DUMB DUMBER DUMBEST

It never fails to amaze me just how stupid (dumb) our elitist planners - including both Politicians and their Politically Correct Bureaucrats.

I give you the following three (3) examples from our municipal and provincial governments.

First - the simply dumb one:

• motorists must now keep from coming within 1 meter (39.370 inches) of a bicyclist.  If we - the car drivers, come within this arbitrary barrier - we are not only fined but lose points against our driver's licences. As if the harried motorist does not already have enough to watch out for.  But the Politically Correct do not like cars - they want everyone to walk or bike and to Hell with Cars.  Driving, is no longer fun.  

Second - the Dumber:

• in recent years 'round abouts' have cropped up all over our roads - not a bad yet as England ...but we are getting there.  Anyway, I do not much care for round-abouts but must admit they do seem to work in attaining their goal of keeping cars moving - without the need for traffic lights or stop signs.  Until recently, the rule was that cars had the right of way over pedestrians - as it should be, if the underlying concept of continuous motion was to be maintained.  But now dear reader this has suddenly changed - now cars within a round-about must stop for pedestrians and they even have a new politically correct name for it - 'pedestrian crossovers'.  This PC advancement not only defeats the purpose of Round-Abouts but insures that more and more pedestrians will not make it safely to the other side.  Again, where do these Bozo Planners come from.

And Third - the Dumbest:

• Safe Injection Sites for Addicts.  We here in Ottawa are now on the list to get several of these cesspools - thanks again to the enlightened.  Number one - they do not cure addiction - in fact rehab is not even part of the program. They do attract all and sundry addicts who to fund their addiction - rob, steal, prostitute to raise the ridiculous amounts of money to fund their drug purchases.  Areas of the City which are identified to host these parasites, are headed for slum, crime ridden neighbourhoods.  If these enlightened planners are indeed so enlightened as to propose the establishment of these sites - I propose they be built in their neighbourhoods. Plus, another choice location would be within City Hall itself.  Don't hold you breath on seeing either occur though.

Given just these 3 examples, it is no wonder to me why Donald Trump has such a following.

As I see it...

'K.D. Galagher'

BREXIT....THE WHY & THE WHO

The Why in Why the British Voted To leave the European Union (EU) is, I believe, two-fold:

First, the mechanical reason - Prime Minister David Cameron was unwise to have called for a Referendum on the subject.

Second, and more substantively, European Nations, including Great Britain - are terrified by the tidal wave of refugees pouring in from the Middle East and Africa.  The overwhelming numbers will change the EU's and indeed the West's makeup forever.

The argument that it was caused by the EU's renaming fruits and vegetables to me is irrelevant.

But the 'Who' in all of this is the more relevant question which I will come to shortly.

Before I get to that,  I would like to set out my own thoughts on Britain's decision to leave.

In a word ... I am 'disappointed'.

On an Emotional Level though - I must admit that it is nice to see it Given to the Man, but on an Intellectual Level - I see the downside:

a) Russia and China are once again threatening and from my perspective this will only get worse;

b) The US hegemony is in irreversible decline; and,

c) The world is on the cusp of renewed nuclear proliferation beginning with Iran - followed by the Saudis and spilling over to a host of others as the realization of a) and b) continues to sink in.

Counterweights, like the European Union are desperately needed.

That is why I am disappointed with the Referendum's outcome.

Now for the 'Who'.

As in Who Is Responsible For This Outcome.

The United States of course and more specifically - its last two Presidents - George W. Bush and Barack Hussein Obama.

Of the two, Bush* must take the greater share of the blame since it was his decision and his decision alone to destroy Iraq and take out Saddam Hussein and leave the Middle East with a vacuum that was in due course filled by zealots, and ne're goodwells.

 Obama's contribution to this fiasco was that he sat back and watched this happen as if a disinterested observer.

• When I think back to Bush's invasion of Iraq, on the pretext that there were Weapons of Mass Destruction involved , I also think back to the JF Kennedy days and his distrust (for good reason) of what US Military Leaders were telling him during the Cuban Missile Crisis.  His skepticism likely saved the world from Nuclear War.  Too bad George W was not made from similar cloth. 

It is well to remember Newton's 3rd Law - for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

The damage done by these two Presidents is incalculable viewed in the light of today.  The most notable of which is the Mass Migration taking place across Europe and now spilling into North America.

As I see it...

'K.D. Galagher'

 

IT DEPENDS ...

ON WHAT, YOU MIGHT WELL ASK.

Well, the 'depending case at hand' concerns our Miele Vacuum Cleaner.  It stopped working.  Or at least, I stopped it working.

The other day I was engaged in my annual vacuuming of our family car and in so doing, was using our household Miele Vacuum Cleaner.

I know - should have used a Shop Vac...

We had paid king's ransom for it some years ago and it had functioned well ever since ...until my annual car cleaning event of last week.

I was 2/3 rds done when it suddenly shut down.  I hit the re-set button and zilch.  

So now what?

Given its pedigree, I took it back to the dealer where we had purchased it some 7 years ago.  (They sell and service nothing but vacuums and the German Miele is one of their best sellers. Kinda like the Mercedes of vacuums you could say).

Nice olde man at the counter greeted me with that knowing smile - you know - that ..'you broke our machine' kinda look.

I asked him for his advice - 'would it be better to have the critter fixed or should we be looking at buying a new vacuum?'

"Depends" he said.

'Depends on what I countered'?

"On how serious the problem".

So I left it with him with his promise to call me within a few days to let me know the extend of the repair.  I of course was expecting the worse -i.e. she's kaput ... so what have you got on sale...

Instead, when he called, it was with good news - "a plastic water bottle top had caught in the upper portion of the hose".

So it was a minor problem after all and I arranged to come in and pick it up and pay his bill.

When I got there the following ensued:

He told me that the bottle cap had become lodged in the upper part of the hose and that the vacuum's "panel" had automatically shut the machine down before more serious damage had occurred.

I said, 'well that was a good thing'.

"Depends" he replied.

'On what I countered'

"On whether or not the system will shut down again in the future.  This could have been a one-time only occurrence".

'Never thought of that' said I.

'So is there anything we can do to try to prevent this from re-happening' says I.

"Depends" he says.

'On what', says I 

"On whether or not you like the Miele." 

'What do you mean by "like"... until this recent occurrence, it has always worked well.'

"Well it is like buying a car - some people like a ford, others a chev - some like blue ...others red."

Now this was getting bizarre ... what had a working Miele Vacuum Cleaner - albeit used, have to do with buying a car of any colour?

He went on - "you might like your Miele, but I might like another make".  He stood back looking quite satisfied.

I thought to myself .. isn't this guy in the business of selling Mieles?- one of their best lines and now it appeared to me he was suggesting that a better more reliable option exists.

I told him I would take a chance - it had worked okay for 7 years - and as the problem was just a stuck bottle cap, we could hope that it would be good for another 7.

Our Miele though was a dull black...

Anyway, I paid his bill and was about to leave when I foolishly mentioned another problem we were having with the machine.

'From time to time the power to the vacuum hose inexplicably shuts off, any idea what would cause that?'

"Well it depends ...but what do you do when it happens?"

'I push the hose's on button and it restarts'.

"Seems reasonable, why don't you just keep doing that".

For the first time I found myself in total agreement with the olde fellow.

'Sounds reasonable' I said.

"But it depends" he said.

'Depends on what', I shot back.

"On whether you want to purchase a new hose"

'How much' I asked.

"Over $200"

'I think I will take you initial advice and simply turn the hose back on when it cuts out'.

Once again he came back with one of his Depends - "Depends whether or not you want to get another 7 years out of your Miele."

I pretended not to hear this as I hurried out of his shoppe with my repaired merchandise in hand.

On the way home though I vowed to get a Shop-Vac for next year's cleaning of our car.

And, I think I will get a Red One.

As I see it...

'K.D. Galagher'

PART TWO...THE BARACK OBAMA PRESIDENCY.

As readers know ...I make mistakes - lots of them - just review my past New Year Predictions.

Another miss is coming up -  my prediction that on the last days of Obama's Presidency the public would be riding him out of town on a rail. (an olde American expression meaning the towns-fold are fully disgusted with someone and want them go leave town).

Today, though, that is most unlikely - the little guy has a favourable rating of 53% which is astounding for a President in his last days of his second and final term in office. 

What it tells me though is that more and more Americans - like citizens of other Nations in the West, are becoming more and more socialist ...takers as opposed to doers.

The USA still leads in doers - with some 47% to only a third 'doers' in other first world countries.

Those higher numbers indicate that if Obama was legally able to run for a third term, he might well just be successful.

Readers know full well that I view Obama as the very worst President ever.  Not surprising though, given the above stats, when I speak with my follows about Obama, most refer to him as a very great President.

So in my ongoing attempt to bring reason to this debate I submit the following analysis of the little guy ...from someone other than myself:

America, under Obama, has passed the status of world financial centre back to London, persecuted law-abiding financial companies and their senior personnel, and assured sluggishness of the entire sector ...

Stimulus money did not improve education outcomes ... and it funded shovel ready boondoggles of the Democratic congressional barons..

The green energy initiatives that have paid dividends were an egregious waste of money deployed to the now vanished bogeyman of global warming..

Obama's health care measures was dishonestly presented with two thirds of Americans wanting it repealed... 

He should not have given control of General Motors and Chrysler to the United Auto Workers who were far from blameless for their parlous condition...

He has done almost nothing for African Americans ...

Obama quadrupled the money supply under the spurious cover of quantitative easing and maintaining minimal interest rates by selling trillions of dollars of unbought bonds to the Federal Reserve - a 100 per cent subsidiary for the Treasury paid for by the issuance of notes. It is a shell game that would be attacked in the private sector...

And if this what not bad enough Obama's efforts on the Global Front fared even worse as the author explains:

Obama has allowed the Western Alliance to atrophy...

He has failed to render any assistance to the Ukraine..

He has ensured the disintegration of the of Iraq and the near capture of Bagdad by the Islamic State..

He drew a red line against the Assad Regime for gassing its own civilian population and then abdicated military command ...to the Russians..

Obama's pledge to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear military power evolved into a green light ...

The piece de resistance has been blundering into the position of having Iran and Russia as allies against ISIL

The Author of this piece .... why none other than The Baron of Cross Harbour ... the Honourable Conrad Black.

I could add even more glaring examples of Obama's complete incompetency - for instance - all of the Middle East is Burning...but I won't...maybe I will provide a full recital of his abysmal record at a later date.

For now, suffice to say - regardless what I or even Baron Black has to say - the majority seem to see Obama as the great secular messiah.  

They can have him - give me a Churchill any day of the week.

As I see it...

'K.D. Galagher'

OBAMA ... AS DITSY AS EVER... A 2 PARTER

FIFTY OR SO YOUNG PEOPLE IN ORLANDO WERE SHOT BY A DERANGED KILLER MOTIVATED BY ISIS.

Those are the facts, unless you are the little guy in the White House ..and when I say 'little guy' I am not talking about his stature - since that does not matter one iota ... rather I am speaking about his small, petty, mindedness.

It took the little guy most of his Presidency to even admit that 'terrorists' existed but he has never ever said who these terrorists might be. Again, it could be raging grannies if of course the grannies were killers which they are not.

As you and I know full well ...The Killers are Islamists !!

And how do we know this particular attack?

The killer himself called 911 and said that he was slaughtering these innocents in the name of Islam.

His dear dad said it was not Islamic related but bear in mind that he is a member in good standing with the Taliban and in fact is hoping to become Afghanistan's next President.

And for the record, the Taliban has publicly announced that it is an off-shoot of ISIS.

Even Dear Hillary, in the aftermath of Orlando, now admits that Islamic Terrorists exist.  

Finally, someone of rank in the US Administration has called out the Killers by name.

But failings are not confined just to Obama.

Trump comes out swinging demanding Obama's resignation for failing to deal harshly with the Islamic Devils.  His timing though stinks.  He should be joining with his fellow Americans in mourning the loss of so many - over 100 casualties, nearly half of whom died.   

There is a time for mourning and a time for action and right now leaders should mourn this tremendous loss of life - the worst in American history caused by a gunman. 

Trump's response is too much .. self-interest.

The other group I find trying to wring too much self-interest out of this event is the Gay Community itself which whines that here again they are victims of American Homophobia.

Quite the contrary.  The vast majority of Americans, as with you readers, are aghast and horrified at what happened.  If anything this incident proves that the Gay Communities has become fully integrated and accepted into American Society. 

It is nonetheless a very sad occasion but the overall gay community should be most impressed and most grateful for the outpouring of sympathy from American Society in general.

And there is one final person with whom I have a bone to pick.. Orlando's Chief of Police.

Here he is yesterday hogging the mike to announce that were it not for his force, the number of casualties would have been much higher.

B.S. to that - as indicated, casualties exceeded 100, the gunman was allowed to fire on the innocent for hours - reloading and continuing to fire numerous times.   

One gunman and against an army of Orlando Cops and this is the best they could do?  I dare say Orlando needs a new Chief.

A Tragedy occurred in Orlando and a lot of needless politically correct hot aired followed.

As I see it...

'K.D. Galagher'

Euthanasia ... Part 3 - A STORY.

The McLeans

The McLeans immigrated to Canada from the UK in the early 1960s.

At that time, there were only two of them - Harold and Jeannie. They were both in their early 20s and had just married.

Harold and Jeannie settled in Ottawa, Canada's Capital City, in it's Rural West End which was still rugged and underpopulated.  They hired themselves out as farm hands on the O'Brien Farm and worked from sun-up to sun-down for the next several years.

They squirreled away their nickles and dimes until they were able to buy a 100 acre piece of rock-scrabble and through the 70s and 80s eked out a living.  They were proud though since for the first time in their lives they owned their own property - save for the mortgage owed to the Bank.

By now there 4 more - 2 girls and 2 boys named, Patricia, Brigitte, Sean and little Bill.  Little Bill was the youngest and sadly had suffered brain damage at birth.  He would always go by the name 'Little' despite the fact that he eventually tipped the scales at over 250 lbs. and grew to some six foot two inches in height.

Early in the new millennia the father, Harold, died of heart attack the doctors summing it up best when they said Harold simply worked himself to death. But he died happy or so family and friends had said.

The two daughters and the healthy son were by now off on their own but due to Little Bill's "slowness" he remained at home, on the farm, with his mum.

Jeannie and Little Bill struggled to get by on her small government pensions and with the help from neighbours and friends. Fortunately, Harold held sufficient life insurance so when he died in 2001, there was enough money to pay off the mortgage.

In any event, Jeannie didn't count her blessings by how much money she had.. rather she basked in the joy of life on the farm with her Little Bill. 

And truth be told, Jennie was not poor.  Indeed she was a multi-millionaire.

Although she and Harold had paid but $5,000 for their farm in 1969, by the turn of the century it was worth in the million of dollars given that the City of Ottawa had expanded westward and subdivisions were springing up all around them.

Hardly a month went by without a realtor driving down their lane with an offer...the most recent of which was for $3.2 Million.

Her three healthy kids were constantly at her to sell... especially Sean - the oldest - who had experienced several bad business investments. But as Jeannie so aptly put it - Little Bill and I are happy here - why would we ever move.

But as the new century progressed Jennie's health began to deteriorate.  Not her physical health - she was still strong as a horse - but mentally she was getting more and more frail.

Early Dementia, the Doctors called it.

By 2016 she had lost interest in cooking, cleaning and the like and of course did not have the finances at hand to bring in help. But Little Bill did the best he could to fill the void and Brigitte and especially Patricia visited their mother often to help with the household duties.

It was at this point that Sean called a meeting of his two sisters to take place at the family farm.  He said they were going to confront their mother once and for all and demand that she sell the farm.

The meeting took place on a Saturday morning in May.  The four of them sat around the old oak kitchen table...Little Bill was down at the creek playing with his new puppy dog 'Spot'.

Sean led off by giving example after example of how his mother's mental health was failing.  He then, threw open the floor to his two sisters both of whom had their own examples of their mother's infirmity.  

At this point, Sean asked his mother to reply.

She did not - she had retreated into herself and simply looked defeated.  Patricia took Jeannie off to bed.

When Patricia returned Sean laid out what he was really thinking. Euthanasia Laws had come into being and he pointed out that "sad cases like our mother are exactly what these laws are intended to address".

Patricia wisely pointed out that Little Bill would not be able to function without his mom while Brigitte noted that none of them were in any position to take care of him.

Sean though once again had the answer.  Olde Doc down the road had often told their parents that Little Bill should never have been allowed to live after birth.  Doc had said, "we should have just left him on the table to starve".

Patricia was shocked.  Brigitte kept her own counsel and did not express concern.

Patricia broke the silence, "what about Little Bill's new puppy?"

Again Sean came though with an easy answer, "we'll just put it down too with mum and Bill."

So that was that.

Death came to all three without service or even a notice in the local paper.

A few days after the 'event' Sean received a telephone call from the Crematorium advising that the ashes of his mother and brother were ready for pick-up by the family.  Sean told the caller the family had no need for the ashes and instructed him to dispose of them in the usual fashion. (Whatever that meant - but it seemed to Sean that it had a particular air of finality to it.)

Over the next many months Sean and his sisters would meet to receive updates from Sean as to how the wind-up of the Estate was going.  It had taken longer than Sean had wanted but throughout he kept his eye on the bottom-line - that is to say how much money would remain for the three of them to share once legal, court, real estate fees had been paid and the necessary taxes submitted.

The most recent such meeting proved somewhat awkward when Sean had said to Patricia that she looked peeked, "are you feeling okay?"

Upon hearing this Patricia's stomach turned, while Brigitte looked away embarrassed. 

Perhaps one or more were all thinking - that A Three Way Split is Fine...a Two Way Split is Better..while a One Way Split is Best.

Unless of course you are not the survivor.

They certainly were not thinking about Jeannie, nor Little Bill, nor even his new puppy Spot.

As I see it...

'K.D. Galagher'

Part 2 of 3 ...For The Non-Believers.

I continue with my 3 series Blog on Convenient Dying.

Now for the Non-Believers.

Pretty hard to argue with you guys - if you do not believe in an after-life why would you want anything to do with suffering and why wouldn't you want to pull the plug or have someone else do it for you if the going got tough.

You are headed for oblivion anyway, so if you speeded up the process ... so be it.

I saw an article in the paper the other day with the front page devoted to a chap who has ALS... a fatal disease.  His wife was feeding him though a tube because he had lost the ability to swallow.

Despite this, she looked quite chipper as did he.

There was nothing wrong with his mind but in the scheme of Euthanasia I guess that is not really a big factor for those who believe they are headed into perpetual darkness anyway.

Compus or not; if the suffering is too great then that's the end of the story.  At least your story.

But is it?

A few questions for you:

If, as you believe, life ends forever when you take your last breath is it not unfair of you to leave your family and friends prematurely?  After-all we are not on earth for a long time so why purposely shorten it.

Is it not selfish of you to deny your family members and friends who provide you care the opportunity to continue to provide it until death is natural.  Think how good they feel knowing they did all in their power to make your last days comfortable and a fulfilling as they possibly could.

And is it not extremely selfish of you to have doctors complicit in your death?  Why should they have your death on their hands?

Why would you not consider alternatives to assisted dying such as Hospice and Palliative Care?  Pain control and enjoyment of your time remaining is their focus?

Are you and I not superior to the other animals here on earth?  Are we to put people down as if they were a sick cat or dog?

If you pull the plug for whatever reason, do you not realize that it will be easier for the next pull of the plug and the next one after that?  No wonder the disabled fear Euthanasia.

Be Brave And Never Surrender To Your Fears.

And If You Do Not Do That For Yourself....Do It For Others.

Finally, you might be pleasantly surprised to find out that on the other-side of Darkness there is Light.

As I see it...

'K.D. Galagher'

Pt. 3 Next...A Story.