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A Bear's Rant completed it's first full year at the end of September and it was a great year for a new blog being run by someone who didn't have a clue about blogging when he started. We ended up with almost 225, 000 page views and are now averaging approximately  a thousand hits a day.

To celebrate, we're moving from Blogger to our own domain abearsrant.com which is currently under construction. We should be fully operational by the end of the weekend and will notify you when we are.

We are working furiously trying to get the new site up and running and hope you'll enjoy the refreshed look and new features. 

Until then, we won't be posting any new articles but we will still be right here in our old home at Blogger and will be reposting some of our most popular rants from the past year.(Just so you don't forget us)

Thank you to all of you who have supported A Bear's Rant during its first year. We hope you'll follow us to our new home with it's bright new look and features once it's ready and we have all the furniture in place.

(Anyone who would like to help unload the truck is more than welcome.  :-) ) 

Maggie' Bear

An Inconvenient Form Of Democracy

In all of my years, I don’t think I’ve heard or seen as much talk about democracy as I have over the past couple of years. Even my ancient history prof didn’t talk as much about it when he was droning on and on about the ancient Greeks and he was very good at droning on and on.

Everybody, well almost everybody, seems to have an opinion about democracy and those opinions, often including my own, are about how it’s being undermined. In Canada, the liberal media are positively beside themselves over how the Conservative government is a threat to democracy and people on social media are positively poetic (in a very loose definition of the term) in their outrage about it.

At its simplest, democracy is simply government by the people for the people and government is formed based on elections where the majority rules. This, of course, is agreeable to everyone until their particular candidate, political party or issue loses and then democracy becomes quite inconvenient.

At that point we start hearing phrases like “tyranny of the majority” and accusations of undermining the democratic process. When those fail to work out to well for those who have their underwear in a twist because their side lost the election, an allegation of political corruption or electoral fraud always seems to gather some momentum.

It is no secret, if you are a regular reader of this blog, that I have very little respect for the political process in general and politicians and their strategists in particular. I consider political parties to be the greatest threat to our democracy because they are not about governing; they’re about winning and holding power.

But, we the people are willing contributors to the erosion of our democracy because we the people don’t respect the democratic process any more than political parties and their Slick Willies working the phones in the war rooms out back. We the people prefer a convenient form of democracy; one that gives us what we want and screw everyone else.

Unfortunately, democracy is a messy business and it’s hard. It takes effort and, sad to say, more than just a little thought; more thought than many are willing to bring to the table. Consider these two examples.

In the United States, a recent poll clearly showed that more than 60% of Americans believe the United States is on the wrong track and it needs to change direction in order to recover. One would tend to believe that would be a pretty strong indictment against the current administration, whatever administration that might be.

You’d be wrong.

In fact, the latest electoral polls show the current administration leading in popular support and that would be a basis for criticism of the American system if it wasn’t for the fact that Canadians are even more confused.

The current Conservative government was elected with less than 45% public support and is routinely attacked in the media and online for being undemocratic and a threat to the fabric of Canada (whatever that might actually mean). This despite the fact that:

This government has piloted the country through the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression landing Canada at the top of the G7 in terms of economic stability and prosperity

Canada is ranked #2 in the world in terms of wellness, health and satisfaction according to   Deepak Chopra's  latest Gallop study

Of the ten cities in the world with the cleanest air, eight of them are in Canada

Despite allegations of electoral fraud, the only charges that have been laid for breaking the rules were laid against the opposition parties. The Conservative government has been charged with nothing.

Introduced a motion to recognized Quebec as a nation within a nation and not only restored the cuts to health care funding by the former Liberal government but has provided a long-term guarantee of annual payment increases.

A majority of Canadians are quite unhappy with their government nonetheless and continuously castigate it for its nefarious ways even though they are living in the most stable country in the world because of that government and there really aren’t any nefarious ways over which to be all that upset.

It is democracy, however, and we the people are entitled to voice our displeasure, no matter how irrational that displeasure may be. It appears that both Americans and Canadians never seem to have time to step back and actually consider the contradictory nature of what they want and what they say they want before they form their opinions or vote.

A majority of Americans don’t believe they have what they want or need but appear to be doggedly determined to on voting for more of it by supporting the administration that provided caused that dissatisfaction. Canadians, for the most part, have pretty much what they want and need but would like a different government anyway.

I believe this is what happens when thinking is replaced by feeling; when the ability to think critically, objectively or analytically is overruled by emotional knee-jerk reaction. Feeling is easy because it happens naturally. Thinking is hard because you actually have to make an effort.

Sometimes it's the result of focusing on a single issue without any understanding that in today's economy, all issues are inevitably linked at some point.

Americans like Barrack Obama. He’s charming most of the time, somewhat hip and cool, fairly intelligent, witty and he’s African-American. He’s stands as a symbol that their country has finally overcome the racial divide, at least politically and that anyone can, indeed, become president. The fact that he is an incompetent leader who has put America on a track with which a majority of Americans disagree is irrelevant to how the majority seem prepared to vote.

Canadians do not like Stephen Harper even though he is competent, focused, reasonably intelligent and efficient. He has provided solid leadership on most files anticipates events well and is consistent. But, and there is always a but, he isn’t very friendly, can be quite vicious in his attack on his political opponents, has the charisma of a tax auditor and his hair never blows in the wind. If Canada were a two party system, Mr. Harper would lose the next election despite his good governance and solid performance.

We don’t stop there, however, in our never ending search for convenient democracy. The definition of the democracy we want shifts from issue to issue.

We all claim to want our elected representatives to vote their conscience and that of their constituents rather than the party line but, as we saw recently with the vote in Canada on a motion to examine when life begins, that idea of democracy becomes quite inconvenient.

Rona Ambrose, the Minister for the Status of Women, voted her conscience. She voted in favour of the motion. This has outraged the Sisterhood who, even though the motion was soundly defeated, are calling for the minister’s head or at the very least, her resignation from cabinet. Winning the vote wasn’t good enough, the mere fact that Minister Ambrose voted in favour of something with which the Sisterhood disagreed is sufficient to toss the idea of democracy aside and gather the lynch mob together for a hanging.

It's pretty confused democratic activism that fights for the rights of women and then get's it's lingerie in a twist when one of them actually exercises that right and votes against how the Sisterhood thinks they should. The fact that the Sisterhood doesn't speak for all women, let alone all Canadians and that this is a democracy, is quite irrelevant to them. It is democracy at its most inconvenient so just grab the rope and find a tree.

Teachers’ unions in Canada and the United States have thrown their support, sometimes quite aggressively behind this this political party or that, in order to provide better education for the children through higher salaries and benefits to teachers. When the cupboard is bare and the existing government they supported introduces the concept of economic reality to them, teachers take to the streets and then throw their support to the next party only too willing to promise them a piece of the moon if they’re elected. What the government may have done in a broader sense is irrelevant. Teachers vote en mass against the government that is now undermining the classroom by freezing teachers' salaries or not providing them with the raises they want.

And that, Kids, is what we call convenient democracy. The idea of we the people agreeing on something by majority rule is only convenient when our team wins, or in the case of issues like ‘when life begins’ not even when our team wins. Then it isn’t enough that ‘our side’ won the day, there has to be repercussions against those who exercised their democratic right and voted against us.

Even children have a better understanding of democracy than we do but then, children aren’t as sophisticated as we are and they have too much integrity to understand the intricacies of the real world. For kids, it’s about forming a consensus, making a decision and getting on with playing; either that or simply throwing a hissy fit in order to get their own way.

And doesn’t that last bit sound like a lot of what the big folks do these days?

For grown up kids now, it’s about throwing a hissy fits when we lose the vote and then hammering away at every issue until the resolution is convenient for us. The problem, of course, is that when that happens it becomes quite inconvenient for someone else and so we start the silliness over again.

Perhaps one day we might learn that democracy is at its best when we recognize that it is not always convenient but that the decisions taken by the majority are necessary to move us forward as a nation. Until then, I’m afraid that for many of us, democracy will be little more than a hammer to try and force others to our way of thinking at worst and a parody of a results show for American Idol or X Factor at best complete with screaming fans, lots of television coverage but unfortunately without the charm of Simon Cowell.

© 2012 Maggie's Bear

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The content of this article is the sole property of Maggie's Bear but a link to it may be shared by those who think it may be of interest to others

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A President's Words. A President's Actions

"...true democracy – real freedom – is hard work.”

-President Obama

On September 11, 2012, violence directed against American diplomatic missions in Egypt and Libya erupted without warning or at least, that was the official position of the Obama administration. It is now clear that there was not only reason to anticipate something happening on the anniversary of 9/11 but there were warnings as much as 48 hours in advance.

Four Americans, including the American ambassador to Libya were killed; an unnecessary loss of life due to nothing more than careless indifference to the safety of diplomatic staff in this troubled region.

On September 11, there was no statement from the White House regarding the attacks and indeed, later in the evening while appearing on the David Letterman Show, the President was mute about what was happening in North Africa and the Middle East. Mitt Romney spoke out against this silence and was criticized by the administration and the mainstream media for politicizing the issue.

Politicizing the issue?

I think there has been a great deal of politicizing of this issue but it hasn’t come from Mitt Romney or his campaign.

On September 12, President Obama gave a short, terse statement denouncing the attacks and showing firm resolve at bringing those who had committed the attacks to justice. He reiterated that these were spontaneous, random attacks that had nothing to do with terrorism and took no questions. President Obama is very good at the delivery of wonderfully crafted statements but has been proven time and again that he isn’t very good at living up to his words.

Subsequently, violence erupted across the Muslim region with protests and demonstrations against the United States. There were even demonstrations in Australia and other democracies. The cause, the world was assured, was a fourteen minute video that ridiculed the prophet Mohammed and which offended Muslims. Even if that were true and it now appears that it is not, so what? There are millions of Muslims around the world who did not riot, protest or threaten the lives of Americans. They accept, like most civilized people, that freedom of speech includes the right to offend.

President Obama has devoted much of his response to the attacks to apologizing for and condemning those who offended Muslims but it was only in his speech to the United Nations that he ever made reference to all of the offense directed at other religions by others, including his own supporter Bill Maher.

In a democracy, freedom of speech means exactly that; the freedom to speak your mind and voice your opinion even if it offends others. The President felt it necessary to apologize rather than defend that basic American right until it became clear that Americans were outraged.

The video was a convenient excuse for both those who consider the United States an enemy and who are constantly looking for a reason to attack it, as well as, for the administration itself.

By blaming the video, the administration did not have to take responsibility for either its lax security arrangements or having ignored the advance warnings it received from governments in the region.  It didn’t have to acknowledge that it didn’t put any particular plan in place to increase security at is embassies in anticipation of potential threats at its missions in the Middle East and North Africa on the anniversary of 9/11.

Instead, the President and his administration blamed it all on a crudely produced video and characterized all of the violence as nothing more than a spontaneous event. Blaming others is something at which this administration has become quite accomplished.

Nothing is ever this administration’s fault. The economy is the fault of the previous government or the recession. The unconscionable increase in the budget deficit, indeed the lack of a budget in four years, is strictly the fault of Congress despite the fact that the President had a Democratic majority in the senate for two years. Neither the President, nor his supporters, gives any consideration as to whether or not the President had a responsibility to lead and build consensus rather than throw up his hands and simply point fingers at others.

The administration takes no responsibility for anything except what it perceives to be popular successes and then, they are only due to the courageous leadership of the President.

Since September 11^th, that courageous leadership has run television ads in Pakistan apologizing for the independently produced video, denied intelligence information to the house committee for national security that it had in its possession and has yet to send in the FBI to undertake an investigation into what happened in Benghazi. Indeed, so much time has passed since the attack that the FBI no longer sees the value in going to Benghazi as the ‘crime’ scene has been so tainted it will tell them virtually nothing.

So much for the firmly spoken commitment to find those responsible and bring them to justice.

Now, it appears that despite public pronouncements to the contrary, the administration knew within 24 hours that what happened was a planned, terrorist attack and it wasn’t the only one. Attacks took place in other places including America’s largest military base in Afghanistan. It was a coordinated effort by Al Qaeda and its supporters including the Taliban which the administration denied publicly until yesterday.

None of this information has been forthcoming from the President or the State Department but rather from media who are on the ground in the region, doing the job the administration should have ordered done two weeks ago. It is the media who for once are doing their job that forced the administration to admit the truth. I doubt the whole truth has yet emerged but clearly it will and this pitiful attempt at covering up the truth lest it interfere with the President’s reelection will be exposed for what it is.

Recent polls show that support for Barrack Obama’s reelection is increasing which is a tragic and dangerous endorsement of style over substance. Considering his ineffective leadership in every area of the presidency but in particular in foreign policy and national security, it amazes me that he has any support at all.

I can only attribute the President’s success in the polls to the dismal campaign being run by the Republicans.

The President has failed to demonstrate the leadership that would find agreement with Congress on fiscal matters, has defended the only Attorney General in American history to be found in contempt of Congress over the Fast & Furious scandal which cost more Americans their lives and has implemented a mandatory health care plan that is so poorly conceived that it has divided the nation and requires  taking $750 billion from Medicare to properly fund it.

The President’s redistribution of wealth now appears to include taking from the elderly to give to others.

Jimmy Carter did far less and accomplished far more than this president and yet remains mocked and vilified for his presidency by Democrats and Republicans alike. The fact that so many have refused to consider what their support of the past four years will provide them over the next four if they continue that support is a telling indication of just how little thought is being applied to this election campaign.

Many may discover too late that emotion is a poor substitute for analytical thought when it comes to deciding the future government that will decide your personal future and that of your family.

There is an old saying that the people get the government they deserve but once reality hits after the election and the debt, unemployment and confused foreign policy continue, it will be too late for anyone to change their mind. If the past four years are not enough to make people stop and consider the record of this administration, surely to God it’s performance and response to the attacks against Americans and American diplomatic missions in the past two weeks should at the very least give them pause for thought.

If not, God help them.

In his speech to the United Nations, President Obama said, “...true democracy – real freedom – is hard work.” Yes it is. We can agree on that. It is unfortunate that for this president they are too often only words; words that many cling too in the hope and failed belief that this time he will follow through on them.

© 2012 Maggie's Bear

all rights reserved

The content of this article is the sole property of Maggie's Bear but a link to it may be shared by those who think it may be of interest to others

Follow The Bear on Twitter: @maggsbear or become a friend on Facebook: Maggie's Bear

The Not Quite Knute Rockne Moment Of The Romney Campaign

"Play like you're positive on the victory, even though
they're leading big now." 

- Knute Rockne

In sport, the coach usually has an inspirational talk with his team before sending them out on the field. Typically, he and his assistant coaches have also spent more than just a bit of time pumping up the media and fans before the big game.

In that vein, this letter has been sent to the mainstream media and other interested parties by the Mitt Romney campaign in advance of the first Presidential debate. Give it a read and then we’ll chat.

From: Beth Myers, Senior Adviser

To: Interested Parties

Date: September 27, 2012

Re: 2012 Presidential Debates

In a matter of days, Governor Romney and President Obama will meet on the presidential debate stage. President Obama is a universally-acclaimed public speaker and has substantial debate experience under his belt. However, the record he's compiled over the last four years – higher unemployment, lower incomes, rising energy costs, and a national debt spiraling out of control – means this will be a close election right up to November 6th.

Between now and then, President Obama and Governor Romney will debate three times. While Governor Romney has the issues and the facts on his side, President Obama enters these contests with a significant advantage on a number of fronts.

Voters already believe – by a 25-point margin – that President Obama is likely to do a better job in these debates. Given President Obama's natural gifts and extensive seasoning under the bright lights of the debate stage, this is unsurprising. President Obama is a uniquely gifted speaker, and is widely regarded as one of the most talented political communicators in modern history. This will be the eighth one-on-one presidential debate of his political career. For Mitt Romney, it will be his first.

Four years ago, Barack Obama faced John McCain on the debate stage. According to Gallup, voters judged him the winner of each debate by double-digit margins, and their polling showed he won one debate by an astounding 33-point margin. In the 2008 primary, he faced Hillary Clinton, another formidable opponent – debating her one-on-one numerous times and coming out ahead. The takeaway? Not only has President Obama gained valuable experience in these debates, he also won them comfortably.

But what must President Obama overcome? His record. Based on the campaign he's run so far, it's clear that President Obama will use his ample rhetorical gifts and debating experience to one end: attacking Mitt Romney. Since he won't – and can't – talk about his record, he'll talk about Mitt Romney. We fully expect a 90-minute attack ad aimed at tearing down his opponent. If President Obama is as negative as we expect, he will have missed an opportunity to let the American people know his vision for the next four years and the policies he'd pursue. That's not an opportunity Mitt Romney will pass up. He will talk about the big choice in this election – the choice between President Obama's government-centric vision and Mitt Romney's vision for an opportunity society with more jobs, higher take-home pay, a better-educated workforce, and millions of Americans lifted out of poverty into the middle class.

This election will not be decided by the debates, however. It will be decided by the American people. Regardless of who comes out on top in these debates, they know we can't afford another four years like the last four years. And they will ultimately choose a better future by electing Mitt Romney to be our next president.

It’s a damn good thing that Ms Myers is not a football coach because Knute Rockne she ain’t. Imagine any football coach contacting the media and advising them that his team was probably going to lose on Sunday because the other team had better coaching, a better quarterback and….well….were just better at it the game than his team even though their record sucked.

While she did take the obligatory shots at the record of President Obama, she spent as much time positively fawning over his rhetorical and debating skills, even detailing his past successes.

Everything Ms Myers wrote is true. President Obama is an experienced debater and an excellent orator. It is equally true that his record in office is one of the worst in modern history. It seems to me that if you want to win the election, you just keep pounding away on that record rather than laying down in front of the world and admitting that your ‘boy’ doesn’t stand a chance in the big game. You might just as well toss in the towel and admit that your campaign is done.

I’m  wondering why in hell anyone would be supporting someone they think is going to get the stuffing kicked out of them in a debate with his opponent. Does Ms Myers lack confidence in her candidate to the point where she believes he is incapable of holding his own against President Obama? If that is the case, how could she possibly believe he could hold his own with Congress or world leaders, especially with the likes of the President of Iran? (I’d use his name but I can’t pronounce or spell it properly.)

What would ever possess an election campaign to publicly undercut its own candidate and lower expectations of his performance? I suppose some will think that it is a devilishly clever strategy to create a bit of over-confidence in the Obama ranks with the intent of blind-siding him during the debate. Give me a break. If that was the strategy it was clearly poorly thought out and the result of desperate over-thinking…..or perhaps not thinking at all.

I’m also wondering how Mitt is feeling after this underwhelming public endorsement from one of his senior campaign advisers. Imagine that metaphorical football coach getting the lads together in the locker room and telling them they were about to get the Bejesus kicked out of them on Sunday because they weren’t as good as the other team. That’s definitely not one of those inspirational speeches that gets recorded for posterity or that drives a team to strive for victory.

Hollywood doesn’t make too many movies about coaches who announced in advance of the big game that their team didn’t have the experience or measured up to the other team; so for pity’s sake, don’t expect much from them.

It continues to amaze me at just how bizarre this election campaign continues to become.

Personally, I think the entire problem with elections is exemplified by this presidential campaign. There is too much money, too much spin and too much strategy. What is lacking is a rational discourse on the record of the current president and specifics about policy to get America back on its feet from his challenger. Somehow that doesn’t seem important though. There is so much focus on winning that the actual purpose of the election has been long forgotten.

It’s more of a popularity contest now than a process to select the best person to govern the country. It’s like an America’s Got Talent audition without the good will, the humour or the talent but an overabundance of stage moms behind the curtain.

Churchill was right. Democracy is the worst form of government, it’s just better than all the rest. Isn’t it a shame that it’s the best we could come up with? I hate to admit it but some days, dictatorships and monarchies start to look attractive to me. Even if kings, queens and dictators didn’t govern all that well; we wouldn’t be any worse off than we are now and at the very least we wouldn’t have put up with a year-long circus of division and stupidity at horrendous expense.

I think we should just elect a king or a queen and divide the $10 billion being wasted in this election campaign amongst everyone. Those in favour raise their hands and say aye. Those opposed can go ahead and tune in to the debates next week although we already know who will win; the Mitt Romney campaign has made that clear.

You don’t think Ms Myers actually is a Democrat do you? Nah, me either…but….

© 2012 Maggie's Bear

all rights reserved

The content of this article is the sole property of Maggie's Bear but a link to it may be shared by those who think it may be of interest to others

Follow The Bear on Twitter: @maggsbear or connect on Facebook: Maggie's Bear

The Gospel Of The Clueless

"There is an almost universal quest for easy answers

and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people

more than having to think."

- Martin Luther King

Do you get the feeling lately that there aren’t very many people paying much attention these days? I don’t mean paying attention to an individual issue, I mean paying attention period. Everywhere I go whether it is online or in the real world, I run into people who are so lost in their own little time and place they are completely oblivious to what is going on around them.

I was downtown the other day, stopped at a red light. A nicely dressed man, about forty, crossed the intersection in front of me with his finger buried up his nose. I can understand people in their cars forgetting that their windows are actually two-way glass and indulging in a little nasal mining but out on the street?

He struck gold and hauled it out of his nose to take a good look at it in the middle of the intersection, pausing to hold his finger up to seriously examine his find. What in God’s name could anyone possibly have up their nose that they would want to examine it? Were they expecting that this one time, whatever it is would be different than the hundreds of times before?

It’s incredible. People are completely tuned out.

Everywhere I go people are on their cell and smart phones. They’re texting, emailing and talking and they do it while they’re driving and while they’re trying to cross the street without regard to personal safety or the safety of others. Too often, they are so focused on the momentous communication they just received that they are completely unaware of the half-ton truck in front of which they’ve just walked.

I watched one young woman walk out into an intersection against a red light. She was so focused on her mobile phone, she didn’t notice either the light or even the intersection until the traffic slammed to a screeching halt to avoid running her over. Then, of course, she was suitably annoyed that someone almost hit her and forced to look up from her phone.

It is life without thought; life without even an attempt to think.

Earlier today I was listening to a radio talk show I particularly enjoy and they were discussing the issue of swaddling. You know, swaddling; as in “and Mary wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manager.” That kind of swaddling.

After centuries of swaddling newborns, apparently it has suddenly become dangerous. It arrests the development of newborns, could cause hip dysplasia, lead to SIDS and death. Where is the evidence to support this nonsense? Where are the overwhelming reports of cases of swaddling having threatened, injured or killed babies?

There aren’t any, of course. Like so many of the solutions being offered today, they are solutions by self-anointed experts looking for a problem.

The sad thing is that because we have become dumber, a lot of people will jump on the anti-swaddling issue just as so many jumped on the “vaccinations cause autism” bandwagon. God, even Oprah was behind that cause and her devoted fans followed her mindlessly as if she was a female reincarnation of Moses leading them out of bondage to the Promised Land.

It was a crock, a fraud by a single doctor in England who falsified a study for no more noble reason than the cash he received from a pharmaceutical company. Hundreds of thousands stopped having their children vaccinated for diseases like polio which was all but eradicated and is now making a comeback thanks to this stupidity.

It wasn’t that there wasn’t more than ample information available at the World Health Organization and government health departments around the world that contradicted the report. There were but people were too lazy to do any independent research. People like Oprah and Jenny McCarthy said it was so and that was good enough reason for them to risk their children’s lives.

To this day, even though the fraud has been exposed, there are still far too many who believe that vaccinations cause autism because people like Oprah once said so.

We have more information available to us than ever before thanks to technology but technology has dumbed us down to the point of becoming almost mindless. It has made us intellectually fat and lazy; too lazy to actually research things for ourselves and then analyze critically what we’ve learned. Why bother when you have Wikipedia and thousands of blogs and social media sites just itching to tell you the truth?

We can no longer separate fact from opinion let alone from fiction or fantasy.

There was a time when we actually paid experts to provide the facts for our encyclopedias. Now, any idiot with a keyboard and an Internet connection is an expert and there are plenty more idiots just willing to believe whatever they type.

It is the Gospel Of The Clueless.

The technology whiz kids predict that soon our refrigerators will maintain an inventory of the food they contain and when we’re running low, they will order more for us. Samsung is already producing a refrigerator with Wi-Fi for that amateur chef who suffers separation anxiety from being away from the computer for more than a few minutes.

Isn’t that just what we needed; machines that think for us and keep us connected to the Great Mindless Void that the Internet has become? Our phones are already smarter than too many of us and now we’re getting ready to have household appliances that will be smarter than us as well.

At this rate, we’ll be lucky if most people remember how to tie their shoe laces in the not too distant future although some bright light will probably develop an app to do that for us.

Whether it is political debate or an understanding of the major social issues challenging us today, most people have no more clues about what drives them than their toaster, although it appears their toaster may soon have enough technology to figure it out.

Everything has been reduced to emotions now rather than analytical thought. Emotions are easy, thought is difficult and requires some effort but we are becoming a society that is unprepared to make much of an effort to do very much of anything.

We don’t even want to pay our own way anymore. It’s just easier to whine about how difficult life is and demand that someone else pay for a part, if not all, of what we want.

University is expensive and working to earn enough money while going to university is hard so, make someone else pay. That’s easier and doesn’t take any effort at all.

Voting based on a candidate’s record actually means having to examine the record and compare it to the promises that were made in the last election and that, we all know, is hard. It’s just easier to support someone based on our feelings. If we like him or her, or think they’re cool; that should be good enough reason to vote them into office. What damage they might do while in office is really irrelevant compared to what we feel.

We’ve reached a time and place where nothing matters but what we’re doing at the moment. We don’t plan, we don’t think and we are unaware of the bigger world around us. We go online, see a few tweets about an issue and thanks to Twitter or Facebook or whatever, we have all we need to know to decide whether or not we will support or oppose it.

Thinking is not required. Neither is being aware let alone committed.

You don’t have to take my word for it, look at the inane comments from both sides of the Presidential election argument currently on Twitter. If you didn’t know better, you’d swear it was a badly written comedy show starring Charlie Sheen or an episode of the Jerry Springer Show. The amount of rational thought or critical analysis that has gone into the discussion is less than is required to slap together a piece of Ikea furniture.

Ok, bad example. Assembling Ikea furniture isn’t all that easy but neither is thinking. It takes effort; more effort than picking your nose in public or fiddling with your iPhone. It takes assembling information; real information, not the opinionated articles of this blog or others and once you have that information, it requires analyzing it.

I know that’s a lot of effort for many but if deciding who you’re going to trust to govern your country isn’t worth that effort; then you might as well let your refrigerator vote for you because it will probably give it at least some serious thought before casting its ballot.

© 2012 Maggie's Bear

all rights reserved

The content of this article is the sole property of Maggie's Bear but a link to it may be shared by those who think it may be of interest to others

Follow The Bear on Twitter: @maggsbear or connect on Facebook: Maggie's Bear

With The Thanks Of A Grateful Nation

War. Nobody likes it, least of all the people who have to go and fight but go they do. Most go because they consider it their duty to serve their country. Some never return from war, some return wounded. All who survive and who do return come home changed by the sheer brutality of the experience.

Canada’s military brass and the government talk a good talk about the courage and dedication of the men and women who serve in our armed forces. They show up to greet returning coffins and even named a stretch of highway for the fallen, calling it the Highway of Heroes.

How nice.

What they don’t do is treat returning veterans with the respect and gratitude to which they are entitled after having risked their lives in defense of what these same politicians felt was important.

The Department of National Defense (DND) has gone out of its way to dismiss as unproven, the idea that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a real mental illness which entitles returning veterans to benefits under their healthcare and disability plan. Imagine that, these are the same men and women who have spent endless nights and days fearing that their next step might trigger a land mine or that the approaching car might have a bomb in it.

They have been caught in firefights where people they don’t know and can’t see are trying to kill them and they experience this far from their families and the normalcy of life the rest of us take for granted.

Of course some of them will come home mentally wounded.

Peter McKay, the Minister of National Defense has chided the Defense Ombudsman for taking a role that was too close to that of advocate rather than mediator in disputes between DND and veterans. It isn’t hard to understand why. It is impossible to mediate when DND refuses to acknowledge a problem and is intransigent in its response to the real suffering of individual veterans and veterans issues as a whole.

Indeed, the government actually fought its veterans in court after being sued for having clawed back some of their benefits. The government has lost the first round. In other words, the courts have determined that the government’s position is quite simply wrong but they have magnanimously offered to settle the court case rather than appeal it. Settle it? That’s just another way of saying that if veterans take less than they are owed, then the government won’t drag the case out through various courts over a few more years at even greater expense.

It reminds me of the foot-dragging the government employed when it came to light that previous governments had surreptitiously used Canadian soldiers as guinea pigs in the testing of the effects of Agent Orange. When it came to light that disproportionate number of those soldiers was contracting cancer in later years and they sought compensation, the government fought the case in court in the cynical knowledge that many of the claimants would die before the case was concluded.

Two years ago, the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) took it upon themselves to fight the very veterans they represent to the point that they illegally accessed one particular veteran’s medical records and leaked them publicly in an attempt to embarrass him into silence. No one at DVA was fired for this incredible breach of ethics and the law.

Like many countries, Canada talks the talk but doesn’t walk the talk when it comes to the men and women who serve in our armed forces. A young soldier suffering from PTSD, and who was suicidal, was ordered back into the combat zone after only one month of treatment. The result? He committed suicide and DND dismisses any responsibility but has fought the family tooth and nail over release of documents related to their son’s case.

The Liberal Chretien government ordered support troops to Iraq during the first Gulf War. We didn’t have desert camouflage so the government sent them to a desert country disguised as trees. Fortunately, the Americans provided some desert camouflage uniforms so that our troops wouldn’t look like a forest walking down the dusty road.

The Navy’s Sea King helicopters passed their shelf life thirty years ago. The Conservative government under Brian Mulroney finally ordered replacements in the early 90s. The incoming Liberal government under Jean Chretien cancelled the order at a cost of $500 million and initiated a new procurement for helicopters.

It is now 2012. None of the replacement helicopters have been delivered and nobody in the Conservative government of Stephen Harper has a clue when they might arrive. Meanwhile, the Navy continues to repair and fly its Sea Kings which has resulted in more than one crash and the death of at least one pilot.

The situation isn’t any better in the United States.

Officials at Houston’s National Cemetery banned all religious observances at funerals and the Obama Administration was forced to reverse a decision to ban any and all religious symbols and literature in veteran’s hospitals.

Imagine the stupidity of that policy for a moment.

The government banned religious books, like the bible, from people who actually offered their lives to preserve the freedoms of the United States which includes religious freedom. That absurd policy actually meant that a Catholic veteran who was dying in hospital would not be permitted the last rites by his grateful nation.

I spent six weeks in Miami on business two years ago and was overwhelmed by the number of veterans I saw who were missing limbs and needed wheelchairs. Many of them were poorly dressed and living on social assistance in poverty. They were the forgotten, no longer of use to government and so were discarded.

Too many of our veterans find it challenging reintegrating into civilian life. They have difficulty finding meaningful employment but the bureaucrats and the politicians are far too busy to implement programs to assist them. Instead, they waffle, speak honey words while clawing back benefits and fighting in court the very men and women who served with distinction and courage.

Many of the same bureaucrats who deny the legitimacy of the effects of combat on veterans avail themselves of their benefits program to go on stress-related leave because....well....it's just very stressful pushing paper all day and fighting citizens on behalf of the government. It makes one wonder how quick they would be to deny veterans their benefits if they were veterans returning home after having lived for months in the 24/7 stress of a combat zone. It makes you wonder how well they would hold up in Afghanistan or some other God-forsaken war zone when they can't handle the stress of a 9-5 job downtown.

My guess is that they wouldn’t come close to meeting the standards of the men and women who have worn the uniform with courage and honour.

It is a disgrace that government doesn’t show them the honour they deserve.

© 2012 Maggie's Bear

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The content of this article is the sole property of Maggie's Bear but a link to it may be shared by those who think it may be of interest to others

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A Democracy of Trivial Pursuit

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent

about things that matter." 

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Some days it is difficult to believe that thousands of men and women have given their lives to protect the freedoms and rights we have. Day after day during various election campaigns, I watch pointless polarized arguments over trivial minutia rather than serious debate about the real issues that we face and that are of concern to us all.

The mainstream and social media become aflame with opinion, most of which is unencumbered by something as inconvenient as facts or analytical thinking. It is noise and buzz and chatter that is passed along as if it actually meant something.

It doesn’t!

The presidential election in the United States will cost upwards of $10 billion and has already consumed the better part of a year. It is an obscene expenditure and parody of democracy and for all that time and expense, what have we really learned?

Not much. People have lined up to support the President or the challenger with mindless partisan rhetoric they parrot endlessly. When confronted with real facts, they spin, dodge and weave with more dexterity than an NBA point guard.

For months, for example, the left has been whining about Mitt Romney’s tax returns and they were finally released; more than 550 pages of them in fact. The documents even included returns for the past few years which was over-kill but nonetheless, it didn’t stop the hyperbole or even slow it down. Instead, people now criticize how much Mr. Romney actually paid or talk about his off-shore accounts or, if you’re a Democratic U.S. Senator, accuse Mr. Romney of falsifying his returns.

It’s almost as if people can’t think for themselves any more. They’re just ventriloquist dummies with a political party’s hand up their ass making their mouths work.

Even sheep think more independently.

I had a comment left on my blog yesterday that referred to Mitt Romney’s tax rate as a joke. I’ll tell you what's a joke. It’s people who can’t think beyond their bias, people so bereft of the ability to think critically and so unwilling to examine facts objectively, they’d rather sink with the ship than let go of whatever opinion they cling to so desperately.

Let’s look at the facts, not the spin from either side, just the facts of Mitt Romney’s tax returns.

Mitt Romney’s income is primarily investment income which is taxed differently than salaried income. There is a reason for this. Investment income has already been taxed once. Consequently, just as all Americans who earn investment income, Mr. Romney received a rate reduction under the tax code because of the nature of his income. Barrack Obama, by contrast, earned most of his income in the form of salary which is taxed differently but in the end, it all amounts to the same thing. 

Both men followed the tax code as it is written into law. Because of his sizable donation to charity, Mr. Romney earned a very large tax deduction which reduced his tax rate to 14%. That charitable tax deduction is available to every American citizen and is in place to encourage people to contribute to their communities through charity.

It should be noted that Mr. Romney did not take the full allowable charitable donation tax deduction even though he was fully entitled to do so.

In 2011, Mitt Romney earned $42 million. He paid $6.2 million in taxes, donated $7 million to charity and another $4.1 million to his church. In other words, far from being the greedy, evil 1% money-grubber that the Democrats were desperate to paint him, Mitt Romney paid taxes and made donations  equivalent to 41% of his income. 

The national average for charitable donations is approximately 3% of income. Mitt Romney donated slightly more than 26% of his income.

Those are simple facts but it won’t stop the left from accusing him of not paying his fair share. They will whine that he should have paid more in taxes rather than give to his church and to charity. Don’t try to make sense of that attitude. I’ve wasted too much time trying to figure it out and the logic escapes me.

So how does the evil capitalist stack up against others with a dog in this race? Let’s take a look at some of his critics and supporters.

In 2011, Joe Biden and his wife donated $995 to charity on income of just over $300,000. At 0.3%, that doesn’t come close to the national average even though it is a significant increase for the Biden’s over previous years when they donated less than 0.1%. It doesn’t, however, measure up to former Vice-president Al Gore who, along with his wife, donated 7% of their income to charity during his last two years in office.

To their credit, President Obama and his wife have increased their charitable donations as their income increased. In 2011, the President donated 5.7% of their income to charity and the President took 100% of the allowable tax deduction as is his right under the tax code. Senator John McCain, another right-wing capitalist pig, donated 25% of his income. Newt Gingrich donated less than 3%.

How much a politician, or anyone for that matter, contributes to charity is a personal decision and has nothing to do with whether or not they are capable of governing and leading the country. But look at all the time that has been wasted and that will continue to be wasted on this non-issue. There was no smoking gun in the Romney tax returns but consider how much time and energy were squandered over it to the point that it was like watching a dog worrying a bone. There was no meat left but that dog just kept on gnawing anyway.

There are people across America right now and, indeed, around the world asking a far more serious question than how much tax did Mitt Romney pay. The question many are asking is:

What in the hell happened to the United States and to Americans?

The United States used to be a nation that applauded success. It celebrated initiative and achievement. Much of the world's great industrial and technological advancement came from Americans like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Henry Ford and countless others. Along the way, they created hundreds of thousands of jobs and provided significant prosperity for people across the country and around the world.

It was called The American Dream; a nation where anyone could rise up from nothing and become successful.

Americans were an innovative, creative and positive people. Now it’s all whining and accusation; a negativity that borders on manic depression. Success is vilified and accomplishing wealth has become an evil thing. It’s sometimes seems like America’s best days are behind it and the country we once knew and admired no longer exists.

Even the President demeaned the idea of individual accomplishment and success with his “you didn’t build this” comment. That statement is so unlike the attitude that built the United States, that it is astonishing that any American politician would actually think it let alone say it out loud.

It wasn’t so long ago that America was the strongest nation in the world and the president was considered the world's most powerful leader. It wasn't strong simply because it had a large standing army and enough nuclear weapons to destroy the solar system. It was attitude and character that made America strong. There was a national pride and confidence that is long gone.

If other nations didn’t always agree with U.S. foreign policy, they respected the focus and strength of American resolve and determination. Now, teenagers and thugs with guns, rocks and homemade bombs attack American consulates and terrorists kill its diplomatic staff without reprisal.

Where once America stood strong against those that threatened it's security, it now apologizes for having offended those that attack it.

The nation’s economy is in the toilet, unemployment is a disgrace, poverty is on the rise, random violence is breaking out in cities across the country, the country’s foreign policy is a confused mess and through it all, Americans are arguing about a candidate’s tax returns or the president’s birth certificate, the latest Romney foot in the mouth gaff or how often the President has played golf.

Give me a break!

While I grant you it would be a wonderful thing for a nation to only have to worry about trivia like that, the simple reality is that they are not only unimportant, they are inane in context of the state of the union and the world today.

There are 23 million Americans unemployed and more than 26 million who go to bed at night not knowing from where their next meal will come. Half of those people, 13 million, are children. The true unemployment rate is over 10%, the national deficit has jumped from $10 trillion to $16 trillion in just four years and neither Congress nor the White House showed enough leadership to have come together and successfully passed a budget during this administration.

Despite that, those who support the President are more focused on accusing anyone who doesn't of being a racist.

Despite a fast approaching deadline that will see program spending slashed by $1 trillion and taxes increased by as much as 5% unless Congress and The White House arrive at a solution, Congress has adjourned until after the election season and the President was too busy chatting on The View and David Letterman to attempt to negotiate a deal. This despite the fact that the bond rating agencies have issued a strong warning that the United States is facing another downgrading of its credit rating. That will result in even higher interest payments on the national debt, further depriving the government of much needed money to fund its operations.

America has lost its influence in the world. Despite entreaties from the President to not attend, 127 countries attended a conference in Iran this past week. So little influence does the U.S. now have, even the Secretary General of the U.N attended despite a request from the President that he not.

Two men are running for president. It is probably the most serious responsibility in the developed world but very few, including the candidates themselves have offered serious and informed debate on the real issues. It’s all attack, spin and counter spin. Anyone who believes that approach to selecting a world leader will provide a future guarantee of prosperity and security for the nation is seriously deluded. It is a circus of misinformed, polarized opinion and nothing more and which will accomplish even less.

I have always liked and respected the United States and I particularly like Americans. I have always found them a friendly, compassionate and dynamic people. If they were sometimes arrogant and opinionated, they were also fiercely loyal and invariably the first to arrive with aid at the scene of a natural disaster somewhere in the world. We could always count on America and Americans to be among the first to offer a helping hand to those who needed it.

We now live in a era when it is more important than ever before to know who your friends are and upon whom you can depend. It wasn't so long ago, we all knew we could depend on the United States as trading partner, friend and ally. Today nobody, including some of America's closest allies like Canada and Israel, really know where they stand with the United States. If your closest allies are scratching their heads in wonderment, you can only imagine what those, who didn't like you to begin with, are thinking. 

It makes me wonder what happened to this great nation and I’m not alone. People around the world, including many Americans are asking the same question.

And that, my friends, is a far better question to ponder than Mitt Romney’s tax returns or all the other trivial nonsense being screamed across the mainstream and social media these days. If Americans want to regain the country they once had, they need to examine both the record of this President and the campaign platform of his challenger with an objective and critical eye before making a decision when they go to cast their ballot.

The simple truth is that in this new and very dangerous world, Americans can no longer afford the luxury of mindless partisanship and ill-informed debate.

None of us can.

© 2012 Maggie's Bear

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The content of this article is the sole property of Maggie's Bear but a link to it may be shared by those who think it may be of interest to others

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Monster Truck Jam - Everything Is Better When The Wheels Come Off

I have some things on my mind and will probably get around to ranting about them in the next day or two but yesterday, Maggie and I went to a very special event that helps keep things in perspective.

It was our grandson, Ben’s, third birthday party.

His mom asked him if he would like a party and he said yes. She then asked if he would like to have a party with his friends or with his grandparents and his aunts and uncles but Ben's no fool. He opted for the second. Big people bring bigger gifts.

And gifts he received.

Ben is Monster Truck crazy, so mom and dad gave him a Monster Truck slide complete with all the most popular Monster Trucks from the circuit. He was also given electronic reader kind of thing that reads stories out loud and which highlights each word on a digital screen to help him learn to read and spell.

He received a Hot Wheels race set for the bath, NHL clothes of his favourite team and a remote control Monster truck.

Maggie and I thought we were quite clever. We had picked up a small, hand-made train in Paris with a locomotive pulling individual cars, each of which carried one of the letters that spells out his full name.
 

Maggie’s family is originally from The Netherlands and we have some Dutch stuff around the house, including Ben-size wooden shoes which have fascinated him since he learned to walk, so we picked him up a pair of slippers shaped like wooden shoes and, of course, the inevitable race car set. We tried to cover all the bases.

So what were the hits of the day?

The first gift Ben opened turned out to be some of the books for the reader and not really knowing what they were, they didn’t grab his attention. He dutifully opened the card first, then the gift. It was a slow process for three-year old hands made that much longer by the taking of the inevitable photographs. Grandparents taking pictures of their grandchildren are worse than the paparazzi at a celebrity wedding.

I don’t know what the next gift was because we didn’t make it past the card.

His young aunt, home from university for the big birthday party, had bought a card with a monster truck on it that featured a ‘press me’ button. When you pressed the button, the card yelled out “Monster Truck Jam” and then some famous phrase from one of the trucks.

That just about destabilized the entire process of opening gifts. Ben ran around pressing the button and yelling Monster Truck Jam, so excitedly that he could barely contain his enthusiasm. His mother would dutifully try to focus him back on opening more gifts and to give him credit, he’d give her the card and try but half way through tearing the paper off the next gift he’d say, Monster Truck Jam and run over to get the card and press the button.

We tried hiding the card while he was opening another gift but he stopped in the middle of tearing off the paper and asked where the card was and then wandered off to look for it.

Eventually all the gifts were open which meant it was time to play with them. Nothing would do but that the race track be set up in the family room. It took four people, five batteries and two screw drivers.

Because assembly was required and we only had the one day, I was relegated to observer status.

It didn’t take the crew very long and the electronics worked the first time which made me think that these were people I should be calling the next time I have to assemble a barbeque or install a dimmer switch.

Ben loved the whole idea of cars speeding on the track, especially once he realized he could make them fly off the track and crash into the couch. Eventually, he figured out that he could take some of his miniature Monster Trucks, put them on the track and manually push them around which apparently was a whole lot more fun than actually using the remote controller to drive the race cars.

Every so often, it was time for a break to go and get a drink and then find the Monster Truck card and press the button, then it was back to the race track. Eventually, Ben realized he could take the wheels off the cars and then use his tow truck to pretend to tow the broken car to the couch and that was even more fun than using the remote controller. Good thing too because without the wheels, the race cars weren’t responding very well to the commands from the controllers.

After most of the vehicles had been de-wheeled and towed, Aunt Amy arrived. She brought a gift and a card which Ben dutifully opened first. It was a card that unfolded into a giraffe. Well….that was it for the gift in the pretty paper. We had to run around and show everyone how big the card became when it opened up into a giraffe. Then the giraffe card had to be introduced to the Monster Truck card so they could talk to each other.

And only then did we get around to opening the gift which was a very large, remote controlled Monster Truck. Unlike Ben’s grandfather who didn’t read the instructions on the race car set box, Aunt Amy did and she brought batteries. In nothing flat, the truck was ready to go and Ben figured out two things immediately.

First, he figured out how to work the remote control so that the truck tore across the living room into the kitchen. Second, he figured out that he couldn’t get the wheels off the truck so it was back to the race car set and the mini-Monster Trucks for some more tire surgery.

While this was all going on, the women in the family were passing Ben’s three-month old baby sister around like a tray of sandwiches at a church social. As each took their turn holding Adele, the others would eye her like a vultures sitting in a tree watching the death-throws of a dying animal. Any sign of weakness, any sign that an arm was growing tired of propping up the baby was met by a rustling and shifting as the women jockeyed for position to be next.

Dinner was my son-in-law’s excellent spaghetti with Caesar salad and garlic bread by request from the birthday boy. After dinner, it was time to get ready for the cake which meant there was enough time to find the Monster Truck card and press the button a couple of more times.

My daughter had made the cake which was huge and wasn’t confident about it although she did keep telling Ben that it would blow his socks off and it did. While he was blowing out the candles, Maggie reached down and very subtly pulled off his socks off then showed him that the cake really had blown them off.

Wow! That was almost as good as the Monster Truck and giraffe cards.

It was a special afternoon and later I reflected on two things that struck me about it all. The first was that it was encouraging that a little boy would find as much delight in a simple card as he did in any or all of the gifts he received. He was thrilled by the novelty rather than the expense of it.

The second was that regardless of what the toy does, children when left to their own devices will invent their own way of playing with it. Ben had more fun pushing his mini-trucks around the race track than he did making the cars race using the remote control. Removing the wheels from the new cars and trucks and then getting out his old tow truck to haul them around was even more fun.

The trick for the rest of us is never to be disappointed by how children play with what you have given them. Be happy that they have incorporated it into how they think and play. By the time we were ready to leave, Ben had somehow incorporated the Monster Truck slide his parents had given him into the race track set and was busy using his tow truck to haul cars to and from both with momentary breaks to press the button on the Monster Truck card.

It was all very complex but it made perfect sense to him. It was self-evident that he was enjoying himself and in the end, isn’t that why we bought our children gifts in the first place?

Happy birthday Ben, we can’t wait to see what you do with your Christmas presents but one thing is certain, you’ll be getting a lot of talking cards on Christmas morning. Your grandparents learn quickly.

© 2012 Maggie's Bear

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The content of this article is the sole property of Maggie's Bear but a link to it may be shared by those who think it may be of interest to others

Follow The Bear on Twitter: @maggsbear or connect on Facebook: Maggie's Bear