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| TIDBITS Why We're All So Tired For a couple years I've been blaming it on iron poor blood, lack of vitamins, dieting and a dozen other maladies. But now I found out the real reason. I'm tired because I'm overworked. The population of this country is 237 million. 104 million are retired. That leaves 133 million to do the work. There are 85 million in school, which leave 48 million to do the work. Of this there are 29 million employed by the federal government. This leaves 19 million to do the work. Four million are in the Armed Forces, which leaves 15 million to do the work. Take from the total the 14,800,000 people who work for State and City Government and that leaves 200,000 to do the work. There are 188,000 in hospitals, so that leaves 12,000 to do the work. Now, there are 11,998 people in prisons. That leaves just two people to do the work. You and me. And you're sitting there reading jokes on the web. |
Canada Deals With Terrorists In Its Midst
Canada is considered a “nice” country. It doesn’t go invading countries, throwing over heinous despots and flipping the useless U.N. the bird. Canada has deliberately kept its distance from all American actions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Although Canada helps the U.S. in ways that it can and not anger its big Muslim population, for the most part Canada is considered a nice guy country that minds its own business and tolerates its cantankerous neighbor to the south.
So why are Canada’s own Muslims plotting to commit terror within its shores and with three big ole tons of blow-up stuff to do it?
I read the story of Canada’s big terror bust as it unfolded this past weekend. That country’s Royal Canadian Mounted Police plucked 12 so-called “home-grown” terrorists from within the country’s bosom. All of them with last names that are not Irish.
Sure this is a politically correct country that would not dare accuse someone of conspiring to commit terrorism just because they are Muslim. Indeed the religion of the terror bust was kept under wraps for at least part of the weekend but how long can you keep the public in the dark and keep feeding them bullshit when all of your suspects have “Mohammad” somewhere in their name?
Fine Muslim lads, all Canadian born and bred. All ready to kill goodness knows how many of their fellow Canadian citizens and destroy their country’s infrastructure. Already Canadian Muslim groups are proclaiming the innocence of these fine Canadian citizens.
To illustrate Canada’s schizophrenia on the matter of terrorism, from Smalldeadanimals.com:, we discover this paradox. Less than two weeks ago, a Canadian politician tried to wow the vote with the following quote.
Prime Minister Jack Layton, speaking before the Islamic Society of North America, May 20, 2006
”We also have to put an end to the security certificates - the security certificates and that whole piece of legislation, bill C-36, must be thrown out!"
Over this past weekend, heh, check out the following quote by the very organization the above Canadian politico wants to end.
Luc Portelance, Assistant Director of Operations, CSIS on June 3, 2006;
This is the largest counter-terrorism operation and arrests in Canada since the creation of the Anti-Terrorism Act [C-36] and the amendment of the Criminal Code to better define terrorism."
Heh.
Poor Canada. Oh Canada.
Because You Won’t See It In the Lamestream
Here’s the weekly good news on the war in Iraq. Today some very discernible trends in Iraq, detailed at Strategypage.com:
@ The economy. GDP doubled from 2003 to 2004, and was up double digits in 2005. Inflation and unemployment have both been falling steadily. Yes, the terrorists are still at it, but in the background you will notice all those people going to work, all the new cars and all the new construction. While big companies have stayed away from Iraq, and all those nasty headlines, smaller firms have been more aggressive. Life goes on.
@ Agriculture. For thousands of years, Iraq was a food exporter. But as oil became a larger part of the economy over the past half century, agriculture declined. Now, for the first time in half a century, Iraq is exporting food. Agriculture has come back big time, mainly because many of the regulations government bureaucrats have piled on farmers for decades, have been eliminated. A farmer can now make a lot of money, growing food in the most productive agriculture land in the region.
@ Currency Exchange Rates. The Iraqi currency (the dinar) trades in a narrow range, against the dollar, that is controlled by the Iraqi Central Bank. For the last few years, the exchange range has been around 1,470 dinars to the dollar. But the dinar floats against other local currencies (like the Kuwaiti dinar and the Iranian rial), and has gotten stronger against both of those currencies. That's a big deal, as it means that the Iraqi economy is getting stronger, and people, in and out of, Iraq, have confidence in the Iraqi economy, and currency.
@ U.S. Bases Taken Over by Iraqi Troops. Since last Fall, over fifty U.S. bases have been transferred to Iraqi control. American troops are moving to larger, consolidated, bases out in the countryside. These require fewer troops to defend, and keep U.S. troops out of sight. Iraqi soldiers and police are taking care of security in many areas where American used to do it. This is why you keep hearing reports of plans to pull most American troops out of Iraq in the next 12-18 months.
@ Refugees. Before the U.S. invaded in 2003, it was believed there might be millions of refugees fleeing Iraq. Didn't happen that way. Over a million people (mostly Sunni Arabs) have fled the country, but that is a relatively recent phenomenon, linked to the growing power of the Shia dominated government, and the fear of retribution for decades of atrocities against Kurds and Shia Arabs. More surprising has been the number of refugees returning to Iraq. So far, it's over 1.2 million people, most of the them Kurds and Shia Arabs.
@ Tourism. The holiest shrines in Shia Islam are in southern Iraq, and in the last three years they have seen a growing flood of pilgrims. Over 12 million so far, and increasing as Shia Moslems kept away by Saddam's police state for decades, make long deferred trips. Some stay longer, mainly religion students. For the last three decades, Shia religious scholars and teachers have been fleeing Iraq for places like Iran. But now there are over 12,000 religion students in southern Iraq, attending hundreds of newly established schools. These pilgrims and students spend a lot of money as well, helping to feed economic growth in the south.
@ Media. Iraqi has gone from police state, to media madhouse, in three years. Under Saddam, media was tightly controlled. Since Saddam, hundreds of newspapers, magazines, radio and TV stations have appeared. Talk radio and investigative reporting are all the rage. The gangsters and politicians hate it but, so far, have been unable to stop or control it.
@ Health and Education. More hospitals and schools are open and operating than ever before.
@ Democracy. It's thriving, and contrary to popular opinion, it's not an alien concept in Iraq. From the 1920s to the 1950s, Iraq had democracy. A military dictatorship was established in 1958, in the name of progress, and that was the end of democracy. The Baath Party was going to make things so much better, as long as everyone did what they were told. Iraqis are not stupid, and there are older Iraqis who remember the old democracy. Yes, it may have been ramshackle, but compared to Saddam and all that came after 1958, democracy is a lot more popular these days.
The Pets Act
But of course my love of my own special pets clouds my view of things. More than this, I saw with my own lying eyes the many people who were forced to leave their precious pets behind as the helicopter basket waited. I watched as one man’s beloved dog was hauled off in a pickup truck and I watched the same man lay his head down on his car and weep uncontrollably.
I ponder what I would do with my pet right by my side and how it would feel to heft myself into the waiting rescue vehicle, all the while regarding the big, brown eyes that loves and trusts me as I ride/fly off without it.
I don’t think I could do it. And plenty of people didn’t leave their pets as the waters swirled around them in New Orleans.
It’s one thing to have rescuers having to search and risk their own lives for missing pets in the middle of a crisis. But the sight bites I saw were of people who held their beloved pets right in their arms, only to place them down on a rooftop, ostensibly to be rescued later but who could know that would ever happen?
So congress is considering the so-called “Pets” act that would allow people with their pets accompanying to share in the rescue of the human.
Americans simply love their pets. As already detailed in the Katrina disaster, many would not allow themselves to be rescued if their pets could not come along. I also witnessed plenty of humans rescued WITH their pets as rescuers refused to just leave both human and pet on the rooftop to possibly perish. These rescuers were probably breaking all sorts of rules but which amongst us would not do the same?
The PETS act would handle all questions on how to handle the rescue of pets.
If yon reader thinks a sane policy as regards the rescue of pets should circumstances require is a good thing, visit this site and share your views with those charged with implementing sane laws.
Look Who’s Running for California Governor
Well, well, well.
Remember Tookie Williams? He’s dead now. Although the man was nominated for a Nobel prize and was allegedly converted to a man of God as he languished in prison for murder.
From Finalcall.com:
" She helped make the case of Stanley “Tookie” Williams an international movement and now she is vying to replace the man responsible for his execution."
“If I win, I will be the first Black female governor in the entire history of the United States,” Ms. Becnel told The Final Call.
Heh.
On this very blog, we find some more info on Ms. Becnel, would-be Governor of the country’s biggest state.
Quoted in the above post, from the LA Times,
Barbara Becnel, Williams' close friend who led the campaign to save his life, said she was making the arrangements today.She said she and others were planning a major, public funeral for an unspecified church in Los Angeles. Becnel said she anticipates the ceremony will be on the scale of the local memorials for Rosa Parks, the civil rights leader who died earlier this year.
Whoa.
Here we have Tookie’s co-author on that series of children’s books he allegedly wrote. She was also the diva in chief of his funeral.
Could it be…? Nah.
Could it be possible that Barbara Becnel used Tookie Williams as a launch for her own political ambitions? Nah.
Could it be …? Nah.
Could this woman have been manipulating us out here in la-la land for reasons having nothing to do with the goodness of born-again murderer Tookie Williams?
Say it ain’t so!
The Wisdom of Merryland Politicians
Put my home state of Merryland under the heading “How Not to Run a State”.
From May 23’s edition of Baltimore’s alternative to the very liberal Baltimore Sun-The Baltimore Examiner, we have the following three boondoggles put into place by the wise Merryland legislature.
It used to be that businesses decided what and how to pay their employees. And if they did not offer sufficient compensation then they attracted no employees. If they attracted no employees they had no business.
Now the state dictates how to pay employees. Last we heard Wal-Mart was making plans to leave Merryland all together. And how many employers of over 10,000 people will Merryland attract in the future?
What does this have to do with the rate hike? Blackmail, of course!
The state should have left the market decide the electric rate. With a crushing cap like that, what competitor would even try to enter that market? And now Merryland citizens have to face a huge hike that they would have absorbed in much smaller increments over that six year period.
I myself, way back in 1995, was employed by a hospital located smack in the middle of an economically depressed area that could not have a maternity ward for the prohibitive costs of the malpractice insurance.
“They sue you if the baby’s ugly”, was how the nurses described the situation.
Of course the lawyers contribute greatly to the Merryland legislature’s election races and lawyers so let’s not forget our priorities here.
It will take time but eventually these policies will kill that state economically.
But hey, the legislators will always have their jobs.
Ending With a Smile
More Political Tidbits HERE
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