boom..bust..depression..solutions..

Rut-at-tut-rat-ta-tut.....a train with about 100 rail cars rumbles through town..a small town on lake Ontario, Port Hope or Cobourg..does it really matter?
The point is,that these rail-links are old and should have been replaced long ago.Rail is about the cheapest way to move goods unless there is a possibility of traffic by water, a barge system.And yet we see thousands of transport trucks 18 wheelers with often overtired operators slugging it out on our highways.
Does it not make sens to review our transportation system? Is it not time to have a good look at where we are and where we should be going with this. During economic so called hard times we should find or create the resources to fix or renew this part of our infrastructure. People are looking for jobs and things to do and are less likely to want to go on strike for unreasonable demands. We should claim our railways back, they once were the backbone of what we were as a country and this would be the time to update the antiquated system .Years ago I suggested to build a rapid rail-link between Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal with an international Airport in or around Kingston..If this system would have been implemented we could have, today one of the most modern commuter, people moving systems in the world.
Instead multi millions were wasted acquiring land in Pickering ( east of Toronto) and a totally useless airport was built in Montreal ( Mirabel, mothballed).

democracy

Hampered by massive corruption and lack of quality leadership and human capital, the Government of Afghanistan is one of the weakest governments of the world, the Pentagon has said in its latest report to the Congress.
...meanwhile...there are slums, people begging in the streets and warlords building themselves fancy homes...
...tell this boy about freedom...democracy..

the ugly American...10

America...world domination in limbo...
The message of this document, stripped of its cynical euphemisms and calculated evasions, is unmistakably clear:
The United States government asserts the right to bomb, invade and destroy whatever country it chooses.
It refuses to respect as a matter of international law the sovereignty of any other country, and reserves the right to get rid of any regime, in any part of the world, that is, appears to be, or might some day become, hostile to what the United States considers to be its vital interests. Its threats are directed, in the short term, against so-called 'failed states' that is, former colonies and impoverished Third World countries ravaged by the predatory policies of imperialism.
But larger competitors of the United States, whom the document refers to, in a revival of pre-World War II imperialist jargon, as 'Great Powers,' are by no means out of the gun sights of the Bush administration. The wars against small and defenseless states that the United States is now preparing — first of all against Iraq — will prove to be the preparation for military onslaughts against more formidable targets. —
David North, The War against Iraq and America's Drive for World Domination

We don’t have wars.
We have conflicts
campaigns
operations
escalations
missions
offensives
preemptive strikes
We don’t have soldiers.
We have peace keepers
troops
servicemen
service women
forces
coalitions
units.
We don’t have mistakes in combat.
We have
incidents
accidents
friendly fire
flawed intelligence.
We don’t have death.
We have
casualties
loss of life
collateral damage
What we do have
is a careful vocabulary.

Wagner, Ann. 2008.

"America At War".