America!
Non Illegitimi Carborundum!
Don't let the bastards get you down...
However, a bit of perspective couldn't hurt, right? Let's not go nuts.

Just to add a short and personal perspective to the previous entry... During the Ice-Storm of '98 which had Quebecers (amongst others) freezing in unheated and unlit homes who came to help? The Americans did, that's who.

On a different note, My Pook and I were finally able to put aside the crisis for a few hours last night, and got to talking about general personal characteristics of people born under certain 'Sun-Signs..
I was telling her that Capricorn with Saggitarius rising fused the boring grouch with the happy-hoppy bunny to create a quasi Schizo personality.
Full blown Scorpios, I said, are just nasty.
Upon hearing this she immediately asked that "If I'm so bad then why do you live with me?" to which I answered: "Well Sweetie, at first the sex was really good, but after that first week, well, I was to scared to leave." ;-)
Can you believe that she took a swipe at me for that?

Widespread but only partial news coverage was given recently to a remarkable editorial broadcast from Toronto by Gordon Sinclair, a Canadian television commentator. What follows is the full text of his broadcast. [ I think that this was actually broadcast in the 1970's but Gord's remarks remain true to this day. ]

"This Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as the most generous and possibly the least appreciated people on all the earth. Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy were lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts. None of these countries is today paying even the interest on its remaining debts to the United States.

When France was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up, and their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris. I was there. I saw it.

When earthquakes hit distant cities, it is the United States that hurries in to help. This spring, 59 American communities were flattened by tornadoes. Nobody helped.

The Marshall Plan and the Truman Policy pumped billions of dollars into discouraged countries. Now newspapers in those countries are writing about the decadent, warmongering Americans.

I'd like to see just one of those countries that is gloating over the erosion of the United States dollar build its own airplane. Does any other country in the world have a plane to equal the Boeing Jumbo Jet, the Lockheed Tri-Star, or the Douglas DC10? If so, why don't they fly them? Why do all the International lines except Russia fly American Planes?

Why does no other land on earth even consider putting a man or woman on the moon? You talk about Japanese technocracy, and you get radios. You talk about German technocracy, and you get automobiles. You talk about American technocracy, and you find men on the moon - not once, but several times- and safely home again.

You talk about scandals, and the Americans put theirs right in the store window for everybody to look at. Even their draft-dodgers are not pursued and hounded. They are here on our streets, and most of them, unless they are breaking Canadian laws, are getting American dollars from ma and pa at home to spend here.

When the railways of France, Germany and India were breaking down through age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central went broke, nobody loaned them an old caboose. Both are still broke.

I can name you 5000 times when the Americans raced to the help of other people in trouble. Can you name me even one time when someone else raced to the Americans in trouble? I don't think there was outside help even during the San Francisco earthquake.

Our neighbors have faced it alone, and! I'm one Canadian who is damned tired of hearing them get kicked around. They will come out of this thing with their flag high. And when they do, they are entitled to thumb their nose at the lands that are gloating over their present troubles. I hope Canada is not one of those."

Stand proud, America!

Three minutes of silence.
Three minutes is not enough
for me.
I have more tears to shed
as do we all
but three minutes will have to do.

We've all been trying to cope. I know that, and what I have to say really isn't all that special. All I've got for you today are words. Words that have been used billions of times by billions of people. But please.. do listen, even if the ideas are still a little bit rough around the edges.

RETRIBUTION

I was discussing this weeks' events, as has everyone, and I think that I have a plan of Presidential Quality.
The States must strike back. This is a fact. Face must be saved, and honour restored. We all know this. I'm not saying that this is good, nor am I saying that this is bad. It just is.

We came up with a few very cathartic plans, though they were dismissed as too barbaric.. There was mention of Burning at the Stake of the Bin Laden family while little Osama looked on, followed by his execution by Drawing and Quartering.
We smiled a bit as the idea was proposed but felt immediate revulsion at the idea. We grabbed our chalk and strode back to the drawing board to finally arrive at a reasonable scenario, as follows:

Osama has given The States no real target at which to strike back. Oh sure, Afghanistan could be blasted back to the stone age with a couple of missiles but that wouldn't do, would it? Nobody would buy that as a valid response, Allies included.
But! If the U.S. could locate one of Binnies' terrorist camps in the middle of friggin nowhere... well...
They could blast the snot out of it! They could nuke this little patch of dust and scrub brush and turn the infernal spot into a 3 mile skating rink of melted and forever fused sand. A Glass desert...

Think of it! The States gets their Earth Shattering Kaboom, and the terror-host country gets a major souvenir, a memento as it were, of their poor decision making and horrible choice of 'friends'.
The States, in return, gets to wipe out a gaggle of icky terrorists and, happily, causes little to no collateral damage to the target countrys' populace. Their noses remain clean, and their moral authority is undiminished. (Yo! Bonus!!)

Once this CNN covered media event was wrapped up, the States could then state to the world that any mention of an Osama sighting wll be rewarded in exactly the same way, but this time they will plaster a city of innocents.
This should take care of terroism in the short term.

REPARATION

Now that the world knows that the price of terrorism is too heavy to bear, it becomes time for the U.S. to quell any future acts of insanity. How would this be achieved? Well, you could pick a heavily Muslim country, say... Syria, fix their infrastructure, build schools, universities, hospitals and make it easy for them to get their hands on capital. And oh, stay the fuck away from their politics for heavens' sake.
By doing this, you would create a wealthy islamic nation that would be the beacon of hope for the surrounding countries. Obviously the borders would have to be wide open so that the neighbouring poor could have a chance at education and thus a shot at a better life. This would create an Islamic Middle Class, (economically speaking of course) which would be great because in general the 'middle class' is more concerned about getting their lawn just right or which household appliance to buy than they are about terrorism. (Ireland notwithstanding.)

So! Ain't that a great idea? Ain't it greater than, say, WWIII ????
Well, I like to think so, but then again, what the hell do I know? I'm just a dumb peon. I'd sure like to hear if you come up with a more civilized idea. I'm all ears.

Nota Bene: A very special thank you goes out today to Velouria for helping me apply the brakes to my anger.
T'es b'en correct toé! Merci, merci, merci!

America, I am so sorry...
Watching the news tonight I witnessed an almost complete "Global Group Hug".

• The U.N. is on board
• NATO is on board
• The U.K. is on board
• France is on board
• Italy is on board
• Israel is on board
• Yasser Arafat is giving blood!!!!!

But isn't it true, Colonel, that the American Eagle, as is represented on your uniform is not so much a bird-of-prey but rather a skulking carrion eater?