need better child care, I guess the environment doesn't need fixing, I guess the military doesn't need better equipment, I guess we don't need a national drug plan, I guess we don't need more scholarship or investments in education, etc etc.

These guys have absolutely no clue and could care less about every day Canadians.

BRING ME BACK A GOVERNMENT THAT BOTH PAYED OUR DEBT DOWN AND REINVESTED IN OUR COUNTRY! BRING BACK THE 50:50 formula

Cheers,

P

ALTERNATE HISTORY WITH A MODERN MORAL

Liz and I have been discussing what would have happened if the liberal-democratic states in the world acted in WWII the way they are acting now (with specific reference to Darfur but there are countless places on earth where you can make the comparison, for this exercise the example will be Darfur) http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1107873877528_103283077/?hub=CanadaAM there are also no shortage of academic or in depth journalistic references on this subject so I'll let you google that on your own time.

This example will take place after Chamberlain’s disastrous Munich conference and after the election of Churchill.

….. 1939 Germany invades Poland
….. In lieu of declaring war PM Churchill uses firery rhetoric to lambaste Hitler but stresses the importance of growing trade links with a ‘growing germany’.
….. Germany invades Holland, denmark, Belgium and france.
…. In lieu of military intervention PM Churchill uses more firery rhetoric to lambaste Hitlers’ ‘evil conquests’ and refers the matter to the League of Nations.
….. 1942 first reports of ‘disturbing’ stories of ethnic cleansing and systemic murder of Jews and other ‘undesirables’
….. 1945 – After years of growing academic work on the situation in Europe and the loud protests from emigrants and expatriates for ‘action’ to reclaim the independence of their countries and to protect the Jewish minority, The league of nations calls for an immediate Summit with world leaders to talk through recent events.
…. Death toll is now 7 million Jews alone.
….. Germany agrees to host talks in Paris.
…. In order to reduce sensitivities to the recent events parties agree to meet at the League of Nations palace in Geneva. The governments in exile of Poland, France, Belgium, Denmark and Holland are not invited as this might cause a diplomatic rift damaging the chance of a successful outcome from the talks.
…. Hitler agrees not to systemically persecute any of his citizens or European subjects.
…. Churchill and Truman consider the result of the talks ‘uplifting’
…. League of Nations to monitor the situation in Europe closely.
… 1947 – Hitler has increased efforts to systemically cleans Europe of jews and other undesirables. By the end of the year it is estimated that all European jews will have been exterminated. Other undesirables by 1950.
…. League of Nations sounds alarm bells.
…. Truman and Churchill stress the urgency of the situation and condemn Hitler.
…. League of nations asks Hitler if a league police force would be acceptable to him to help monitor the reduction of systemic abuse.
…. Hitler agrees provided the League’s force is unarmed and located in Andorra, Scicily, and Corsica.
…. League grudgingly accepts even though monitoring the situation will be difficult from these locations nowhere near where the problem is.
…. 1948, academics, religious groups and the league of nations sounds alarm bells, Few European jews remaining are on the run. League asks other countries to help accept jews as refugees.
…. Churchill and Truman decry the current situation and suggest ‘surgical’ military force might be needed. They make no promises to accept any more refugees especially not European jews that might hinder the trade relationship with Germanic Europe.
…1949 no jews left in Europe.
… 1950. only select political undesirables are left.
…. 1951 League of Nations convenes Summit on global stability. During the summit Hitler Truman and Churchill craft a joint statement. Germany will end its systemic programs of abuse against Jews and undesirables in order to forge greater political and economic ties with the United States and Great Britain.
…. Truman and Churchill declare victory.

Now replace Truman and Chruchill with Bush and Blair (you can add in Stephen Harper as 3rd). Replace Hitler with omar el-bashir the president of sudan and replace the league of nations with United Nations. Finally replace jews with ‘Sudanese citizens of darfur’ and the countries of Europe with sections of Darfur.

Had we acted this way 60 years ago Hitler would have won and prospered.

Something has to be done, we championed the right to protect doctrine and now we are abdicating our responsibilities under that doctrine. An African life is worth as much as any victim of hitler’s. http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/canada_un/ottawa/policy/r2p_non_paper-en.asp

Cheers,

Patrick

PS This was fairly off the cuff. I didn't really have the time to research a full and probably more accurate alternate history account but please just take the above in the spirit in which it was meant.

PATCHELOR PARTY PICS

The moment you've all been waiting for.... the first round of pictures from the bachelor party. These have been compiled arranged and posted by Jason and I thank you... history thanks you.

To find the pics please see the easy to follow instructions below... batteries not included.

http://www.billingham.ca - click on Pictures on the left, and then on Pat's Bachelor Party.

Cheers,

P

PERFECT DAY

Sunday was almost as close to perfect as you can get

Star Trek V and VI, beautiful weather, a hike through gatineau park, brochures and plans to check this place http://www.aventurelafleche.ca/en/index.php out very soon, a great dinner in a little rural town, home made ice cream for desert, and home by 9pm to relax.

OH YEAH!

Cheers,

P

PERFECT DAY

Sunday was almost as close to perfect as you can get

Star Trek V and VI, beautiful weather, a hike through gatineau park, brochures and plans to check this place http://www.aventurelafleche.ca/en/index.php out very soon, a great dinner in a little rural town, home made ice cream for desert, and home by 9pm to relax.

OH YEAH!

Cheers,

P

MORE OF THE SAME...

So the Pope's on his high horse again:

“In the name of tolerance your country has had to endure the folly of the redefinition of spouse, and in the name of freedom of choice it is confronted with the daily destruction of unborn children,” the Pope said." G&M

And in the name of perverted history, outdated dogma and inhuman regulations your church has forced its followers to endure tortured and sexually abused children, the consideration of women as second class citizens, and the folly of an organization so insular and blind that it has remained static to the point of irrelvance in the modern world.

Personally... I'll take the tolerance and the freedom but maybe that's just me.

Secondly, Jack Layton's an ass. Pull our troops out of afghanistan so the taliban can come back so there will be no one to protect our diplomats and aid workers who, although don't get air time lately, are doing a fantastic job? You're an ass jack, you represent a party of out of touch, madison avenue pretentious fluffy bunny 'everything in the world is fine' wing nuts. One more party I can't vote for in the next election. Man I'm really stuck here:

The Cons: HELL NO.
The liberals: none of their contenders really inspire me
NDP: See above
Greens: voted for them last time but with MotorMouth May at the helm I have really no interest.

Nothing absolutely nothing....

Cheers,

P

SICK, ILL AND DECOMPOSING

So 'THE THING' that my boss brought back from Geneva that has been ravaging the office for the past month finally got to me. Its been kick the hell out of me since Thursday. There been the throat tickle, the joint aches, the kidney and lungs throbing, the lung butter, the coughing, the enormous fever and now just the unpleasant 'much lighter' version of all of the above.

This better end soon.

Also can we please start convicting idiot US pilots who can't seem to be able to tell friend from foe - YEAR AFTER YEAR. This is at least the third major friendly fire episode with our dear neighbours from the south. Seriously, they should really TRAIN their pilots before they put them in multi-million dollar machines of death. Casualties from the enemy I can handle. Occasional friendly fire episodes in close quarters combat I can handle too. But multiple friendly fire episode, where the culprit is always the same and where the onboard tactical systems of the multi-million dollar machines of death the culprits are flying can usualy tell wher the goodies and the badies are even if the pilot is strung out on pep pills.... THAT'S BLOODY ENOUGH!

Sickly and Achely,

Patrick