"Well that's business"

How come we have seperate rules for business. Wouldn't you think that the normal rules of society would apply? We have all these rules for society to ensure politeness, equality, reasonableness etc. and yet business seems to be able to do what it wants. Why can we not translate our moral codes into business codes.
It is like hockey. If I go and play in a league of oldtimers , and we say that it will not be body contact it doesn't matter. When some crazed misguided bozo pounds the hell out of me or trips me into the boards and breaks my neck, the judge will say that by agreeing to play hockey that I undertook to accept the risks of playing which includes getting the snot pounded out of me. I am not to believe that hockey is ever violence free and if I do I am being unreasonable. Okay so who is being unreasonable? If 2 players pound each other out during a game, well that's hockey. If a fan jumps on the ice and pounds a player that is assault.
If a player trips another player to prevent a goal that is a good penalty. If a businessman breaks the law because his competitor is getting ahead of him is that a good crime?
Shouldn't goodness, reasonableness and fairness be in all parts of our lives. Psychiatrists, psychologists etc. say that being honest in business is unreasonable. That you can not be honest in a business environment and succeed. The price is too high for most people to be able to cope with the stress it will cause and the lose of employment. The sad part is that none of the people who said that you can't be honest in business felt that this was unreasonable!! Not one said "unfortunately" or "sad to say" or "isn't it a shame that we can no longer be honest in business", nope it always has been, will be and so you had better accept it and stop whining. When you can't be honest with your co-workers you sure won't be honest with your customers. So the whole of business is based upon deceit, screw you before you can screw me, survival of the most immoral. You can destroy a persons' business and in doing so, their marriage, peace of mind, future etc , etc by being a lying cheating no goodnik, just don't slap him in the face or you will go to jail.

Well that's my rave for the day. Why can't we be nice? Over to you.

Western Fundamentalist State

The thing that I am becoming increasingly afraid of, is that President Bush is creating a fundamentalist state on onr doorstep. The same type of state that is a breeding ground for many worldwide terrorist organisations. Whether Islamic or Christian, fundamentalist religion based states strike fear in my heart.
Bush has pushed through bills allowing money to go to "Faith Based" groups as part of his faith based initiatives. He has fought the abolition of the death penalty for teenagers, (heck, was it 4 people who commited crimes under 18 that were killed during his governorship?). He has rallied the "Right" based Christian groups and given them de facto power in his government. He tries to blur the lines between church and state. Instead of rendering unto Caesar he wants to be Caesar.
Looking at the people in his government, Rice, Wolfovitz, Cheney, Poindexter, CIA Director etc. I am scared! They marginalized Colin Powell who was probable the main voice of sanity in the first four years. I certainly hope the rest of the world stays alert to any attempts by the States to cause any more de-stabilization for their monetary gains. The U.S. has made it very plain that they will do anything in their considerable might to stamp out anyone, person or country who stands in the way of their conspicuous overuse of the worlds resources. They are not interested in sharing the world with anyone! Bush made that very plain after he was appointed by the Supreme Court in 2000.
He is further marginalizing his poor by destroying the American Social Security network by allowing rich americans to pull their money out of the system, thereby hastening the collapse of Social Security. The poor do not have discretionary income for private plans. With no or little right to health care and education the poor classes will grow and be used as soldiers for the super rich class. All the while they will hold out the carrot that "anyone can be rich like me". The elitist rich and pious will eventually come up against the Republic of China ( I doubt that Europe will be united enough to matter) in 10 to 15 years or so. That will be some battle of wills!!
Hopefully Canada will be its' own counsel and steer its' own course. We may not be rich but we can be proud (although rich and proud is ok too). This may force us to examine our practices and seek out new markets rather than just dumping everthing over the border. Diversification is usually better in the long run.
I am not against religion. We all have a religion, like it or not. We all have a belief system. Most of these systems have components of doing good for others, being good to the poor etc. When a particular fundamentalist group takes control of the government and says "we know best, actually we know the only way to do things" look out!
Thankfully in Canada we believe in healthcare and education for all, and even that is a constant struggle to provide to the marginaliized segments of society. Stand up for the rights of all people. Work within the system and let others do the same. Our diversity will make us strong.

March on 2005

It sure looks like the Middle East is going through a radical change. Aside from poor ol'Iraq; Lebanon, Palestine and ?Syria seem to be in flux. One can only hope that freedom is getting closer for them all. I used to think that it took about 200 years for a country to truly develop its' institutions, personality etc. Perhaps better communications can speed this up, but by how much I am not sure.

Same sex rights are still an extremely hot issue. It is a very hard issue for many people to come to terms with. I know I struggled with it for a long time and it was probably the hardest one for me to come to terms with. Several things really helped. Some friends who came out and said they were gay and later a movie "The struggle to be male". What I found was that when somebody said they were gay, they didn't change, I did. I suddenly became hip and glibly spouted gay jokes and the old "some of my best friends...." etc. but they stayed the same! Gradually I realised that if there was any problem to be had, it was mine, not theirs. So if you are an adult with a consenting adult partner I probably don't care. I just wish everybody finds happiness whether single or with a loving partner.

Global Flyer is over halfway around the world.!!

Michael Jackson?? enough already.

USA to stop killing teenage criminals. Hello, where have you been. Good ol'W killed 4 when he was governor. But then the states doesn't hide the fact that they use their legal system for revenge only. "Piss me off boy and you are going to be in a world of hurt", or is that their foreign policy?? As the decline of the US looms on the horizon they are becoming more reactionary and dangerous. I had so much hope for Colin Powell but he was marginalized by the conservative greedies (?).

If you know of any good blogs from Iraq I would be interested.

Also my other main interests are aviation , firefighting, EMS, and emergency communications. Thanks for listening.