The Cardiac Club

I seldom post anything here as most of you know. However, once in a while important things happen.
I have waited till the end of this event to tell the story because we all know a good story has a beginning, a middle AND an end.
I'm happy to say this story has a happy ending. Really happy.

Saturday, June 02, 2018 is where our story begins. I had finally decided it was time to get the back fence painted. A trip downtown and I had all the paint and accessories one needs to paint a fence. I then spent the rest of Saturday looking for excuses for not getting the fence done.
Sunday morning dawned sunny and warm with no wind and very few excuses left. A Sunday morning like this one was worthy of a Bailey's and coffee on the deck. Bonnie had already settled on the back step to have her coffee and throw a ball for Nero. It was this very moment that the universe presented the best way to paint a fence.
As I sat on the bench, I felt a strange sensation across the back of my shoulders and both arms felt weak. The sensation progressed into what could only be described as extreme indigestion. I wandered back into the house and stretched out on the couch trying to will the pain to subside. When sweat was starting to soak through my shirt I realized that this was not indigestion.
I walked back out onto the deck, Bonnie looked up and said, "Good timing. I just landed Nero's ball in the eaves trough. Could you get it down?"
I responded with something like, "OK, just give me a minute....". She eyed me up and down and suggested going to the hospital instead. I took a moment and simply replied, "ok".
It didn't take the medical professionals long to decide that, after nearly 55 years of preparation, I had finally managed to have a heart attack. They decided that the level of success I had achieved in the endeavor warranted an air ambulance trip to St. Paul's hospital in Vancouver.
In that moment, nature's grand plan was revealed to me. I was never meant to paint that fence. My role was to supply the materials so that Bonnie would have something to keep her occupied while I was away in hospital.

That brings us around to the five days that make up the middle of the story. Boredom, disappointment, anxiety, and more than just a little navel gazing make up the majority of those days. It's humbling to realize that hundreds of people every day are experiencing some level of heart attack or disease. St. Paul's is a renowned heart hospital and as such is a stupidly busy place. Triage demands that the dying get help before the critical, the critical before the urgent and apparently everyone else before the guys in room 12.
Room 12 on the 5th floor is right at the end of the hall. For a while it felt like that's where they put the forgotten, those without hope. As fate would shape it, if the right four guys are put in a dismal, hopeless place, that space can be transformed. It took a day or so but the hospital came to realize that the power of hope and camaraderie spilling into the hallway from room 12 proved that even these poor souls deserved saving. One by one, each member of our small group got their turn with the surgeons. One by one, each member shook hands with those remaining and solemnly took there rightful place back in the hands of their families.
Today, the last member of the Cardiac Club will step across the threshold of room 12, hopefully never to return. Back into the waiting arms of his family. Stronger, wiser and enriched by a small band with a common goal. Get better. Get home.
As I look forward to the flight home, I can't help but wonder how much of that fence Bonnie got done.

Addendum...

It hit me at about 4 am as the nurse was tending to 3 new patients, each behind their own curtains, suffering in solitude.

Before I left this morning I  went around and met each one and introduced them to each other. I handed them my phone and let them read the story.

When I left they all had their curtains open, laughing and cheering me good luck and safe travels.

Hopefully they find that same bond our group did. With luck they all pull through and cherish the people that shared that  frightening moment in their life. For a brief moment strangers become your lifeline. We are all human. We need each other to gain our own strength.

Both Wings Are Required to Fly

Right wing? Or Left wing? If you ask a pilot to chose, chances are he will tell you it doesn't matter. You won't get off the ground without both. In today's political chatter we pigeonhole everything into left wing or right wing. Some things are more left than others while some things are a bit right of centre. Some people call themselves liberal and some conservative. In the US they are Democratic or Republican. Every time I turn on the news or pull up Twitter or Facebook these pork barrel beliefs are thrust upon me. It seems that we are not responsible citizens if we haven't chosen a side. There doesn't seem to be any common ground. How can we possibly solve any of our economic or social problems when we insist on having one group or the other run the show.
I, for one, find it more and more difficult to make a choice. We always have to choose, fiscal responsibility, social responsibility or environment protection. The strange thing is, most of us have found a way to work toward being more eco-friendly, more tolerant and accepting of people's differences and still find a way to pay our bills. Why can't we have a government that does the same?
How refreshing would it be if we had another choice? Would you vote for a party that focused on paying down debt, advocated support for our minority communities, developed responsible environmental policies and promoted economic prosperity, all with a solid understanding of basic human rights? I am going to bet that they would enjoy a pretty solid majority.
I can hear the arguments now.
"You can't have sufficient social programs without expecting to run a deficit. The only alternative is to pay higher taxes.", "You can't have an economy that is based on industry without harming the environment.", and on and on. I call bullshit! For this next part you will be required to follow, step by step, through to the end. You must suspend your right wing/left wing beliefs until you have the full argument.
There is an age old story about the billionaire businessman that, when asked how a man with no experience in business could be so successful, stated that the key was to surround yourself with people that know how to do the job, keep them happy, keep your mouth shut and let them do the job. A country full of content citizens that can gravitate to what they love to do and make a good living at the same time will be the most productive citizens you could hope for.
The alternative is what we currently have. Excessive pressure is brought to bear on the majority of the population to get whatever job they can find and work themselves sick in an attempt to gain enough income to support themselves and maybe a family. The middle class is struggling. Those below the middle are barely existing. Our minorities are marginalized and are not getting the services the rest of us take for granted. Efficiency in the workplace is at an all time low and the current economic outlook for many is grim.
Canada has had a strong tech industry that grew on the back of tougher environmental controls being put on industry. That growth has nearly ground to a halt as industry succumbs to our current world economic woes. The manufacturing and resource industries require an immense transportation infrastructure in a country the size of Canada. The ridiculous amount of money that the resource industry produces requires that we have a robust financial services industry to manage that money. Believe it or not, until now finance has been Canada's pride and joy, as well as one of the greatest contributors to our GDP. Canada's banking system is now losing the confidence of international investors as the industries that support it slowly collapse. Banking, tech, resources, manufacturing, transportation are the cornerstones of growth in Canada, all tightly reliant on each other. They account for nearly $600 billion of our
$1.6 trillion GDP. More than 37%! Without this revenue it gets pretty hard to pay the bills for all the social things we want.
As our population ages and is less able to retire, the strain on social programs is going to get worse. As the general stress level rises, so does the burden on our medical system. Environmentalism is pressuring governments to find alternatives to industry, making for an environment of mistrust between the three groups. Industry suffers, services suffer and in the end the population suffers. All because our two wings never seem to beat in sync.
Let's see what happens when the theory of flight takes over. A little research shows us that, when compared to other industrialized countries, Canada has some of the cleanest industrial and resource practices in the world. We also have some of the most stringent environmental regulations. Given the support to forge ahead with the development of global markets for our products we have the capacity to excel in world trade. Other countries are being put under pressure to trade with countries with solid human rights records and responsible environmental practices. That's us! Growth in industry puts money in the pockets of our services sectors and science and tech growth can't help but grow to keep up the demand to find greener and more efficient processes to satisfy the environmental constraints.
All this means more revenue available to the government to pay for the social programs that will support our lower and middle class. Guaranteed minimum income for ALL. Publicly funded health care and education. Infrastructure development for our marginalized communities so that they have access to the same basic services that those in the major cities enjoy.
By supporting industry, we increase the cash that they have available to spend on researching cleaner ways to do business. More cash also means better social programs. Industries of all types require an efficient workforce and happy, healthy workers are the most efficient workforce of all. By tossing out the labels and getting both wings beating together we can get Canada airborne. As long as we have the left wing and the right wing opposing each other we will never go further than the Dodo did.
We all want the same thing. The freedom to pursue the things that make us happy. They say money doesn't buy happiness. I say we don't need to buy happiness but we do need to be able to afford it. The effort required to simply pay the bills leaves most of too exhausted to follow our hearts any further than the mattress.
By stepping back and seeing how economics, environment and humanity are all intertwined, we will begin to understand that we cannot put one above the rest. As one suffers the rest will follow. A successful flight only comes from the realization that our happiness and prosperity relies on the successful management of all three.

The ISIS Solution - "Bomb the $#!& Out of Them."

   Some politicians and many of their supporters would have us level Syria in an attempt to rid humanity of the ISIS terror threat. My question is, who are you going to bomb, the Syrians? Why? What did they do? I have asked this question a few times since Nov 13 and have had some pretty blank stares directed my way. "Really !? They just gunned down a bunch of civilians!", was one indignant response. That was when it dawned on me that most people have no idea what is happening in Syria and even fewer understand who the threat really is.

   In March of 2011, following the start of the "Arab Spring" in Tunisia and Egypt, the unrest in Syria was on a high simmer. President Bashar al-Assad's authoritarian rule was merely a continuation of his families oppression that had gripped Syria for more than 30 years. A group of rebellious teens painted anti-government slogans on a wall in Damascus. They were arrested and tortured as an example to the people of Syria. The simmering unrest boiled over and hundreds of thousands took to the streets to demand that Assad step down. The government responded by attempting to crush the revolt with overwhelming force. Rebel groups struck back, sparking an all out civil war.

   Assad quickly turned to his allies for assistance as large numbers of his own National Defense Force and Syrian Arab Army deserted and joined with the rebels. The Ba'ath Brigades, The Lebanese Hezbollah, Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Russia, and even North Korea sided with Assad and over the last four years have been providing armaments, troops and economic support to the besieged Syrian Arab Republic that by now has retreated into Damascus and a few cities along the Mediterranean coast and their border with Lebanon. Although the list of supporting cast members favouring Assad's leadership is extensive, even non-lethal support from the likes of China and now ground forces from Russia, Assad seems beaten.

   The rebels became more organized as the conflict raged on. In the beginning the number of rebel groups and tribal forces rising up around Syria was mind numbing. Each group or tribe claiming their own patch of ground. Controlling transport routes and crossroads throughout the country. Firefights were flaring up between the various factions as they fought for control. Eventually some form of cohesion started. Large segments of Assad's collapsed army, as many as five full divisions by some reports, formed the Free Syrian Army. They were joined by a handful of rebel groups. Still other groups formed the Islamic Front. The Army of  the Mujahedeen, Hamas, The Muslim Brotherhood and others, although technically aligned with the Syrian Opposition continued to fight on there own. Support for these rebels poured in from the UK, France, Canada, United States and more. Much of the Middle East stepped up early. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Libya, Jordan, United Arab Emirates and the US formed Iraqi Army all supported the rebel forces. Eventually, as the atrocities within Syria started coming to light, support started to slip. Libya, Egypt, and Jordan pulled back to varying degrees as the war dragged on.

Among the groups in the Middle East watching the Syrian Civil War rage on was a "remnant" of al-Qaeda. As the country became more fractured, leadership within al-Qaeda saw an opportunity. A contingent was sent in to assist the rebels and bolster their own ranks. Eventually Awad Ibrahim al-Badri al-Samarra'i and his followers broke away from the al-Qaeda leadership and formed the Islamic State in Syria. Samarra'i, aka: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, declared an Islamic Caliphate in June of 2014. Since that time "Caliph Ibrahim" has transformed the Islamic State into what they believe is the new future of the once powerful Ottoman Empire. With plans to extend the IS borders to enclose the northern half of Africa, Spain, Greece, Turkey, India and a good chunk of China. Samarra'i has nearly all the governing elements a State would require. There is a power pyramid with Sammara'i perched on the top. Much of the rest of the pyramid consists of powerful members of Saddam Hussein's defunct organization. Now we effectively have a three way war. The Islamic State vs the Government of Syria vs the Opposition Coalition. All this with a few rebel groups fighting everyone.

   This is where we learn how difficult it would be to simply "bomb the shit out of ISIS". Just like any government organization, there is a cabinet ( seven members so far identified ), a war office governed by the Military Council headed by Abu Arkan al-Ameri and includes three other members of the 9-11 organizational committee. The current land mass controlled by the Islamic State is watched over by area, or 'state' governors ( six of which have been identified ). The government structure also includes the Shura Council, the Judicial Authority, the Defense, Security and Intelligence Council. Lastly we have the Islamic State Institution for Public Information. Ask yourself if this sounds like a group of guys with AK-47s sitting in an olive grove hoping a US bomb doesn't wipe them out.

   The Islamic State is far more than just another terrorist group. This is a sophisticated State structure that is created from the blue-prints of one of the most powerful empires the ancient world had ever seen. It is the belief that bringing back the Islamic Caliphate will somehow purify the Islamic faithful and bring order back to a chaotic world. Samarra'i believes that he is the representative of the Prophet Mohammed and that, as the Caliph, his absolute power will allow him to guide the Islamic community into greatness. An organization of this scope has far too many moving parts. Built-in succession and redundancies mean that taking out the head of intelligence, for example, merely means you need to spend the next six months figuring out who took over the position.

   There is also a popular belief that the Western powers need to pull back and encourage those in the Middle East to get their own house in order. Unfortunately even among the countries surrounding Syria there is very little that they can agree on. Literally since the dawn of civilization most of the tribes and religious factions have never stood on the same piece ground together except to kill each-other for it. Although over millennia some of these groups have learned to co-exist, we should not try to fool ourselves that they are suddenly going to come together.

   Lets pretend for a moment that a coalition force was to attempt to cleanse Syria. Who should the coalition support, out of the dozens of groups struggling for power? The Government is killing everyone. The Syrian Opposition is killing Government forces and ISIS troops, while ISIS is killing everyone as well. Hamas and Hezbollah are on opposite sides. The Mujahedeen is supporting the rebels and fighting against the Palestine Liberation Army. In all this discussion we haven't even mentioned the fact that the Syrian Kurds have laid claim to Northern Iraq and Northern Syria. Turkey says that's fine as long as the Kurds release their claim on a piece of Southern Turkey. As a result of mistrust among so-called allies, we have a lack of support being provided when needed to actually have some success. Just imagine forming two armies from a group of people that not only dislike and mistrust each other but then ask those armies to fight for a piece of ground that each person believes is theirs to begin with. If each individual believes it belongs to them how do you give the winning army control over that piece of land. If it was your back yard would you be willing to have your neighbors hold sway over your use of the BBQ?

   This is what we are up against in Syria. Once ground forces have pushed ISIS out of the country, then what? Who should get control? The people of Syria made it pretty clear that they don't want Assad running the show, however they are fighting among themselves to decide who should. We obviously can't decide for them and democratic elections are only possible when you have defined choices. The solution, although obvious when sought through emotion, is so complicated that it is doomed to failure unless the people of Syria put up their hands and make their plea for outside help after forming a popular alternative to Assad. Only then can we help them get their country back and then leave them to it.

Man, Woman, Black, White ... Should it matter?

   The question of gender and/or race equality is gaining more focus everyday. Unfortunately I am seeing a trend that could well undermine the movement toward true equality. Most reasonable people agree that discrimination has plagued our civilization from the beginning. Some will point to the bible to justify their lack of tolerance. There have been societies where women rule. Black countries that have shunned whites. Dark skinned Dominicans that discriminate against their darker skinned Haitian neighbors. Whites justifying genocide against other whites based solely on religious belief. The examples are endless and it is difficult to find a group that didn't impose their dominance over another group at some time.

   Some will tell you that discrimination in nearly all forms has diminished over the past couple of decades. I say that all we have done is push it underground. It has become increasingly difficult to be a outwardly racist. Political correctness has simply come to mean that you watch what you say and not about what you really think. If you are against the LGBT community then you are a little more careful about who you tell. You seek out like minded people and band together. We have all been conditioned to judge those around us and feel the pressure to attempt to manipulate how they judge us by trying to be outwardly accepting.
   If most people were to take a good look at themselves, they would likely see a racist looking back at them. Be honest, as a young white female, you would feel more uncomfortable sitting on a subway full of black men than the same train full of white men. That is an indication of your inherent fear of blacks, whether you like it or not. It is a learned response. No-one is born to hate women, Asians or gays. The intolerance that we have is learned. The attitudes around us indelibly change the way we see the world.
   Watching the news this morning I was reminded of how little our beliefs have really changed. An eight year girl was singled out at a water park because she was not wearing a top. The anchor, (a man), pointed out that he would never let his seven year old daughter do that. This same man had recently said, "Why can't we just all learn to get along?", while reporting on the Charleston shooting. He condemned the hatred and intolerance. Sadly it is the differences that we perceive in others that cause the hatred and intolerance. That little girl is the same as the countless little boys running around in the same water park. Does he REALLY believe that men and women are equal?
   Equal rights is a concept that will perpetuate the discrimination. Equal rights implies that we are different but should be treated the same. The issue is not how we treat those that are different from us. We must stop seeing each other as different. It is a fundamental shift in our thinking and how we see the world. If civilization is to achieve "equality" then we have to describe each other as PEOPLE. Labels will continue to keep us "unequal". Let's stop applying labels in our everyday speech. Let's make it politically incorrect to call someone gay or transgender, they are just another person. Instead of saying, "the Asian guy in accounting", try, "you know, the guy that does our payroll, what's his name?". Let's start reprimanding each other for using race as a descriptor. You don't describe anyone, except Muslims, by their religion, and you are only calling them Muslim because they look like the Muslim you saw on TV. You are very likely wrong.
   We have men with girls' names, Shirley. We often shorten girls' names that end up sounding like boys' names, Al. So the question is, why have male and female names at all? Is it so important that we label our children so they know what they are. Turns out we are wrong occasionally anyway. Try it in your own life. If you cannot remove the labels from your own thinking then you can never truly see everyone the same. To be "equal", we all have to BE the same, not treated the same. When we stop seeing other people as different we will, obviously, treat everyone the same. Unless we can find another reason to dislike them.

You'll Live HERE and You'll LIKE it!

If you were a goose...?

   A recent Reuters' article had me shaking my head, again. It seems that there is a problem with Canada Goose droppings in the US capital. The filtration system at the Commons is having some issues dealing with the volume of bio-matter the geese are leaving behind. The fact that they have decided that releasing dogs to chase the geese away is absurd, but not the source of my amusement.

   Not long ago, actor and recreational pilot Harrison Ford had a mechanical issue with his vintage aircraft and came up short of his intended airfield, only to plow a furrow through a public golf course. Within hours of the crash, protestors set up signs bemoaning how unsafe it is to have an airport in the middle of a populated area.

   At first glance it is difficult to see a connection between these two events. the question one has to ask is; Which came first, the Goose or the reflecting pool?

Put That in Your Pipe, OR Smoke it!... The Pipeline Debate Continues.

     Dark days may lie ahead for Canada's energy industry. Falling oil prices, slipping demand and increasing production in the U.S. are all conspiring to create a new energy crisis in this country, albeit a financial one this time around. Western Canada is going to bear the brunt of the lost revenue. Alberta has placed their economic future firmly in the hands of the oil companies. They will be the hardest hit. North East BC will be a close second with huge reserves of natural gas and great reservoirs of easy oil. Although Canada has enough oil and gas to be self sufficient, the big advantage of having all this raw energy is to generate revenue to pay for the things we want.

     Imagine sitting, alone on a desert island, with crates full of gold bars. Billions of dollars of gold surround you while you die of starvation and thirst. All the gold in the world won't save you unless you can find a buyer and get the crates to market.

I FOUND IT ON GOOGLE! IT MUST BE TRUE.

   In a recent post about the "to vaccinate or not to vaccinate" debate, I stated that I had Googled the issue. Since then I have had a few conversations that gave me a new perspective on a range of social issues today. It was when I spoke with real people that I realized there are very different ways we look at the world depending on when we grew up. Not everyone uses the same methods to determine what is true.

"SAFETY GLASSES" PREVENT POLIO!

This morning I turned on my computer, fired up Twitter and started running through the feeds to see what I missed after spending an entire long weekend in my shop building a fish-tank stand. For likely five years I have been looking at my wife's 75 gallon fish tank sitting on the fireplace hearth. I guess it looked alright there but makes using the fireplace a bit of a problem. I had a vision of it on a shelf built into a hole in the wall so that you can see it from both the living room and the kitchen. I am no idiot, I was well aware of the size of the project. That's why it remained a vision for five years. Listening to my favorite radio duo making plans to do some minor reno's got me motivated. As of Monday night all that is left is for my wife to move the tank! Three days of demolition, carpentry and cabinetry, staining, painting and sanding left me with little time for social media. I even missed my radio show on Monday, first time in over a year.

   I almost headed straight back into my shop when I started reading the news feeds. A 19.5% increase in Measles in the US in one week! Every media source I looked at had some news about the number of people not having their children vaccinated. A doctor's office refusing to allow patients into the office if they haven't been vaccinated or if they suspected Measles like symptoms.

Are we the weakest link? (part II)

We in North America consider ourselves to be the leading edge of civilization. We do not face many of the problems that plague the rest of the world. Famine, pestilence, high infant mortality and civil war are included in the list that we regard as 'third world problems'. While large swaths of the world's population struggle with to feed themselves, the rest of us are worrying about where we can find gluten-free baked goods and what the best tasting lactose-free milk replacement is. I find myself embarrassed when I am presented by news broadcasts about the problem of obesity in our schools followed immediately by reports that we may have to face higher turkey prices around Christmas because some poultry producer had to destroy a few thousand sick birds. Our first world problems dominate the media, day after day. Why?

Are we the weakest link? (Part I)

In December of 1831 a small insignificant sailing vessel departed on a routine survey expedition. On board was a young man that was to make a journey of discovery that would eventually challenge the accepted understanding of both the natural world and humankind's place within it. Five years later the HMS Beagle and her crew sailed back into Plymouth Sound. Charles Darwin disembarked that night with a pile of notebooks and specimens that would consume the rest of his life. On the 24th of November, 1859, Darwin released a summary of his life's work in a publication with the cumbersome title, "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life". Somewhat ironically, 13 years later the unworkable mouthful evolved into a more elegant title, "The Origin of Species". Although Darwin's theory of evolution has stirred controversy for over 150 years and has been modified by over a century of new findings and better understanding, his findings have spurred on generations of biologists and anthropologists. One indisputable fact has come from all this study. With few exceptions in the natural world, the strong (best suited) survive and the weak (least adaptable) eventually die off.

At the risk of incurring the wrath of the rest of the creationists that have not already started writing, I would like to point out that humans are not exempt from evolution.

The 'ONE BRIDGE AWAY' Effect

Everyone seems perplexed by the number of women coming out of the woodwork making all manner of allegations about sexual assault and rape. The web is crawling with people that can't understand why it has taken decades, in some cases, for these women to come forward. They must be making it up otherwise they would have cried rape a long time ago. Come on folks, lets use our heads here. Every one of us has done something stupid, something we were ashamed of at the time, something that made us look weak. Step back into that moment and ask yourself what your first reaction was.

IS BEING A ‘PARTICIPANT’ ENOUGH?

A few years back, I volunteered as a referee in a youth soccer tournament. Hundreds of kids ranging in age from 6 to 15 enjoyed 2 days of intense soccer games. Many more parents, grand parent, aunts, uncles and friends cheered for their favorite teams. On Sunday afternoon the top teams from each age group assembled at various fields through-out the community to battle thru the finals. At the end of the day, the organizers awarded all the players with a coupon for a free burger and drink at McDonalds and a bright yellow ribbon that stated they

had been a ‘Participant’. As I watched the faces of the multitude and listened to the comments of both adult and child alike, it was obvious that there was a significant divide. Some felt that the participant award meant that there were no winners and others believed that everyone was a winner.

SEXUAL HARASSMENT - NURTURE or NATURE?

By now most of us have seen the You-Tube video of a woman walking through the streets of New York while being subjected to various forms of admiration. My, how society has changed. Not so long ago popular TV shows and movies depicted the ubiquitous construction worker sitting on a scaffold whistling at pretty girls as they passed by. In the movie depiction the attention would invariably bring about blushing and giggling. At the very

"THE NEWS" - A Blockbuster Thriller Opening Soon at a Theatre Near You!

As usual when a story comes along that captures the public's imagination the world's media tries to capture as many readers, viewers and listeners as possible, using whatever methods they can. The number of sources covering the current Ebola outbreak is staggering.  Generally one would expect that if an event is reported by multiple outlets, the stories would all be pretty much the same. Each writer would present the story with their own flavor, of course, but the facts would still be facts. As I wade my way through the sources covering the Ebola story I see one common thread running through most of the stories. Misinformation is king!

...BUT WHAT I REALLY LOVE... SHE MAKES ME LAUGH.

I dropped in to a comedy club in Toronto last night. I was appalled! Not at the quality of entertainment, but at he amount of money they wanted to charge so I could see it.

$5.00! Are you kidding me? I spend more than that at Tim Horton's every morning in preparation for my morning commute. I can guarantee that I got way more enjoyment from those 13 comics than I will from the 35,000 morons on the road this morning, each trying their hardest to make me late for my flight.

Where are our priorities? Each and every one of us has a biological need to laugh. Ask

TALKING DOESN'T MAKE A DIFFERENCE... DOING DOES.

We all know that our world is not a perfect place. We see inequality all around us. We see injustice done every day. Homeless in our streets. Children dying of starvation. We rant about these things every day. Usually we complain about how these things affect our lives and inconvenience us. Sometimes something terrible happens and we all fill our Tweets with rage, "something MUST be done"!

Recently a prominent Canadian public figure has been accused of abuse toward women and social media has exploded with people arguing about it. Will that stop violence against

ACHTUNG, MINEN!

In case some of you aren't paying attention, the world can be a cruel place.  Gender issues,  LGBT   (lesbian, gay, bi, transgender) issues, women's rights, treatment of women  . The list goes on. Just take a trip through social media and you are bombarded with discussions about all the things wrong with the world today. Most of the issues are valid and require our attention. Some sorely need to be ignored. Christian heterosexual, Anglo-Saxon males with seven figure incomes spouting off about being persecuted, discriminated or treated unfairly can safely be dismissed as being overly sensitive to their own issues and terribly insensitive about the real world. The real problem, as I see it, is that there really is no place for people to intelligently discuss the issues that need attention.