I got a nice surprise on Friday. It was the second time that the same thing has surprised me. Let me explain.

I had a terrific career as an educator of 38 plus years. During that time I coached a number of sports, but my favor was basketball. I liked the dynamics of the sport, the way the game flows, and the intellectual aspects of the game. Over the years we took teams to Australia, eastern Canada, and parts of the USA. The teams had won a number of championships and there were more wins, both on and off the court than losses.

At any rate the high school association that represents high school athletics in the province decided to honor me back in the early 1990's by naming one of their provincial championship trophies in my honor. It was a pleasant surprise to say the least. The irony in all this is that when the association decided to honor me and number of other basketball coaches all the championship basketball trophies had already been named. Basketball was the first sport the association hosted at the provincial level so they already had a long list of successful basketball coaches to name the provincial trophies.

But, the association had recently recognized another sport for provincial championships as a result they had a number of trophies they wanted named thus my name was presented and accepted. I am sure it was more for my contributions to the association, as I was an active member for over thirty years. At any rate my name sits on the provincial championship trophy for Tier II FOOTBALL!

Friday was the second time the Association surprised me when I opened my email. The provincial championship will be held very close to where I now live and they wondered if I would like to present the championship trophy to the winner! I told them I would be honored and began to think of what I would say. I thought of what one could say to the team that lost the game having been there too many times. I soon realized that the best thing I can do is to KISS (keep it simple, stupid) Make the presentation and let the winners begin the celebration! I will after that see if I can talk to the other team, if the coaches let me.

But like I said it's nice to be surprised and to have the same event do it twice in a lifetime is really special. Hope you all have a good day and some nice surprises along the way.
 

I don't know about how things are going where you live, but if this is the way governments handle a pandemic I think we are going to be in real trouble when a real killer of a virus starts spreading!

All summer long we heard that it will be important to get the vaccine when it becomes available. Went it finally does show up most people lined up to get it. They never did plan on everyone wanting to get a shot even though they ran an ad campaign encouraging everyone to get one. Duh!! They soon realized they would run out of vaccine before the most critical groups received a shot. So here in Alberta they suspended the program last Saturday and started over yesterday with children from 6 months to 4 years and today it is for pregnant women. We're still not sure who will be eligible for shots on Monday.

From what I can tell similar problems are occurring all over North America. It looks like most people will not be given either vaccine until well into the winter and for many that will be way too late. In the mean time a lot of our front line people aren't being given the vaccine in a timely manner. Another case of when politicians put their noes into things they know nothing about. This is not a damming of our health system. Normally it runs very well as long as when the medical people are making decisions, but every once in a while politicians stick their noses where it doesn't belong and chaos is generally the result.

All countries are in the same boat. They all made assurances that there would be enough vaccine for all who wanted it. Now how stupid was that? There are only a few companies that can produce the vaccine and to produce over 6 billion injections in a small amount of time was and is impossible. I still would like to know who the very first people, in every country, that were given the vaccine? I put my money on the politicians! Meanwhile teachers, first responders, and the police wait in lines!

Just get prepared for the virus that doesn't just make you sick and culls the weakest of us. but kills the healthy as well. It's not going to be a pretty picture and I don't care what health system is in place. I think H1N1 is the warning shot off the bow and if it is it looks like the ship of humanity is headed into very troubled waters.
 

Sure enough I got emails from two of my conservative friends claiming Tuesday election results as proof that Obama was on his way out! The following is my response.

"Don't bet the farm on it.

If anything the American voter has shown itself to be the most flickled voter in the world! It will be the independent voters that will decide and it will be based on the economy.

Should jobs return, (I think there will be positive numbers this coming spring), if the dollar drops in value, as it is doing, that will encourage exports and that will bring sales and job
numbers up.

Should the government decide to get out of Afghanistan and make gains in international affairs most independents will support those decisions.

Should health care be put to bed by early spring, which it will be, then a major talking point will no longer be an issue.

And as much as everyone is making a big deal about the two governor races the fact is the Democrats today have more members in Congress than they had yesterday morning!

When both the new republican governors take advantage of the stimulus money the right wing members of the Republican party will attack them just like they are doing with the
current Republican governor of Florida.

The 23rd District of New York shows full well that the Republican party is eating their own. If you aren't an ultra-conservative you have no place in the party.

Most Americans are not prepared to accept, as their president, someone that represents that extreme side of the republican Party and the moderates like Romney and the Mayors of New York are disappearing.

It's not that the Democrats have taken advantage of the situation and you are right the independents will make the final decision, they always do. But don't be surprised that it
doesn't go the way you would hope."
 

Well I expect the conservatives are going to be jumping all over last night election results. They will be claiming the downfall of the Democrats and the second coming of redemption or whatever.. Didn't V make its debut last night as well??

I wouldn't get too excited yet.....

When the trend has always been in favor of the party in opposition for over a 100 years.. Where both the blacks and youth didn't show up. Where the NJ Governor has been disliked because of local economic conditions and suspected graft the wins in both Virginia and NJ were to be expected.

The real story tonight was how close the mayor race was in New York City and the fact that the Republicans screwed themselves out of the 23rd District in New York. This is a seat that they have held for 100+ years and only lost it because the ultra-conservatives tried to ram down an outsider down the District's throats! that's what happens when you try to eat your own!

This win gives the Democrats and even BIGGER majority in the House...

So who really won the night? Either way I don't think this is a good time to jump on or off anyone's bandwagon!

 

Now we have the ultra conservatives in an uproar about the December meeting of most of the world's governments seeking a revised Koto treaty that will put some meat on the bone in regards to global warming.

They indicate it has become a communist plot to take over the world using a trumpet up charge regarding global warming. Of course Obama , the communist in disguise, is going to sign it and bring about world government! He's got to be stopped so lets have another campaign to distort the truth and get "Obama the Evil"!

Lets ignore the fact that global warming is a reality. The glaciers on Mt Kilimanjaro are not receding their only resting, FEMA didn't really change over a 1,000 homes and business in Provincetown from low risk to high risk for flooding purposes, the fish of the North Atlantic haven't really moved further north because of the warming of the water. No that's all the plot of the communist pushing for a world government through the disguise of global warming!

What really is a joke is if, through the course of American History, the US has expanded from 13 colonies to 50 states and that is acceptable to them, then if all the nations of the world applied to become part of America and accepted the Constitution wouldn't that be OK? Wouldn't that also end up as a world government?

Isn't it about time the people on this planet put the idea of "nationalism" aside? Isn't it about time that we realize that, at this point in time, we only have one planet and we have to learn how to share the limited resources and prevent the destruction of the planet together?

Humans have been very successful in establishing ourselves all over the planet. maybe too successful. Today we are responsible for the deaths of many species by our actions. It has been said that without humans on the planet ALL other species would flourish! Maybe we should take stock of what Mother Nature does to species who get out of hand. In most cases another species learns to fed off of the species that is out of control. Man for a long time was the species that controlled itself by the use of war. For nearly 200 years Europe's population stayed the same as the wars tended to reduce each generation's ability to reproduce. Man seems to have learned, for the time being, how to avoid large scale conflicts and no other large species is likely to dislodge us from the top, unless someone starts cloning the dinosaurs. So the only species left is the smallest on the planet, the viruses. If the way we are handling the H1N1 virus is any indication any really serious one could reduce the human population to a fraction of its current level in months. The Black Death did it to Europe and a similar virus could do it today. On yeh the vaccine will be available a month after it is needed!

In the meantime the ultra-conservatives tactics to stop this movement is to ensure that "their" people get elected. So if any member of their party doesn't fully support them out they go even if that individual is the one supported by the party! Talk about eating your young!
 

Every since 9/11 I have supported military action in Afghanistan. I never thought Iraq was a good idea, but Afghanistan was different. It is were the national government, at the time, supported the Al-Quada and refused to give them up when 9/11 occurred. Our military did an excellent job of sending the Taliban packing and Al-Quada to the mountains.

Pretty much mission accomplished. So what are we still doing in Afghanistan? The Al-Quada are pretty much working out of Pakistan and what is going on in Afghanistan is a civil war. The Afghanistan federal government is even more corrupt than the Iraq government and only controls the urban areas of the country. Even the main opposition leader wants nothing to do with a fixed election.

Canada which has been the most effective NATO ally is pulling out its troops in 2011. So why should the USA continue to fight someone else's battles? Afghanistan is the arm pit of the world. It is among the poorest of the poor, it still has TRIBAL beliefs that date back thousands of years. There are sections of Afghanistan where the people never come out of the valleys they live, like NEVER! Are these the people we should be worried about in bringing terror to the world? Hell they have their own terror just meeting their neighbors!

Yeh I know that some will think that if we leave that it will look like another Vietnam. Vietnam WAS a mistake and it costed over 50,000 lives! Lets not make another mistake and spend even more time and men before we realize this is no longer about 9/11 but American Pride. And let's not wait until we have lost another 50,000 before we wake up to the fact that we have Al-Quada on the run but their not in Afghanistan!

Eight years is enough its time to come home!