THEY SHOOT HORSES...DON'T THEY?

TITLE FROM THE MOVIE WITH THE SAME NAME.

And yes they do shoot horses as well as taking them to abattoirs to be cut-up for food.

A lucky few are rescued by good Samaritans.

'I take it Galagher that this is leading somewhere?'

Naturally.

I am speaking about the decline in thoroughbred and standardbred horse racing.

Not that long ago, gambling was outlawed in most parts of North America and outside of Las Vegas the notable exception was the placing of $2 bets on the ponies.

Racing thrived along with the breeding of race horses.

In more recent times though, gambling has become a legal activity with governments giddily climbing on-board to take their considerable share right off the top.

Casinos and Lotteries have proliferated which have had two negative affects on horse racing.  First, these new activities have brought in much more cash for cash starved governments, and Second, with the new competition - fewer and fewer patrons are attending the tracks.

And with that, fewer and fewer horses are needed to supply the declining demand.

Known as the Sport of Kings, Horse Racing had become a victim of the times.

But should it have been?

I personally believe gambling is a societal evil since it hurts those who are least able to afford the loss - that is to say the poor and low income workers.

I am especially appalled that our governments have delved into this social vice right up to their collective armpits.

Simply stated, Gambling is one of the greatest addictions there is.

I remember a woman who I worked with tell me about her friend who went daily to a nearby casino - she did not work and her husband made barely minimum wage.  They had two young children.  She had maxed out their family charge card to the tune of $25,000. 

There was no way in HxLL that this poor family would be able to pay off such a sum.

There is though something majestic about horse races.  Certainly they are part of our tradition as evidenced by this past Saturday's running of the Kentucky Derby.

If governments had been less greedy they could have easily incorporated horse racing into the new mix.  For instance, having Casinos co-located with Race Tracks with an equitable revenue sharing. 

So what if receipts are not maximized;  our love affair with horses would be maintained as opposed to seeing these beautiful animals chopped up for dog food.

As I see it...

'K.D. Galagher'

A POT FOR ALL OF US .....

TO PEE IN.

As In Unisex Toilets.

Still think the World, as We Once Knew It, Is Not Going To Hell In Hand-basket, if so what do you think about the latest progressive trend to throw Toilets open to Men, Women or Whomever wishes to take a load off in the presence of each other?

This Progressive nonsense is being done to accommodate those who no longer identify with their birth sex.

So to accommodate a small few, we all are subjected to this Politically Correct Madness.

And surprisingly - most of the Progressives speaking out in favour of this stupidity are women.

You would think that this would not be the case since it is women who are most vulnerable to this wacko thinking.

So let's focus on the ladies.

Are women really going to be comfortable using multi-sex potties?

And what about your young children entering such facilities?

What will the Progressive Ladies say when sexual attacks occur as they surely will?

And what's next on the Progressive list - common showers?


And I won't even get into the body noises and smells men make when doing their business.  But you get the drift.

Ladies I truly do not see this working but if you Progressives insist, I am game.  

One of  the leaders in this misadventure are our places of higher learning - our colleges and universities places where we here that rape culture is rampant and when young women students fear unlit pathways and the lace of sufficient strategically placed panic buttons.

But now perverts need not lurk in dark ally-ways since they now can cruise the Cans in the early mornings and late at night.

Progress ... Progressives?

Not.

On a lighter note though - dear women your age old complaint about males and toilets is their failure to put the toilet seat down after use.  Get used to it big time.

And men - our ability to quickly enter the Loo will degenerate into the long line-ups woman have had to put up with ages.

As I see it...

'K.D. Galagher'

For Those Of You Who Believe In A Higher Power.

This Note Is For Those Of You Who Believe In God.

It is not intended to diminish in anyway those of you who don't but today's message is not for you.

For Those Of You Who Believe...Including Myself.

I have written several times about how the Western World is transforming into Secularism despite the fact that Religion has been the foundation upon which our Democracies have been built.

Today we find ourselves under attack here in our home countries; where we are ridiculed and dismissed as irrelevant...politically non-correct.

We can live with that but throughout many parts of the world those who believe in a Higher Power are being slaughtered for their belief as the world stands mute in the face of this religious genocide.

Unlike our detractors though we can take comfort in the fact that there is a better place awaiting us after death.

To reinforce this with you, I give you the Holy Gospel according to Saint John - 15:18-21 -

Jesus said to his disciples: If the world hates you, realize it hated me first.  

If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you.

Remember the word I spoke to you, 'No slave is greater that his master',  If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.  If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.

And they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know the one who sent me.

That does not mean that those who believe in God should roll over and accept their fate willingly.  Rather it provides the reason why things are going south in a ever growing secular world.

Indeed, it has always been, and continues to be our job to set an example for those who do not believe - in the hope that they too will realize the true value of life here on earth is to prepare for life ever lasting ...before it is too late for them. 

As I see it...

'K.D. Galagher'

CAN DONALD TRUMP CLINTON ?

OR IS HE OUT OF TRUMP?

I have laid off the Trump saga for some time - as promised, but the time has come to once again spill some ink on this very fascinating topic.

Why so, you may rightfully ask.

Because dear Mr. Trump and Ms. Hillary have now both wrapped up their respective leadership campaigns. 

This despite the apparent fact that Donald's main contender, Ted Cruz, still believes he can cut Trump off at this summer's Republican Convention.

He can't.

And he can't primarily because if Cruz were to be successful it would be thanks to the shenanigans of the Republican Hierarchy, and the Grand Olde Party would simply blow-up.

And an exploding Elephant is not a pretty sight.

No one would be stupid enough to set that in motion.

So Trump has got it as does Hillary and her nemesis too - Bernie Sanders, will hang on in the hope that Hillary's future is as a resident of the Big House and not the White House. And I would put the chances of that occurring at even money.

Simply stated the dear lady broke the law when, as Sec State, she installed her internet server in her laundry room. 

But for argument sake, say Hillary is protected by her cronies in high places and she skates on being charged for gross negligence - what is the likely outcome of a Trump / Clinton match-up?

Why a Clinton victory of course...let me count the ways:

• Blacks won't vote for him;
• Hispanics won't either;
• Neither will immigrants generally;
• Muslims fear him;
• Youth ridicule him;
• Women don't like him; and the 
• Educated believe him to be a dunce.

So that leaves only lower class white males in the Trump camp.

And Trump has the highest negative popularity of any main candidate for the White House in history - some 67%.  That is not to say that Hillary's is much better at 55 % but it is better and of course she has all of the above voting blocks on-side.

So it is Hillary Clinton in a walk as the Pundits are quick to point out.  The same pundits who predicted 6 months ago that Trump would be dead in the water within days or at the most, weeks of his announcing his candidacy late last year.

Or is he?

Trump is beginning to mellow - he really lost me when he crowed that NATO was not pulling its weight and the US should pull out of it.

In my Blogs I have always said that NATO is needed now more than ever - bearing in mind the state of the world and the fact that there are only 20 full fledged Democracies in the World.

I have also said that NATO members need to start paying their fair share and it can no longer expect the US to pay the lion share of the Organization's expenses.  NATO expects member countries to expend 2% of their GDP on Defence.  Only 4 countries do so - which includes the US and the 3 others do not even come close to America's 3.6% expenditure.

And now Trump is starting to focus - finally realizing the value of NATO and putting his finger on the real issue - the lack of commitment of most of NATO's Membership.

About time but at least he has sensibly come around.

If he continues to mellow I might very well change my mind and if I was an American - might just vote for the guy.

He is a voice for the silent majority - against the special interest groups, the elites, the politically correct.

After 8 years of decline where the US enemies no longer fear it and its allies no longer trust it - Trump brings hope that America will regain its superior position in the world.

America's economy has stagnated - manufacturing jobs have been lost in the millions - wages have seen little or no growth all the while the Obama White House worries itself sick about Climate Change and job destroying Obama Care. 

And if that is not enough - the Courts - right up to the Supreme Court are making laws not interpreting them which have the affect of radically changing the Social Fabric of the Unite States.

Trump has the refreshing ability to cut through the BS and tell it like it is.  If someone calls him fat - he counters by calling them stupid.  He always seems to one up them and in that regard I cannot wait to see how he deals with Sleazy Hillary.

The world is a much more dangerous place thanks to Hillary and Obama's reign of ineptitude. 

She takes millions of $ from despots around the world for the Clinton Foundation and expects the unwashed believe this money is given without strings attached. 

She fiddles while the US Ambassador and 3 colleagues in Libya burn.  Then she blames everyone rather than herself for this tragedy save for the Islamic Terrorists who did the dastardly deed.

I could go on and on but believe I have made my point.

Bottom-line is - Hillary should win in a walk but by the same token Trump should not even still be in the race.

So would I count The Donald out - not in a minute.

As I see it...

'K.D. Galagher'

IS PTSD ....

THE NEW LOWER BACK PAIN?

I, for one, am suspicious.  Anybody, whose Anybody seems to be claiming and receiving disability pensions based on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

There is the Military of course - but now Fire Fighters, Police, Para Meds, Nurses and others are getting in on the action.

And don't doubt that there is real money to be had.

The US Military is paying out $3,000 per month tax free for PTSD Sufferers.  And the diagnosis is usually based solely upon the claimant's assertion that he or she suffers from it.

Like yesterday, when the lower back pain scam was so prominent.

But more and more reports suggest that fraud is a big part of the surge in cases.

And boy have they surged.

In 1990, the US Military had but 34,000 PTSD cases.  In 2013 that number had climbed to 650,000 ... or by 20 times.

And by this time of course their big wars were well behind them - WWI, WWII and Vietnam.

I don't for one moment think that all or even the majority of these cases are bogus but it does cause you to reflect on why the numbers have risen so high so fast over the last decade or two.

There can be three reasons for this amazing growth:

a) ptsd is a disease of epidemic proportions; or

b) there is $ to be had and it is very difficult to prove fraud; or

c) we in the West are becoming nations of wimps.

I discount choice a) out of hand, re b) there certainly has to be a large amount of fraud involved, and with c) sadly there is also lots of evidence that more and more of us have become or are becoming Wussies. 

That said, I am not suggesting that we go back to the days during World War One when PTSD Suffers - called Shell Shock then - were simply put up against a wall and shot. 

But it does appear something - albeit much less drastic - should be done to stem the tide.

And now, like I say - others are climbing on board.  All have something in common re these newbies - they are all government employees and have the best salaries, benefits and working conditions to boot.  But another 3 grand - tax free $, no doubt comes in handy.

I remember once a veteran coming to me to say he had just been awarded a pension for something or other - and I said good for you...until - 

He told me he had entered the hearing room with a cane and bent over - but I said to him I did not know you needed a cane - I did know that he walked straight and tall - and he replied he did not but he thought it was guaranteed to get him sympathy from the panel.  

And it looks like it did.

But then there was my father who served in Italy and Holland in tanks - he was the gunner and in post war life he was hard of hearing - surprise.

I told dad why don't you apply for a hearing pension and he responded saying there is nothing wrong with my hearing.  I was shouting at him at the time.

A hearing specialist concluded dad did indeed have hearing loss caused by Loud Noise and since he worked all his civilian life at a desk - it did not seem likely the loud noise damage was caused by his typewriter.

He got his small pension.

So I am in favour of the truly disabled qualifying for legitimate pensions - even for fire fighters, cops and nurses but for heavens sake, let's be more vigilante in weeding out the chaff from the wheat.

At the very least - tax these PTSD Pensions.

As I see it...

'K.D. Galagher'

CHRISTIANS UNDER ATTACK ...

ALL OVER THE WORLD.

Since the 60s and 70s Christianity has been under attack here in the West as Secular Society entrenches itself more and more into our societal institutions - eg. government, social, finance and so on. 

Church attendance has dropped by 45% as a growing number of boomers have opted out of organized religion and accordingly are fertile ground for vocal minorities pitching their anti-religious thoughts.


Prayers are no longer permitted in our schools nor even at public meetings generally.  

Abortion is not only tolerated, but strongly advocated.  Euthanasia is the new death wish.  Life is becoming cheaper. 

We have become Throwaway Societies. 

And marriage, which for millennium has meant a union between a man and a woman, now can mean virtually whatever one wants it to.  Moreover, individuals are now claiming to be whatever gender or non-gender that suits them at the moment. 

I truly believe that God created man and woman to compliment one another, and to unite as one upon marriage.

Indeed, it was only a few years ago that our political leaders were tripping over themselves defending traditional marriage and the resulting family as the foundation of society.  Nothing the non-religious can say or do today will change the validity of that.

But one thing is true - it is harder to be a Christian in modern society.  Just look at the contempt the Progressives heap on the Southern Christians. 

But it gets worse.

In the last century the % of Christians in the Middle East got as high as 20% ...today it is less than 5% and declining.

Much of that decline has occurred because of the discrimination Christians receive at the hands of the Islamic majority.  More recently they have been the victim of Genocide. 

When ISIS entered villages, towns and cities many Christian homes were marked by the sign of a cross for the purpose of selling them out to their Islamic butchers. 

The UN turns a blind eye as does the West - all determined to focus on the need for Muslim Immigration.  (Numerous news reports confirm that UN Refugee Camps are avoided by Christians since they face brutal treatment by the Muslim Majority).

Regardless of the fact that it is the Christians in this part of the world who are subject of genocide, the numbers being admitted to Europe and to North America are pathetically small.  For instance since 2011 only 3% of Refugees from Syria taken in by the USA were Christian. 

Similar anemic numbers exist for Europe.

And don't forget the nearly 300 Christian School Girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in Nigeria.  Forced to renounce their Christianity, turned into sex slaves and more latterly forced to be human bombers.  Hell is simply too good for these as well as those ISIS Bastards.

So as our Progressives sit back in the comfort of their willful blindness to an evolving death society, the breakdown of the family, the murder, rape and torture of innocent Christians ponder this.

Recently I did an article on the fact that there are only 20 true democracies in the world - all exist in parts of Europe and North America.  All have something in common - they are based on Judaeo/Christian Values. The Jews have gone through their slaughter and the Christians are now encountering their own.  

If the day comes when they - Jews and Christians alike are no longer factors in our modern societies - that day will also include the day True Democracies no longer exist. 

And just think what the state of our world will be then.

It is coming more quickly than any of us think.

As I see it...

'K.D. Galagher'

NATO, THE UNITED NATIONS.... OR

SHOULD WE GET RID OF EITHER OR BOTH?

IN EITHER CASE, IS THERE A NEED FOR  ANOTHER?


With the world going to 'Hell in a Hand-basket' both of these organizations have come under withering attack.

NATO had become more of a Generals' arm chair organization -- that is to say, all talk and no action and certainly no serious money to support its Mandate.

NATO came into being in 1948 as a bulwark against the USSR but more latterly has been much more ineffective in stemming Russia's Aggression.  In-so-far-as Islamic Terrorism is concerned, NATO has been a non-player.

It officially requires its member states - most of which are democracies by the way, to allocate a mere 2% of their GDPs to defence.  Sadly, only four of its 28 member states attain that goal; the US is the leader at 3.7%* followed by the UK, Estonia and Poland.

   *The United States would of course be spending lots on defence regardless of the NATO requirement but of interest, when Obama first became President in 2008 it was spending 6% of GDP on Defence - nearly twice what it now spends.

So is it time to send NATO packing?

No way !! The world is more dangerous now than at anytime since the end of WWII.  NATO, although it took its time, did eventually stop Russia in its naked bid to seize the Ukraine and several of its former satellites in Eastern Europe.  And we still have the Islamist idiots as well as the reawakening giant - China which has made made clear its ambition to take over lands of others in the far east.

NATO is needed more than ever along with better and coordinated weapons  and a membership that voluntarily pays its annual dues...and if they don't ...boot them out..


THE UNITED NATIONS

If NATO is sputtering along, the UN is virtually paralyzed.

For all intents and purposes the UN is governed by its Security Council which in turn operates at the whim of each of its 5 'veto' members - the US, UK, France, Russia, and China. All have vetos and 2 of the 5 are totalitarian states.  Nothing gets accomplished unless all 5 are in accord.

And then there is the General Assembly containing reps from all 193 Member States - only 20 of which are True Democracies representing less than 9% of the world's population.  Another 59 are considered 'Flawed Democracies' and together consist of less than 40% of the entire population.

As such the UN General Assembly is inundated with countries that can best be described as led by Henchmen.  It is comes as no surprise therefore that the only country in the world which they continually wish to condemn is Israel...itself the only Democracy in the Middle East and a Beacon in that part of the world which comes under authoritarian rule.

Given the General Assembly's overall membership, it means that its various Committees are controlled by non-democratic countries.

In sum it is a joke.

The UN does have some uses and as such should be kept although monetary support from democratic countries should be given judiciously.

It has been able to get countries together to pass important international agreements in the areas of Health, Criminal Law, Trade, Refugees and even with respect to Human Rights.

It also provides a useful body for nations to talk, ...as Winston Churchill so ably put it - "better to jaw, jaw than to war, war.

Okay - so we keep them both - flaws and all. Do we then need another.

I think we do.

I was shocked to learn that out of nearly 200 countries in the world - only 20 or about 10% are classed as True Democracies.  No wonder things are so bad.

And while NATO can be considered the Military Arm of Democracy - we are in desperate need of more democratic countries.

But I am not naive enough to think that one can just wave a wand and presto country x becomes democratic - it takes time - education and the building of institutions including a functioning judicial system. And all that takes mentoring and money.

What the world lacks in my opinion is a body of True Democracies - let's call it the Original Twenty (20) which Mandate is to encourage other nations to crossover and join the Democratic Team.  Focus should first be on those 59 Countries deemed to be 'Flawed Democracies' with the ultimate goal being  to have all 193 World States ...classed as True Democracies.

Only then will the basic Freedoms be protected - Speech, Religion, Political as so on.  Only then will Human Rights be protected around the world.  Only then will poverty be eliminated.  Only then will the daily slaughter of innocents end.

As I see it...

'K.D.  Galagher'