Call the Kettle Black

Recently, one of our city councillors was involved in an automobile accident in which alcohol played a role.  Police seized the person’s car and driving rights, placed a charge of impaired driving against them, then let the public loose.

Over here in Canada, you are presumed to be innocent until the evidence is presented, and a judge has the final say.  Unfortunately that day might not come for months, if ever.

That hasn’t stopped ordinary people from trampling on this person’s rights, most don’t realize that’s what they are doing.

In a situation like this there are many opinions which are being aired publicly to anyone who wants to listen.

Many believe this person used poor judgement by getting behind the wheel after drinking.  If they were found to have been under a considerable amount of alcohol while operating a vehicle then the criticism will be vindicated;  the problem is that this fact has yet to be acclaimed with the presentation of evidence, but in the minds of many is it assumed.

Assumptions are a means to deny someone their liberties as free men and women; just ask the folks who read this blog from nearly every war-torn country on Earth.

Many believe this person has a drinking problem because  they might have personal experience with alcohol problems, or may know others arrested for drinking and driving who are habitual offenders.   Alcoholism is a disease not to be trifled with; and yet many have bestowed this label upon this public figure with out ever knowing anything about the person’s personal life.

This council person has been involved with various community organizations over the past decade, and most realize how much of an asset they have played in the various parts of society that many others don’t even think about, and take for granted.  This elected official does an upstanding job for the community for an appalling salary and yet, with the way human beings think, not everyone considers this.

Many have been waiting for this individual to fall from society’s graces; this has become the perfect opportunity to lash out and show them for what they truly are; a flawed human being, just like the rest of us.

This person was in an accident, with a reputation is on the line, and a future in politics in question.  As an individual who’s life has been turned upside down, by their own devices or through others, one has a lot to think about beyond getting lynched by a mob.

People need time to sort their lives out when a tragedy occurs;  this is no different.

The Occupy Movement focuses on the financial practices, as well as the democratic injustices that hinder the productive efforts of society.  Part of this awareness is to recognize when the liberties of an individual are being constricted or denied;  this is a situation where the authoritarians of civilization are not at fault;  it is injustice prevailing by the hands of the ’99 percent,’ themselves.

Society needs an upgrade; and a lesson in upholding each other’s rights until all the facts are in.

 

2-9-6 Is a Flying Corps; What In The Hell Are We Walking For?

The Air Cadets rock; kids learn to operate aviation equipment free of charge. I flew real gliders before I had my first car.  I got to eat real U.S. Army chow once while visiting a base south of the border, I was a teenage eating machine.   I also learned to march really well, for miles and miles and miles. That’s an organization the Canadian Armed Forces should always support, as many view it and it’s counterparts as vital to promote the purpose of the military to the upcoming taxpayers of society; our youth.

I was a typical 1980’s long haired headbanger who showed up and they said ‘come on in;’  good people.  You can rest assured that the thousands of aviation enthusiasts that passed through the doors of their local Canadian Armoury joined the Royal Canadian Air Cadets for more then just love of planes; the sense of patriotism can get instilled at an early age in the right environment and mine was no exception from that.

Asking advice from the experts in any situation is the earmark of successful accomplishment in many given predicaments.  I wonder if anyone asked the pilots of our Armed Forces if they approve the F-35?  If they answer ‘yes’ then that’s high praise for the selection process that Canada’s defence system underwent to purchase new jet fighters for the military; otherwise it says a lot about how our governance regards those who risk their lives in defence of our great nation.

I’m not an expert on planes by any means but from what is being revealed through Wikileaks and other organizations, we can understand the selection process generations of  elected officials took to choose our country’s next line of national air defense, and I’m betting ‘no’ may have been heard more often then not.

The Military needs an upgrade.

CBC News: Exclusive new revelations about the troubled F-35 program

REUTERS – Pentagon tells Lockheed to shape up on F-35 fighter

WIKILEAKS : F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Program: Background, Status, and Issues

Suicide is Painless

When the movie M*A*S*H came out in the theatres back in 1970 it’s soundtrack included a song about the perils of suicide.  It seems one of the characters wanted a suicide ritual because he thought he was homosexual, and he couldn’t live with it.   Of course, being in the middle of the Korean War, with thousands of people giving their lives up in the battlefields all around him, it did not seem to matter that he was desperately needed.  Luckily some hot, sexy female nurse ‘screwed the gay’ out of him later in the movie.    So much for fiction; if only real life problems could be solved so easily.

My son asked about Amanda Todd;  I had no clue who she was.  I’m on computers day and night; I read dozens of news articles from around the world, and the story of a young girl who killed herself from cyber-bullying had gone past my eyes and left me completely ignorant of what really happened to her.  People fall through the cracks when they are ignored, avoided, not listened to, or not respected.   This was all over the Internet and television, and I bet a lot of people gleaned right over her story and didn’t even realize it.  Below is Ana Kasparian’s report on Amanda:

There are, however, underlying issues that until now have not really been given any attention in media, social or other.  To give the reader some perspective, I bought software from Bill Gates when he still had long hair.  I remember when the Internet hit the consumer market and the ‘information superhighway’ began to grow.  Even back twenty years ago, the Internet was, and is, a completely anarchistic world;  everything good about the world was immediately available, and everything evil as well.

As my kids grew up, they grew up without computers, except their old Nintendo.    No e-mail except our account, no chat rooms, no social media, nothing.  We kept them off the Internet for a reason, and that is a huge reason why society continues see on-line bullying after 20 years of blatant and wilful parental neglect by millions around the globe.

Kids are freely allowed to play unsupervised in a war zone, to this day.

Parents around the world give their innocent, naive, young, partially self-realizing yet mindless little automatons we call children free rein to do anything they want anywhere they want to do it, because the adults in the equation have never stopped to consider that the Internet is not a magical realm for the delight of children everywhere;  it is a dark and cruel world just like the real thing.

Many parents are just generally naive of the Internet, or just fooling themselves; either way they do a disservice to their offspring.  I don’t know what Amanda’s parents were thinking, but 12 year olds should be baking muffins with mom, not stripping for strangers. Here is Amanda’s suicide video, recorded at her parent’s home:

The tragic story of this girl began with technology itself;  technology that no twelve year old should have been using without supervision.  As soon as photos of her naked breasts were broadcast to the world, her journey towards a sinister end began.  I can’t advocate computer supervision enough to the parents I meet in my profession every day;  this is the reason why.  As a parent it’s heartbreaking; but it’s something we as a society could have helped avoid.  I hope to never hear about another Amanda Todd, again.  Wishful thinking.

Society needs an upgrade.