the ugly American 12

After WWII, 1945 statistics indicate that the number of newborn babies surviving the first year had dramatically changed, American policy or applied action systematically starved the Germans to death. I know it's true, I was six years old at the end of the war and part of the starvation period between 1945 to 48.

Tribal pain....

I think I look about as German as your typical German looks like. Blond, blue eyes at 5ft9 probably a bit short..but features mannerism, gate etc German alright.
I have been in North America for over fifty years. But that is not exactly what I wanted to write about. There are moments when I feel this nagging tribal pain. Looking at an old news clip for instance seeing close to a million German soldiers marched off to Siberia, that gives me deep feelings of sadness and pain.
Somewhere about 1925 one of my mothers brothers decided to leave Germany for America. Mother grew up with several siblings in an orphanage and lost contact with brother Karl who presumably was alive and well in America. About a year ago when the names of several Iraq GI casualties were announced , one of the fellows killed was named ... Bixler. Could he have been the grandson of my long lost uncle I wondered. Somehow I felt a sense of loss...someone I never knew gave me a feeling of tribal pain..

Nobel Prize winner Obama

Much has been made the last few days of the fact that US President B.Obama received the Nobel Piece award. I agree with this decision...but the remarks I observe are generally negative...like, he just got started...has not accomplished much so far.
I disagree, strongly.
The mere emergence and presence of the man has had a more positive effect on the world than the various misdeeds during eight long years of GWB the shrub yokel. Well, that's my opinion anyway. Out of over 200 nominations for this award I believe Mr.Obama is the first choice.

Public commentary:
How ironic that Obama should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize at a time when he is planning to increase the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. He now joins other illustrious 'men of peace' such as Teddy Roosevelt (invaded Cuba), Henry Kissinger (helped plan the bloody coup that overthrew Salvador Allende's democratically elected government in Chile) and Arafat (one of the progenitors of today's Islamic terrorist movements).
Although they didn't win, some of the other nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize included Adolf Hitler (nomination withdrawn), Josef Stalin and Benito Mussolini. It is especially noteworthy that Mahatma Gandhi also failed to win the prize. Clearly, the Nobel Peace Prize, like so many other accolades given to and by the wealthy, influential and powerful of the world, has less to do with peace than with the elite rewarding those within their club...

Ontario...waste of good money

Apparently...it has just come to light from a report by the Ontario Auditor General ( financial provincial watchdog reporting annually); that over a Billion Dollars of Health Contributions..by the Taxpayers have been pointlessly wasted with little or nothing to show for it...and yet the Ontario Liberal Premier looks like he and his gang have nothing to do with it...sticking their head in the sand and pleading ignorance is a lousy excuse for this squander of funds. This money was supposed to be used for a E-Health registry system to combat waste in the health care business.

The last true Tory...

...25 years later....Montreal party for the ex Prime minister....Brian Mulroney.

A fitting tribute to our past Federal PC Prime Minister and a remarkable feat his election was indeed.

Two back to back Majority Elections by the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, followed by a long reign for the Liberals.

When he was done...the PCs were finished. The party was in dire straights.But that was then.

The PC party of today is a totally different organization ,born out of the Alberta based( Preston Manning) Reform party, the Ontario remnants of the Provincial PCs. and fragments of the Eastern Region leftovers of the once powerful ruling PCs. the party is struggling to hold on to power with a minority government which could fall almost any time. My hope is that the next election will give us a slightly bigger PC government..hopefully picking up a few seats in Quebec from the ridiculous separatists. Good luck Mr. Steven Harper.

Libya

Muammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi

...after watching this cook dictator on TV for almost two hours doing his United Nations thing...I have these comments......what a joke...this clown covered everything imaginable during his almost two hour rambling mutterings..

At 27 he managed to get rid of the king who was away for treatment in Turkey. After the demise of the once powerful Ottoman Empire of which Libya was a part, it became an Italian Colony for a while and eventually gained independence.

the ugly American 11

I just spent a few days in the states... we finally managed to get a family reunion thing into the works, decided to stay a couple of days just east of Buffalo NY at a nice Hampton Hotel..Walkerville.
On the way back from Buffalo and the American Falls, just about at the Hotel an incident took place which could easily have turned into a disaster. I crossed the light,driving my Impala, then it turned red. I was about to turn into the Hotel Parking lot when I took one more look into the rear view mirror...no good reason..just prudence I guess, at high speed a black pickup truck rapidly approaching...there was no way this idiot would or could stop at the red light...and if I had made my proper legal turn into the hotel parking lot..we surely would have been hit or wiped out.

My point here is that there are an overabundant number of stupid and ugly drivers on the road in the USA and one must wonder why.Is it the easy and relatively inexpensive availability of booze or what brings these maniacs out...or the inadequate policing or what else causes these idiots to act the way they do. Bullies.. This was not the first time I've seen this erratic and criminal behavior on the road...we are no angels here in Canada, particularly in Toronto but this scene and similar situations I've observed in the USA are far worse.

Actually....a few days later....,I've reflected on this..my writing above that is, kicked it around long and hard. My opinion has not changed much.In fact, if we...North Americans want to tell the world how to live, we should straighten out our own act. We have no business in Iraq or for that matter in Afghanistan or elsewhere in the world if we are unable to behave decently on our own territory.We Americans....hm...have the highest incarceration rate in the world...and in my view a lot of evildoers are out there never apprehended I know a thing or two about the criminal element...thieves...I've been in the business of selling and installing burglar alarms for many years.