We are 14 days into the New Year and already 2010 is looking like a year we might want to forget. Its funny how when we arrive at the end of a year we get this feeling of excitement about the New Year which lays only days away. We begin to dream about the, ''what might be'' we begin to plan how we are truly going to make this new year special, how we are going to use the changing calendar as an opportunity to start anew. Unfortunately more times then not the new year only continues to be part of the last year with no discernable difference other then the number obvious on the calendar we hang on the refrigerator door.
Use one of the following organizations for donations. Stick with these reputable charities to ensure maximum impact for the dollars you donate http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/ , http://www.redcross.org/ , http://www.worldvision.org/ , www.OxfamAmerica.org/Haiti . Haiti is one of if not the most impoverished Nations in the Western Hemisphere. As a rule of thumb the people living there have little or nothing and since this magnitude 7.0 earthquake which is believed to have taken between 50,000-100,000 lives they now have less then nothing. Think about that. Less then nothing. GO TO THESE OR ONE OF YOUR PREFERED CHARITIES TO MAKE A SMALL CONTRIBUTION. IT WILL HELP.
You know i had as many others did, this incredible sense of something amazing about to happen back in November of 2008. I didn't want to believe it was possible for the Americans to actual take a gigantic step forward not only for their own country but for the entire world. On that warmish November night I was proven wrong and i watched with a big heart and a sense of renewed optimism in January of 2009 as Obama was sworn in as President. Almost 1year has now past and that sense of optimism has turned back to my original pessimism about Americans and their self-destructive nature. Don't get me wrong I'm not an American basher, I love them to death, I have worked in the US, I have visited and lived in the US. At times i have watched in complete awe as they do incredible things. I have watched them take action around the world (excluding the wars) while other nations have sat idly by. The sad part is they just don't seem to be able to keep themselves on track. This whole era of hope was built on the idea that the status quo had to go. That partnership was the way to accomplish the task that lay at hand. Unfortunately it has turned back to the same old, same old. Politics in the US is quite similar to their attitude about war. Its just never enough for them. They seem to need to wage war internally as much as they do externally. They have turned their political system of red and blue into nothing more then a civil war. Instead of North and South they have Republican and Democrats. No need for bullets or cannons, they have the media and its talking heads and they will do just fine thank you very much. Over the last few weeks especially they have sank to new levels of low. It started back on Christmas day with the attempted terrorist attack by Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab on NWA flight 253. Since then the Reds (Republicans) have been attacking the Blue (Democrats) more particularly Obama about their inability to keep the nation safe. PARDON ME! SAFE you say. Yup, according to past New York Mayor and Republican presidential wanna be Rudy Giuliani there was never an attack on the US during George W Bush's administration. HUH? Wasn't he the President on Sept 11, 2001? Maybe i'm mistaken. Wasn't there an Anthrax attack that lasted 4 weeks during his Presidency also in 2001? NAH he wasn't President in 2001. Didn't a guy named Richard Reid try and blow up a plane on December 22, 2001 with a shoe bomb on a flight from Paris to Miami? COULDN'T BE! You know what the worst part of all of this is? The media actually plays up statements like Giuliani's as if they are facts. The talking heads of the Reds propagate the nonsense and drive it down an eager publics throat. You want to know the truly sad part? The American people actually eat it up, believe it, recycle it and use it (in the voting box) to move the country forward. That's not forward people that's backwards!!!
SARAH PALIN
SHE'S BACK. UGHHHHH! "As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where– where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border." --Sarah Palin, explaining why Alaska's proximity to Russia gives her foreign policy experience, interview with CBS's Katie Couric, Sept. 24, 2008. Do i need to say more? Well she's back with her book ''Going Rogue'', and now she is going to have her own on air show at FOX (the Bastien of fair and balanced media). You know what scares me is that people actually think she is qualified to be the President of the United States. That there are actually way to many who would actually put a check mark beside her name on a ballot. What the hell does that tell you about the people in the United States. She is one scary assed woman. You could go on and on about her but that only lends credibility to nonsense.
Do you remember when you were in high school and there was always one teacher who came across as being condescending (well maybe more). Who walked around and you got this sense that he didn't give a shit about you, how you were doing, or if teenage life was treating you well. When you spoke to them they acted interested but you could just tell they just wanted you to finish talking so they could go get a coffee and in essence didn't give a shit what you had to say or thought. Well let me introduce you to Stephen Harper, he's not a teacher though. Nope! He is the minority (for the second time) Prime Minister of Canada who just prorogued parliament because...well.... he has more important things take care of. The economy isn't bad enough, the whole torture issue in Afghanistan isn't important enough, no, no, no the Olympics might get in the way of parlimentary business, sooooooo. Close her down Baby! I wish there was some alternative to this red neck clown other then Jacky boy and Ignat...i can't even be bothered to spell his name. This Countries politics is sad and its not going to get any better any time soon.
THE OLYMPICS
I'm sorry to my sport loving readers but i can't get behind the Olympics. I just can't. I mean listen McDonald's is the ''official'' restaurant of the Olympic Games. WHAT!!! Common what does fast food and athletics have to do with each other other then millions of dollars of marketing value. There are no more amateur athletes in the games unless of course you count the ski jumpers and bobsledders. Hey, name a Ski jumper or a Bobsledder. I think the Olympics must have meant something once but now they are nothing more then an excuse to pound out advertising and products. Oh and before anyone goes off about, ''yes but you know these obscure athletes training on their own giving it their all and getting no support that's what the Olympics are all about, perseverance''. Listen, since the ''Own The Podium'' initiative was introduced the funding for ''amateur'' athletes has increased to over $90 million dollars per year. That's $90 million Tax payer dollars by the way. The funding was increased for which reason exactly? Because the government and our society so supports our ''amateur'' athletes? AH NO! It was because the government and sports powers that be could not accept the potential that their might not be a SIGNIFICANT podium performance by our athletes on home turf in 2010. That is why the funding was increased, it was all about athletics and the athletes and the value we put on them here in this country. To quote Dr, Evil, ''Yeah Right''.
There are so many major challenges facing humanity at this time and more importantly issues facing our own Nation for me to support the outlandish amount of money being spent by governments on these games. Anyone who claims that the games will not in the end cost the taxpayers money is a fool. The games are going to tax resources which could be spent more appropriately on health care, jobs, the economy, world aid and i don't know maybe the refugees in Darfur could use a $100 million of the estimate $400 million plus the Canadian tax payers are going to have to pay for security overruns alone. I wonder if that might feed a few starving children's mouths. The Harper Government has committed $5 Million to the Haiti recovery. $5 million? Because you know there is way more value in seeing a Canadian athlete on TV atop the podium with a Gold Medal around their neck, a Big Mac in one hand and a Coke in the other with the maple leaf fluttering in the back ground. Thats a much better photo opt then there is in seeing a dead child lying on the side of the road in an earthquake torn country.
Don't get me wrong people, i love sports, anyone who knows me knows i love sports probably way to much. I made a living off of sports. I admire the athletes and their dedication and talent. But truly what the hell is wrong with us. We need serious reflection in this country (as well as many others). We need to start doing concrete things to change the direction we are going. Oh and before anyone starts with the spirit of sports and the games and what they do to bring awareness to the world. SAVE IT PLEASE! The games in China have done nothing to increase the democratic process in that Country. NO WAIT, IT DID! Oh yes! Just recently Google has said it might pull all access to its services in that country as it was discovered that the Chinese Government had been hacking its site to get and use information against dissidents in that country. Yeah the Olympics did wonders for raising awareness. GO CANADA GO! DO YOU BELIEVE?
You know what people if you still have your 2009 calendar you might want to put it back up! 2010 is not off to a good start. Don't worry though 2011 is only 350 days away (well actually 352 its a leap year). Or maybe NOT!
