Australia’s New Prime Minister!

Friends, in a dramatic twenty-four hour period, Kevin Rudd, Australia’s Prime Minister was replaced by Julia Gillard, the Deputy Prime Minister, the woman shown touching his hand.

It came about because Kevin’s popularity, which had been sky-high, had plummeted and there was real fear in the Labor Party (the equivalent of the Conservatives in America) that they might lose the election due in a few months to the Liberal Coalition (Australia’s equivalent to the pro-business Republican Party in the States).

Kevin Rudd held his last press conference yesterday and I’m not ashamed to admit that I cried. Here was  a man who had been completely crushed by the events of the morning. He cried his way through the conference as he listed his achievements, not uncontrollable blubbering, but tears continued to course down his cheeks and he had to stop five or six times to bring himself under control. It was a moving scene.

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Shrink Your Problems: Look Up!

Friends, we on planet earth are dealing with lots of problems at this point in time. I won’t list them all but you know what they are.

Sometimes the extent of the problems is just overwhelming. There doesn’t seem to be any solution to most of them. We seem to be caught in a trap of our own making and, like any caged animal, we become stressed and edgy.

My advice? Look upwards. Beyond our earthly cage there is an amazing universe. Each clear night it reveals itself. Of course, we can’t see images like the one above. But the stars are there and, on occasion, so is the moon.

If we could get some comprehension of the infinite  immensity of space into our small minds, then the problems we see on earth would shrink and so would our egos.

And if our ‘leaders’, vain creatures that they are, could do likewise, they might be humbled, reminded of their total insignificance in the scheme of things, their mortality.

A humble leader! That would be a first.

Did America Take Over From Hitler?

Some Americans are not what they seem!

Friends, the White House war drums are beating loudly and clearly. We all know what that means.

Currently, America is militarily involved in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is also involved militarily in Pakistan and its drones are killing people there by the score: some militants, some civilians. It has ratcheted up its military involvement with South Korea and a war with North Korea could break out anytime soon.

It is also ratcheting up the ‘hate Iran’ rhetoric. Gates said the other day that Iran could eventually ‘hit Europe with hundreds of missiles,’ so anti-missiles defenses had to be updated, American-made of course. This update has already begun and will make America lots of money and create more fear and more war.

All over the world, America is involved in a variety of war-inducing mischief, backing terrorists here, despots there, fomenting trouble, building more and more military bases and getting access to others.

In South America, where a socialist movement is alive and well, America is poking it nose in, offering aid (guns, money or both) to any nation which will do it bidding. It is doing the same thing in Africa and is setting up an African Command.

Its naval forces are deployed all over the world though currently large numbers of American warships and submarines are patrolling the waters surrounding Iran. It has been preparing for war with Iran for quite some time (see worrying link at end of post).

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Surprise, Surprise: Afghanistan Is Rich!

“Run for cover. The Yanks are in town!”

Friends, news has reached me that, surprise, surprise, Afghanistan has more than three  trillion dollars worth of mineral wealth.

Now who could be interested in that, I wonder? Apparently China, Russia and India are. And which country would like to stop this trio from getting their hands on the minerals? You guessed it: America.

Now I know we all thought that America was militarily involved in Afghanistan because it has a great, undying love for the Afghanis and, as well, it wants to bestow on them the benefits of Coca Colo and MacDonalds.

Some even said America wanted to control Afghanistan so it could get access to oil and gas from nations to the north of Afghanistan.  But this announcement from the White House puts another dimension on the front burner.

As I have mentioned before, there is a great unstated war going on between major world powers and those who have ambitions to become a major world powers.

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Is This Our Most Tranquil Moment?

Friends, as our world lurches from catastrophe to catastrophe (Gulf oil spill, North Korea, Iran, the Middle East, etc), I was trying to recall moments of tranquility to balance things out a bit.

I was successful to a certain extent but then the thought struck me that perhaps the most tranquil moments were when I was feeding from my mother, moments that, cruelly, my memory has denied me.

If you look carefully at the beautiful photograph you’ll notice the mother is looking at the child with such love. The child is looking at the mother as it feeds, safe in her warm embrace as it takes in the warm, life-giving milk.

It is a scene of absolute contentment, the likes of which, when breast feeding is discontinued, may never come again as the child begins to become more aware and starts to make its way in this crazy, turbulent, unsafe world.

Is this the most precious period in our lives, one, ironically, we can’t remember?

If not, what do you think is?

Israel: The World’s Biggest Joke!

The Pirates of the Mediterranean.

Friends, the Israelis are going ahead with their own inquiry into their attack on the Aid Convoy. They have stacked the deck so that the inquiry will find that, surprise, surprise, Israeli committed no wrong and the convoy was made up of evil terrorists from all around the world who were intent on destroying the Israeli nation.

According to Reuters, the Commission, headed by a 76 year old retired Israeli judge, will include two other Israelis — a 93 year old international law expert and a 86 year old former general — and two non-voting foreign observers: David Trimble, a Northern Ireland politician and Nobel Peace Prize winner, and Canadian jurist Ken Watkin.

Now, the thing that stuck out to me is that the two foreign observers will not be able to vote. So the committee of three will be made up of  Israeli Jews who, clearly, will see (assuming some of the older ones can still see) things from an Israeli perspective and come up with a finding that shows how the armed, IDF commandos who, innocently wearing balaclavas and carrying guns, slid down ropes like monkeys and, horror of horrors, were attacked!

Then the Children of God just acted in self-defense and shot  terrorists dead using multiple shots, some to the back and to the top of the head (from helicopters), and wounded many others.

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Where Did We Go Wrong?

Friends, a long, long time ago our ancestors must’ve looked much like this. Sure, it’s not a pretty sight but we humans had to start somewhere. The more important question to me is: where are we now and where are we heading?

Well, let’s first consider the image and  try to ascertain what it tells us. Semi-humans in that time were moving from ape-hood to human-hood. Note the hair and the nudity. Silicon implants or penis-lengthening or hair-blonding or face-lifts had not yet been discovered so what you saw in those days is what you got, like it or lump it!

Clothes hadn’t been made yet so it was impossible for the semi-humans to dress up to the nines. They couldn’t hide behind their clothes, use them as bait, or to camouflage physical shortcomings. There weren’t hair removal salons then either or gymnasiums. Cosmetics weren’t part of the mix either or eyebrow darkening, so blemishes were there for all to see.

Yet the couple shown seem happy enough and they even seem to exhibit affection for each other (although the man might be holding her so she doesn’t get away!).

What strikes me about the image is its simplicity, its innocence.

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Two Unfortunate Inventions!

From the helicopter, heavy machine guns mowed Iraqi civilians down.

Friends, while I was looking at some tragic television footage of the Gulf oil spill I had the thought that the invention of the motor car has brought with it some serious problems.

I then began to reflect upon other inventions that have brought us trouble and strife and, after quite some time, I arrived at the conclusions that the two worst inventions in history must surely be internal combustion engine and gunpowder (which led to the development of the gun)!

Taking the gun first, the invention of gunpowder allowed us ‘civilized’ humans to move away from the bow and arrow, broadswords and spears, etc, to an invention that accurately fired a projectile that penetrated the body of an enemy and made a mess of his or her internal organs.

First we had muzzle loaders and cannons and soon came machine guns and howitzers. The efficiency of these weapons over arrows and spears can be illustrated by the slaughter of the Red Indians in America or the Zulus in Africa.

Once the means for mass killing were in our hands, engineers refined them further and developed other products like missiles and bombs. The ultimate offshoot of gunpowder is the nuclear weapon which exceeds the wildest dreams of those who thought that gunpowder was the ultimate discovery.

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A Truly Innocent Victim!

This bird can no longer fly or fish.

Friends, the Jews love to paint themselves as innocent victims even when they clearly aren’t, even when they are clearly brutal aggressors and occupiers.

The image above, by contrast, shows a real victim. This bird has been caught in the Gulf oil spill and is coated in toxic oil. If it is not cleaned properly it will die. Then many creatures will die because of this leakage along with the livelihood of many people who rely on the sea.

This oil spill shows yet again the deleterious effect that man has on the environment. In a world that is supposed to be stopping the use of oil because of global warming, the hunt for it goes on and on as does the extraction.

Obama is hopping mad but, regardless, the oil just keeps spreading while, under the ocean, huge plumes of it are moving with the currents ready to pollute other areas.

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Israel Rejects International Investigation.

A brave Israeli Commando being comforted by a ‘Terrorist’.

An Israeli Commando being held by a man armed with a camera.

Friends, unsurprisingly, Netanyahu is refusing to allow an international investigation into the Israeli massacre which took place on the lead ship in the aid convoy, the Marvi Marmara.

Israel is consulting with its major sponsor, the U.S. to see how an investigation can be rigged to show that Israel will not be shown to  be responsible for the nine activist deaths caused by multiple gunshot wounds, some in the back and some in the top of the head.

Fortunately there were no deaths on the Rachel Corrie because the people on board that vessel gave Israel assurances that they would not resist the commandos when they illegally boarded the vessel in international waters and forced the vessel to go to the Israeli port of Ashdod.

The real investigation that should be carried out is to examine America’s role in the massacre, a role that started nearly sixty years ago.

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