Can criticizing Israel get you sued? Ask Jimmy Carter

I'm going to go out on a big limb here and state my opinion that the creation of the nation state of Israel was a big mistake. I've written about this before, how Zionists used terror tactics to gain control over then British controlled Palestine.

And I've also mused about the fixation of the Harper Conservatives and Ignatieff Liberals on garnering the Jewish vote when so few Canadians are of that particular faith:

Supporting Israel - Wooing CanWest, Not Jewish Voters

Why All The Fuss Over Israel

Does that qualify as criticism? Should I be worried?

I don't think so, but former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is reportedly being sued over a book he wrote in 2006 entitled, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid". According to an article in the Jerusalem Post the lawsuit alleges that the book was intended to deceive the public and promote an anti-Israel agenda.

You can also read about it here:

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE ONLINE

and here:

Commentarymagazineonline.com

Obviously there are individuals who don't like to see Israel criticized. But this lawsuit is likely to spur more interest in the book President Carter wrote. It was I believe P.T. Barnum who coined the phrase: "There's no such thing as bad publicity".

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Harper leaving one helluva mess for our next PM

Stephen Harper is beginning to look a lot like that little brother or sister who comes into your room with his buds, pulls out all the games and toys for his friends to play with, then leaves it in a total state of disarray.

But hey, he sure is a popular guy...especially with his closest friends. In this case that would mean big business...think of the banks and oil companies.

Sure that 2% cut in the GST only means a penny or two here and there for us working stiffs, but to major concerns it's a huge windfall. And then there's cuts to taxes for profitable business, the companies that make money. Now we're talking billions of dollars every year.

Way to go Stevie!!!

Sure, some future government and another PM is going to have to straighten this all up. Its like what the Chretien/Martin Liberals inherited from the Mulroney and Trudeau governments. Huge debts every year and an ever increasing national debt. Thankfully Paul Martin got it under control and had Canada running in surplus for 5 consecutive years, paying off somewhere around $50 billion of the accumulated deficit during his time in finance.

Stevie has wiped all that out in just one year. But if you listen to the ads coming from the CPC, he's the one responsible for the strong balance sheet he took over from the Liberals.

He takes his friends into your room, points out what a great job he's done keeping it clean, and then he trashes it.

Real nice Stephen, but then politics isn't always nice. That's something you seem to understand better than most.



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Hey Stephen Harper - NEWS FLASH - You're a 'Tax and Spend' guy too

Can somebody do Canada a favour and buy our Prime Minister (pro-tem) a freaking clue? I'd ask Stephen to buy it himself, but he'd only borrow the money...

So Ignatieff is a 'tax and spend' Liberal...uh huh.

And what does that make you, the leader of Canada's governing Conservative party? I'll give you the answer, you're a 'tax and spend' Conservative.

Ya see Mr. Harper, I know this is pretty basic, but maybe they didn't cover it in any of your economics courses. Governments in Canada have always collected taxes, after which they spend the money. Liberal, NDP, Conservative...it doesn't matter. Governments take in tax revenue and then they fund (or spend it on) programs like health care, the military, politician's salaries, senators, keeping 24 Sussex (your temporary home) in good repair.

Its worked pretty well in this country, except when governments (like your's) spend too much and take in too little.

Hope that helps. Wouldn't want your economics degree being used as toilet paper.

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Egyptian crisis - The end of Bush Senior's 'New World Order'?

Anti-Globalization types and conspiracy theorists often point to a speech made by the elder George H.W. Bush back during the first Gulf War in which he heralded the establishment of a "New World Order" or NWO for short.



The NWO according to these groups is a movement toward one world government, with US corporate and multinational interests as masters of the universe.

Regardless of how one feels on the whole NWO question, events in Egypt have certainly sharpened our focus on how the west deals with many other parts of the planet, particularily the Middle East.

Lost in many history lessons about the impact of World War I is that it wiped out the Turkish or Ottoman Empire, putting most of the world's proven oil reserves under western control. After the so called "War To End All Wars" the former Turkish empire was carved up into a number of different countries, none with democratically elected governments.

Instead of elected leaders, many in the Arab world found (and find) themselves ruled by dictators and thugs, or by royal families such as in Saudi Arabia. And that's all well and good, so long as those leaders are willing to appease Washington and western interests.

But now in places like Tunisia and Egypt people on the street are rising up and demanding reform and true democracy. Its not a new story, its happened before in places like Cuba and Iran, where the people grew tired of corrupt and brutal regimes and engineered their replacements.

The questions now are:

How far will this spread?

Is the order of the world changing?

We've seen the unification of Europe and the establishment of the Euro as a prominent currency. The economies of China and India are growing and modernizing at breakneck speed. Is the Arab world now poised to rise up and rid itself of the yoke of Western domination? If so what does it mean to us in the west?

Taking the historical view I am definitely concerned. Times like these have typically led to armed conflict. And given the technology and weapons of the modern era, a war of any size and scope has the potential to dwarf the carnage of any of the previous world wars.

Ultimately it is in the best interests of western nations to rid ourselves of our dependency on oil. Eliminate our need to dominate the world's energy markets and our interest in the Middle East will be signinifcantly reduced.

Leave individual nation states to be governed by people popularily chosen, not by dictators and despots beholden to foreign interests, and the world will be a safer place.

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