Now there is but one.
Since the Election of Stephen Harper and prior to the Election of Barack Obama, Israel could count on only Canada and the US to defend its interest across the world.
With Obama's victory, it can now only count on Canada.
Obama has turned America away from Israel for two major reasons; first, his naive belief that he can successfully negotiate with their heretofore enemies and second, due to the America's left natural symapathy for all things Palistinian.
Sadly, there may be another factor at play. The Black community in the United States has a pronounced anti-Semitic streak. One would have to think, given Obama's background of life and work on the south side of Chicago, he could not have escaped some of that negative sentiment.
Regardless, for Israel, it could not have come at a worse time.
UN resolutions denouncing Israel are becoming more frequent and more vitrolic.
More important though, it comes at a time when Israel's main enemy, Iran, is on record as saying it intends to obliterate them from from the face of the earth and at a time when Iran has or is about to have the nuclear wherewithal to do just that.
There is really nothing Canada can do to stop it - other than to continue to speak out. Israel must continue to hope that in the final analysis, the USA will be by its side. But, given the above, they must be having serious doubt.
Israel is a very small nation, both real estate and population wise. Its population of less than 8 million people is even slightly less than the number of Palistinians, The country itself is a small sliver of land that borders on the Mediterranian and is surrounded by Arab Countries. Egypt alone - a bordering neighbour - has well over 80 million inhabitants.
It is also the only democratic nation in a sea of dictatorships. Talk about isolated and surrounded!!
And yet, Israel continues to be a beacon to the world on what it continues to accomplish in such a foreboding environment.
In his dying days of office, I fully expected that George W. Bush would have worked with Israel to smash Iran's nuclear capability. Why he did not - is a mystery. Even his VP - is on record as saying he tried to convince his boss to take that step. Perhaps Bush was simply tired with all the outrage that continued to come his way for trying to do the right thing for the world. In that regard, who could blame him.
But he left the issue undone. And now with Obama in place, is it looking less likely that anything will be done by the States.
It comes down to Israelis themselves. If they do bomb Iran - they are damned. If they don't bomb Iran, they risk being obliterated.
What would we in Canada do if faced with the same situation?
I leave it to each of you to decide in your own way.
"Galagher"
Israel is a light on a sea of darkness. With only ?
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
From Out of the West ...once again.
Alberta has a new Party - the Wild Rose Party and I predict it will win the next provincial election over the hapless governing Tories. Whether it morphs into a federal movement after that remains to be seen, but I sure hope it does just that.
New political parties are not unusal for Alberta, as the recent Reform Party can attest. There have been many others before that, including the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) which today is known as the NDP and the Social Credit Party founded in 1935 and headed by 'Bible Bill' Aberhart.
The Wild Rose is disappointed with the Tories since they have squandered billions of dollars in Canada's richest province and today it runs a deficit. In many respects, the Tories of Alberta mirror their counterparts in Ottawa: Big Spending; Big Government; and Big Deficits / Debt.
The Wild Rose Party is the only Party in Canada that can lay claim to Libertarian status.
Albertans are a proud people. They have not been co-opted into socialist thinking - and thereby do not expect the government to provide them with cradle to grave coverage. They alone, in Canada, have retained the independence that is so evident outside the major cities of the United States. An independence that I believe is needed for peoples to excel.
For decades, Alberta money has siphoned off and been used to fund Canada's have-not Provinces in the East. This has allowed those provinces to become comfortable with UI, Welfare, Transfers, etc - a life-style based upon the hard work and ingenuity of others.
We in Canada, have to stop the never ending growth of government where more and more of our freedoms are eroded and more of our earnings taxed away.
Perhaps the Wild Rose Party will spark something in us all to caste off the suffocating cloak of Big Brother.
As I see it..
"Galagher"
New political parties are not unusal for Alberta, as the recent Reform Party can attest. There have been many others before that, including the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) which today is known as the NDP and the Social Credit Party founded in 1935 and headed by 'Bible Bill' Aberhart.
The Wild Rose is disappointed with the Tories since they have squandered billions of dollars in Canada's richest province and today it runs a deficit. In many respects, the Tories of Alberta mirror their counterparts in Ottawa: Big Spending; Big Government; and Big Deficits / Debt.
The Wild Rose Party is the only Party in Canada that can lay claim to Libertarian status.
Albertans are a proud people. They have not been co-opted into socialist thinking - and thereby do not expect the government to provide them with cradle to grave coverage. They alone, in Canada, have retained the independence that is so evident outside the major cities of the United States. An independence that I believe is needed for peoples to excel.
For decades, Alberta money has siphoned off and been used to fund Canada's have-not Provinces in the East. This has allowed those provinces to become comfortable with UI, Welfare, Transfers, etc - a life-style based upon the hard work and ingenuity of others.
We in Canada, have to stop the never ending growth of government where more and more of our freedoms are eroded and more of our earnings taxed away.
Perhaps the Wild Rose Party will spark something in us all to caste off the suffocating cloak of Big Brother.
As I see it..
"Galagher"
Monday, October 19, 2009
Something Happened in the 1960s
Note: In thinking it over, I do not believe I gave this topic its proper due. I will come back to it at a future date with a rewrite. G.
And it wasn't for the best..
I was watching a fellow Libertarian last week on T.V. - Glen Beck, and he made the following statement:
"Wouldn't it be great if we could turn life back to the way it was when we were growing up".
He went on to note that it was not a perfect time - but it was a much better time than the one we experience today.
I can vividly recall the late 50s and early 60s; it was a comfortable and safe time to live. We seemed to know who we were and what was expected of us. We were part of a common community where God was Supreme, we had respect for our politicians and the Queen ruled over the Common Wealth.
We respected our teachers and our parents, and we held girls in awe.
Then along came the Beatles, the Twist and the music got louder with heavy metal and and more focus on a growing drug culture. Young people turned on to drugs and turned off life. The Rules that had governed society for a century and more had changed forever.
The Boomers came of Age during this time and with their self focus came an end to community and to respect. Life pre-drugs was to be distained and the values that had attached to it fell to the wayside.
There are winners during these last 50 years including Women and Blacks. Women, thanks in large part to the pill, are now equal to men in the workplace, but in return they have had to give up their specialness. There are other costs including the damage to children left to fend for themselves as both parents worked.
Blacks have also made dramatic gains since the mid 1960s. The Civil Rights legislation of 1964-65 helped to materially end discrimination that had gone on for 150 years and more. But even for the Blacks the gains have not been wide spread. Ghettos are still prevalent - fueled by welfare and crime, black education continues to be inferior and their unemployment levels are much too high as is their single mother rates.
In addition, Obama's election has shown that the level of animosity on the part of Blacks toward Whites is surprisingly high. Far higher than is the reverse.
Collectively, we need to restore our pre-1960s sense of community. We need to recover our lost values and to regain respect for our parents and, indeed, for our fellow man.
As I see it..
"Galagher"
And it wasn't for the best..
I was watching a fellow Libertarian last week on T.V. - Glen Beck, and he made the following statement:
"Wouldn't it be great if we could turn life back to the way it was when we were growing up".
He went on to note that it was not a perfect time - but it was a much better time than the one we experience today.
I can vividly recall the late 50s and early 60s; it was a comfortable and safe time to live. We seemed to know who we were and what was expected of us. We were part of a common community where God was Supreme, we had respect for our politicians and the Queen ruled over the Common Wealth.
We respected our teachers and our parents, and we held girls in awe.
Then along came the Beatles, the Twist and the music got louder with heavy metal and and more focus on a growing drug culture. Young people turned on to drugs and turned off life. The Rules that had governed society for a century and more had changed forever.
The Boomers came of Age during this time and with their self focus came an end to community and to respect. Life pre-drugs was to be distained and the values that had attached to it fell to the wayside.
There are winners during these last 50 years including Women and Blacks. Women, thanks in large part to the pill, are now equal to men in the workplace, but in return they have had to give up their specialness. There are other costs including the damage to children left to fend for themselves as both parents worked.
Blacks have also made dramatic gains since the mid 1960s. The Civil Rights legislation of 1964-65 helped to materially end discrimination that had gone on for 150 years and more. But even for the Blacks the gains have not been wide spread. Ghettos are still prevalent - fueled by welfare and crime, black education continues to be inferior and their unemployment levels are much too high as is their single mother rates.
In addition, Obama's election has shown that the level of animosity on the part of Blacks toward Whites is surprisingly high. Far higher than is the reverse.
Collectively, we need to restore our pre-1960s sense of community. We need to recover our lost values and to regain respect for our parents and, indeed, for our fellow man.
As I see it..
"Galagher"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)