Anyone even remotely interested in a political career should as a basic understanding of how the world works...have some idea of History, Geography and a comprehension as to just how we got to where we are today.
With the great scientific strides made over the past few decades
( computers, medicine, exploration of space and communication data processing to just name a few),
it is incredible how primitively we still conduct our life in so many areas.
It is astounding to see how little understanding of "must know" subjects many of our political leaders actually possess.
Is it any wonder then that we find ourselves in the almost catastrophic mess we are in today. The financial world has crumbled
(banks,insurance companies,government sponsored and other mortgage lenders,large stock brokerage houses),
industrial giants such as the auto and steel industry are on their knees looking for government bail outs and the folks in power do not appear to have the background or ability to get us out of the mess we somehow got into.
We are in a worldwide recession, if not already a depression and by the looks of it there appears no clear way out of this quagmire. Unless....we act now to change all that.
But:-
There is a way out of all this but it takes bold actions and as the Americans call it a bipartisan effort. Now is the time to do it, or we will indeed be into the worst depression ever.
20.3.09
USSR by the numbers...
1-Armenia
2-Azerbaijan, 86,000 Sq Km
3-Belarus
4-8-& 9, Estonia,Latvia, Lithuania the 3 Baltic countries swallowed up after WWII
5-Georgia, 69,000 Sq Km
7-Kazakhstan
6-Kyrgyzstan, 2,780,000 Sq Km, earth land surface 2-3/4% 9Th. largest country in the world
10-Moldova
11-Russia, now The Russian Federation...17,000,000 Sq. Km, still the largest country in the World 12% of earths dry land surface 11 timezones...
12-Tajikistan,
13-Turkmenestan, 488,000 Sq Km. .33%
14-The Ukraine, 603,000 Sq Km., second largest country in Europa .41% of earth land surface
15-Uzbekistan 448,000 Sq Km .30% of land surface of the earth
Just to compare: other countries within Europe....
France- 633,000Sq Km .43% of world dry land surface
Germany- 357,000 Sq Km .24% of world dry land surface
U.K.,Britain- 243,000 Sq Km or .16% of Worlds dry land surface
19.3.09
Russia & America....
This map shows the areas directly controlled by the former Soviet Union...most of it the northern part of Asia.
Area 11 is the Russian Federation of today, still by far the largest country in the World. The map does not include communist ruled Countries closely controlled by the USSR (Poland, Hungary, Tchekoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Roumania , East Germany)..
The USSR Population then (1989)was 290 Million, the USA about 250 Million
Today,Russia only has about 144 Million inhabitants (above area 11)...USA over 340 Million.
Comparison between USSR and USA 1988/1990
according to 1990 CIA World Factbook
Population (July 1990)
290,938,469 USSR
250,410,000 USA
Labour force (1989)
152,300,000 USSR
125,557,000 USA
The USA has or had about 2,500 nuclear devices ( and about as many active or recently retired Generals and Admirals); the Soviets were estimated to own 16,000 smaller warheads.
17.3.09
now read this....Brent Herbert
I rarely if ever promote any ones stuff...but here is a fellow well worth reading. His ideas are down to earth and his subjects many. Much research appears to have been done by him on the subjects of the USA and the Americans effect on( or to conquer) the rest of the world, wars etc.
He deals a bit with the Scriptures as well, ideas on evolution, science and what impressed me most of all, his attitude as to what one could consider decent, acceptable and or vulgar. I agree with most of it.I particularly like his detailed comments along with accurate data facts of and about the current so called wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
...here are common places where children find unexploded bits and pieces of dangerous ordnance...
10.3.09
*I*R*A*Q* more
Remember now:
The invasion of Iraq was in no way what it seemed to be.
Saddam Hussein was never a threat to the United States.
His "weapons of mass destruction" remain invisible, his terrorist connections remain unproven, and he had absolutely nothing to do with the destruction of the World Trade Center.
Most cynical of all was the "liberation" lie, the administration's sudden concern for the helpless citizens of Iraq. Saddam, as grotesque as he was, wasn't getting any meaner, and "liberators" like Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney were doing brisk business with him when he was in his murderous, citizen-eating prime (and in Cheney's case, as recently as 10 years ago).
It would take half a page to list all the US-sanctioned dictators, killers of their people, who will be sharing hell's hottest corner with Saddam Hussein. serendipity...
9.3.09
nuclear protests..topless women of Paraquay
Recently
a demonstration prompted female protesters to go topless..a bit painted up...
the official photographs taken are not so great so we copied this picture from a remote village to take it's place..
In a more serious protest....
ASUNCION, Paraguay (AP) — Two women let themselves be crucified on wooden crosses and carried around Paraguay's capital on Friday as part of citywide protests demanding President Fernando Lugo grant funds for low-income housing.
Members of various homeless organizations nailed the women's hands and bound their feet to crosses in a plaza to pressure the Social Action Secretariat to give them $1 million to purchase land and build homes.
The women were identified as Laura Raquel Ramirez, 37, and Naida Villaverde, 41. One of them fainted from the heat and pain, said Blas Vera, one of the movement's leaders.
Several men heaved the crosses on their shoulders and bore the women through Asuncion, joining dozens of other protesters
Members of various homeless organizations nailed the women's hands and bound their feet to crosses in a plaza to pressure the Social Action Secretariat to give them $1 million to purchase land and build homes.
The women were identified as Laura Raquel Ramirez, 37, and Naida Villaverde, 41. One of them fainted from the heat and pain, said Blas Vera, one of the movement's leaders.
Several men heaved the crosses on their shoulders and bore the women through Asuncion, joining dozens of other protesters
Dear Sarah....more!
Sarah says...
"What is it exactly that the VP does every day?"
Sarah Louise Heath Palin is the governor of the U.S. state of Alaska. She was the Republican vice presidential nominee in the 2008 United States presidential election race, chosen by Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain on August 2008.
What Do You Think of Sarah?
Sarah Palin is smart. She is usually honest and sexy.
They think of her as a beautiful, classy and a fearless sweetheart.
Peter Principle Pimps Palin!
December 2006, Sarah Palin made history by becoming governor of Alaska, the first woman and youngest person to be elected to the post. She was elected after upsetting the incumbent in the Republican primary. As governor she declared that education, public safety, and transportation would be the three cornerstones of her administration. Prior to becoming governor, Palin served two terms on the Wasilla, city council from 1992 to 1996, and was elected mayor of Wasilla in 1996 and 1999. Palin was also elected president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors in 1999. In 2002, Palin made an unsuccessful bid for lieutenant governor of Alaska.
Sarah was born in Idaho. Her mother worked as a school secretary, and her father a science teacher and track coach. Her ancestry includes English, Irish, and German. Her family moved to Alaska when she was an infant.
At Wasilla High School in Alaska, Palin was a point guard and captain of the basketball team. She was also the head of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter at her high school. She was the prayer leader before each game. Palin was originally baptized as a Catholic, but was re baptized at age 12 by the Wasilla Assembly of God Church. She is a member of The Church on the Rock, an independent congregation. She describes herself as a non-denominational Christian.
She was Miss Wasilla in 1984 and later lost a pageant to become Miss Alaska; she got second place.
Palin received a Bachelor of Science degree in communications-journalism from the University of Idaho, where she also minored in political science. She started her professional career as a local news and sports reporter for the local Anchorage TV station KTUU. She later served as city councilwoman and mayor of the town of about 9,000 before being elected governor of her home state in 2006.
She married Todd Palin in 1988, her boyfriend since high school. She is the mother of five children. Her husband works for the oil company BP in a non-managerial position and works as a fisherman in his hometown during the summer. He is a world champion snowmobiler. Neither her husband nor her son Track are registered Republicans, and neither have ever registered with a political party. Over half of Alaskans are registered as nonpartisan or undeclared.
Palin has two sons and three daughters. Her youngest child, 2008 has Down syndrome. Palin's decision to have the baby was applauded by the pro-life community. Track, her eldest child, is in an infantry brigade in the U.S. Army.
A biography written about Sarah Palin, Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska's Political Establishment on Its Ear, by Kaylene Johnson was released April, 2008. Immediately after McCain announced his VP choice the biography soared to number 12 of all books on the online merchant web site Amazon.com. The book ranked number one in the political biographies section of the web site.
Among the criticisms of her as a vice presidential nominee is that she has no national experience, not to mention international experience. McCain's VP choice seems ironic given the money he has spent in an attempt to portray Barack Obama as lacking the experience necessary to be president of the United States.
Palin strongly supports and promotes oil and natural gas resource development in Alaska. She believes that "a changing environment will affect Alaska more than any other state" but she would not "attribute it to being man-made." This statement was announced after securing Senator McCain's VP nomination.
In March 2007, Palin presented the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA) as the new legal vehicle for building a natural gas pipeline from the state's North Slope. In August 2008, Palin signed a bill into law giving the state of Alaska authority to award TransCanada Pipelines. A license was granted to build and operate the $26 billion pipeline to transport natural gas from the North Slope to the Lower 48 through Canada.
In May 2008, Palin objected to listing polar bears as an endangered species. She filed a lawsuit to stop the listing fearing it would hurt oil and gas development. Palin strongly supports drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
In response to high oil and gas prices, Palin originally proposed giving Alaskans $100-a-month energy debit cards and proposed providing grants to electrical utilities so that they would reduce customers' rates. She subsequently dropped the debit card proposal, and instead paid Alaskans $1,200 each from the windfall surplus the state earns due to higher oil prices.
Palin's selection as the 2008 Republican party vice presidential candidate came as a surprise. John McCain had only met Palin six months earlier at a meeting of the National Governors Association, and he had only spoken with her about the position once, on the Sunday before he formally offered it to her.
A month prior to being named McCain's nominee, Palin was quoted on the CNBC show Kudlow & Company as saying, "But as for that VP talk all the time, I'll tell you, I still can't answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day? I'm used to being very productive and working real hard in an administration. We want to make sure that that VP slot would be a fruitful type of position, especially for Alaskans and for the things that we're trying to accomplish up here for the rest of the U.S."
At the beginning of October 2008, the McCain campaign used Palin to attack the character of Barack Obama. Palin was quoted at a California political rally as saying about Obama: "Our opponent is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who targeted their own country." The attacks, which were at once nonsensical and untrue, only eroded confidence in Palin as a potential future president.
In November 2008, three days after she and McCain were defeated by Senator Barack Obama and his running mate Senator Joe Biden, Palin lashed out at critics of her performance in the campaign, calling them "cowards and jerks" according to the Associated Press. Palin was criticized for accepting an expensive wardrobe paid for by the McCain campaign, her apparent belief that Africa is a country rather than a continent and her inability to name the three countries in the North American Free Trade Agreement (the United States, Canada and Mexico). reprinted...mono
my comments....:
I'm sure Mrs. Palin is a wonderful mom and wife, probably a good Governor of her state as well. The population of Alaska is about 650,000 I believe that is similar to North Dakota or for that matter South Dakota or in fact a suburb of my hometown Toronto (which has nothing to do with it).
Surely there are vast differences in administering the affairs of this state as compared to say California with a population of over 38 million. Or the country with 380 millions.
"What is it exactly that the VP does every day?"
Sarah Louise Heath Palin is the governor of the U.S. state of Alaska. She was the Republican vice presidential nominee in the 2008 United States presidential election race, chosen by Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain on August 2008.
What Do You Think of Sarah?
Sarah Palin is smart. She is usually honest and sexy.
They think of her as a beautiful, classy and a fearless sweetheart.
Peter Principle Pimps Palin!
December 2006, Sarah Palin made history by becoming governor of Alaska, the first woman and youngest person to be elected to the post. She was elected after upsetting the incumbent in the Republican primary. As governor she declared that education, public safety, and transportation would be the three cornerstones of her administration. Prior to becoming governor, Palin served two terms on the Wasilla, city council from 1992 to 1996, and was elected mayor of Wasilla in 1996 and 1999. Palin was also elected president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors in 1999. In 2002, Palin made an unsuccessful bid for lieutenant governor of Alaska.
Sarah was born in Idaho. Her mother worked as a school secretary, and her father a science teacher and track coach. Her ancestry includes English, Irish, and German. Her family moved to Alaska when she was an infant.
At Wasilla High School in Alaska, Palin was a point guard and captain of the basketball team. She was also the head of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter at her high school. She was the prayer leader before each game. Palin was originally baptized as a Catholic, but was re baptized at age 12 by the Wasilla Assembly of God Church. She is a member of The Church on the Rock, an independent congregation. She describes herself as a non-denominational Christian.
She was Miss Wasilla in 1984 and later lost a pageant to become Miss Alaska; she got second place.
Palin received a Bachelor of Science degree in communications-journalism from the University of Idaho, where she also minored in political science. She started her professional career as a local news and sports reporter for the local Anchorage TV station KTUU. She later served as city councilwoman and mayor of the town of about 9,000 before being elected governor of her home state in 2006.
She married Todd Palin in 1988, her boyfriend since high school. She is the mother of five children. Her husband works for the oil company BP in a non-managerial position and works as a fisherman in his hometown during the summer. He is a world champion snowmobiler. Neither her husband nor her son Track are registered Republicans, and neither have ever registered with a political party. Over half of Alaskans are registered as nonpartisan or undeclared.
Palin has two sons and three daughters. Her youngest child, 2008 has Down syndrome. Palin's decision to have the baby was applauded by the pro-life community. Track, her eldest child, is in an infantry brigade in the U.S. Army.
A biography written about Sarah Palin, Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska's Political Establishment on Its Ear, by Kaylene Johnson was released April, 2008. Immediately after McCain announced his VP choice the biography soared to number 12 of all books on the online merchant web site Amazon.com. The book ranked number one in the political biographies section of the web site.
Among the criticisms of her as a vice presidential nominee is that she has no national experience, not to mention international experience. McCain's VP choice seems ironic given the money he has spent in an attempt to portray Barack Obama as lacking the experience necessary to be president of the United States.
Palin strongly supports and promotes oil and natural gas resource development in Alaska. She believes that "a changing environment will affect Alaska more than any other state" but she would not "attribute it to being man-made." This statement was announced after securing Senator McCain's VP nomination.
In March 2007, Palin presented the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA) as the new legal vehicle for building a natural gas pipeline from the state's North Slope. In August 2008, Palin signed a bill into law giving the state of Alaska authority to award TransCanada Pipelines. A license was granted to build and operate the $26 billion pipeline to transport natural gas from the North Slope to the Lower 48 through Canada.
In May 2008, Palin objected to listing polar bears as an endangered species. She filed a lawsuit to stop the listing fearing it would hurt oil and gas development. Palin strongly supports drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
In response to high oil and gas prices, Palin originally proposed giving Alaskans $100-a-month energy debit cards and proposed providing grants to electrical utilities so that they would reduce customers' rates. She subsequently dropped the debit card proposal, and instead paid Alaskans $1,200 each from the windfall surplus the state earns due to higher oil prices.
Palin's selection as the 2008 Republican party vice presidential candidate came as a surprise. John McCain had only met Palin six months earlier at a meeting of the National Governors Association, and he had only spoken with her about the position once, on the Sunday before he formally offered it to her.
A month prior to being named McCain's nominee, Palin was quoted on the CNBC show Kudlow & Company as saying, "But as for that VP talk all the time, I'll tell you, I still can't answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day? I'm used to being very productive and working real hard in an administration. We want to make sure that that VP slot would be a fruitful type of position, especially for Alaskans and for the things that we're trying to accomplish up here for the rest of the U.S."
At the beginning of October 2008, the McCain campaign used Palin to attack the character of Barack Obama. Palin was quoted at a California political rally as saying about Obama: "Our opponent is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who targeted their own country." The attacks, which were at once nonsensical and untrue, only eroded confidence in Palin as a potential future president.
In November 2008, three days after she and McCain were defeated by Senator Barack Obama and his running mate Senator Joe Biden, Palin lashed out at critics of her performance in the campaign, calling them "cowards and jerks" according to the Associated Press. Palin was criticized for accepting an expensive wardrobe paid for by the McCain campaign, her apparent belief that Africa is a country rather than a continent and her inability to name the three countries in the North American Free Trade Agreement (the United States, Canada and Mexico). reprinted...mono
my comments....:
I'm sure Mrs. Palin is a wonderful mom and wife, probably a good Governor of her state as well. The population of Alaska is about 650,000 I believe that is similar to North Dakota or for that matter South Dakota or in fact a suburb of my hometown Toronto (which has nothing to do with it).
Surely there are vast differences in administering the affairs of this state as compared to say California with a population of over 38 million. Or the country with 380 millions.
7.3.09
*AFGHANISTAN*
And now,...another three Canadian Soldiers return in boxes...I watched the scene in Trenton on TV as the families of the three participated in another military ritual...this time numbers 109-110 & 111.
Killed like most of the casualties by an explosive device blowing up their patrol vehicle.
I know we all believe we make a difference in being there,offering our talents, young men and women to try and help in a land that has to be one of the strangest places on earth. More so it appears that the population as a whole does not want our help or interference in their culture. If it's a matter of digging up BinLadin then all efforts should be made to find him and his band..wipe them out and be done with it. Beyond that I can't think of what good we are doing there.
We've had a successful peacekeeper role in many places of this universe, perhaps in the near future we can assist in Somalia and other flash point places once there is a peace to keep. But in Afghanistan we are in a middle of a tribal warlord scene much of it over dope and for what little good we are doing I for one am not sure it is worth it.
I*R*A*Q just what are we still doing there?
Bush would lead, he declared, "a coalition of the willing" (consisting in fact merely of the US, Britain and — to its disgrace — Australia), which would "disarm" Iraq and thereby remove an imminent threat to the entire world.
But efforts by warmongers such as former CIA Director R. James Woolsey failed to turn up any credible evidence of links between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda or other groups of "Arab terrorists", particularly prior to September 11th, 2001. Investigatons by the CIA, the DIA, and the State Department failed to find any evidence of linkage between Saddam Hussein and the attacks of September 11th.
As for Iraq's alleged "weapons of mass destruction", the problem for Bush was that United Nations inspectors had been scouring Iraq for months and had found no evidence of the existence of any. The Americans tried to concoct such evidence (such as Colin Powell's claim of a "poison factory" in Northern Iraq, later shown to be non-existent, and documents purporting to show that Iraq had tried to purchase uranium from Niger, later shown by the IAEA to be forgeries) but only ignoble and servile lackeys such as the prime ministers of Britain, Australia and Spain pretended to believe this evidence. Nevertheless the Bush administration maintained this rationale for its invasion of Iraq, and continued to do so even after it was clear to all that this was a lie.
But after the regime of Saddam Hussein was overthrown, and US forces were able to inspect any place in Iraq they wished to, where were these "weapons of mass destruction"? None were found. That's because by November 2002 there weren't any, as former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter had already told the U.N. Security Council. The US rationale was a fiction, as was eventually revealed.Serendipity...
But efforts by warmongers such as former CIA Director R. James Woolsey failed to turn up any credible evidence of links between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda or other groups of "Arab terrorists", particularly prior to September 11th, 2001. Investigatons by the CIA, the DIA, and the State Department failed to find any evidence of linkage between Saddam Hussein and the attacks of September 11th.
As for Iraq's alleged "weapons of mass destruction", the problem for Bush was that United Nations inspectors had been scouring Iraq for months and had found no evidence of the existence of any. The Americans tried to concoct such evidence (such as Colin Powell's claim of a "poison factory" in Northern Iraq, later shown to be non-existent, and documents purporting to show that Iraq had tried to purchase uranium from Niger, later shown by the IAEA to be forgeries) but only ignoble and servile lackeys such as the prime ministers of Britain, Australia and Spain pretended to believe this evidence. Nevertheless the Bush administration maintained this rationale for its invasion of Iraq, and continued to do so even after it was clear to all that this was a lie.
But after the regime of Saddam Hussein was overthrown, and US forces were able to inspect any place in Iraq they wished to, where were these "weapons of mass destruction"? None were found. That's because by November 2002 there weren't any, as former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter had already told the U.N. Security Council. The US rationale was a fiction, as was eventually revealed.Serendipity...
5.3.09
FIRA(Canada)
The Steel Company of Canada( Stelco).... sold out to USS ( United States Steel) a few years ago...not sure why was it that we Canadians figured the Americans could run the company better than we or was there an investment of capital anticipated to modernize this aging facility?
Same what later....somehow.... the Government ( Province of Ontario ) kept this business running with the infusion of 100 Million Dollars , a loan or a grant by Ontario.
Whatever happened to the watchdog
FIRA
Foreign Investment Review Agency
This Federal agency was set up under The Trudeau Liberals to avoid fiasco's by foreign takeover situations.
Stelco has just been shut down.., mothballed, who knows if this former Canadian Steel Mill will ever produce it's wide range of quality steel products again.
That leaves Dofasco, apparently this outfit too was sold to foreign control.I believe the other steel mill of note, Algoma is long gone.
Some ( many) years ago I was purchasing agent of a metals, mostly steel distributor ( the company was called A.C.Leslie Co. This firm was a metals warehouse, over 100 years in business)..
I also worked as Purchasing Agent for a time for another large volume slitting operation (cut large rolls of steel coils into smaller ones, about 300 tons a day.
The reason I state my background is merely to indicate that I have some idea as to what type of steel products these mills were producing, bars, structural and flat rolled, sheet & plate as well as rails and construction beams. A couple of other steel producing running mills were Burlington Steel and Dosco, Dominion Steel & Coal..
NOW...would be a good time to revive this industry...we need steel to rebuild the rapidly crumbling infrastructure, even concrete bridges and buildings require massive amounts of steel reinforcement structures. I have already commented on a previous blog on railway and rail-link improvements..but hey...the two railways as well ( CN & CP) have ended up under foreign control. If the railways are in the hands of people who are only looking for a return on their investmet, don't look for any significant improvements or modern addition to the existing lines any time soon...
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