Negative Advertizing is Un Canadian
During the hockey game on TV last night I was again subjected to irresponsible stupid political advertising. This time it was the Conservative party of Canada running anti Stephane Dion ads under the banner "not a leader" They even have a website called notaleader.ca
Its embarrassing that these ads would even be marginally effective.
Negative ads follow the same pattern. They take a quote from the target -out of context - then add their own words around the quote to make the target look like an idiot. They usually add a picture of their intended victim in some less and positive position or facial impression to finish off the piece.
Canadians should go to Notaleader.ca and look at the tv advertising to see the depth of the irresponsible crap being pushed forward.
I will be honest- I am not a fan of Stephane Dion but we need to take the high road and everytime a conservative politician comes with earshot hammer him or her for assuming the electorate has a single digit IQ and making divisive advertising.
For those of you who are not familiar with Canadian politics- Stephane Dion is the leader of the Liberal party and the Conservative party lead by Stephen Harper is currently in power. There is no election underway but one could be called at anytime.
Stupid ads during hockey should be banned as a matter of course..
Ski Season opens...
yes winter is here..the lake is frozen over, it was 2F this morning and there was a couple of cars in the ditch...
so I went to ski... its US thanksgiving and I celebrated by giving thanks for quiet phones and no meetings and distracted coworkers by heading for the mountains .
The sense of renewal is always startling for me.
it begins when there is that wave of fear when you get to the top of the lift for the first run... will I have forgotten.. , its too cold...( it was -14 C ) , I should take an easy run.... in the end I never do that... I get started it feels good and away I go..
Fear when you ski is part of the appeal... we are men- if we don't get at least a little scare it never feels right... I caught an edge wiped out and the day was good.. I need that... I don't really want to live a safe life I want to take risks- start a business or ski over my head either one has to happen or richard is a dull boy
today was a great day... even the bighorns were out having fun...doing guy stuff together
Bhagdad to KC one day...
In the spirit of Remembrance day I can tell you that it is completely possible to detest the war in Iraq and still support those who are there..
On my way from Dallas to Kansas city I sat beside a woman in military fatigues. She had been travelling all day. Bhagdad to Kuwait, Kuwait to Germany, Germany to Atlanta, Atlanta to Dallas, Dallas to Kansas city. I am sure she was not particularly interested in being interrogated by the hockeyman but here is what she had to say.
She is a captain and she is on mid leave for 18 days on here second tour of duty in Iraq. She sill go back for 6 more months in a couple of weeks.
This tour she has a boring job working in an office job in the engineering group. She works in a group that rebuilds bridges. Boring boring work... in the office at 630 am leaves at 830 at night..
They are supposed to get one day off a week but there is nothing to do so they end up going to work every day.
Fun -- go work out at 830 when she leaves she goes for a run and goes to bed.
Accommodations.. lives in a trailer with one other person about the size of one dorm room
Scared..no not really... she works within a base with almost no contact with Iraq's. There have been people killed within the base from mortars and every time you hear the alarm go off it makes you nervous a little but no where near like her first tour.
First tour of Iraq...her job was as a squad leader of 14 soldiers and a Sargent and she would lead them out on patrol or disarming unexploded bombs or other fun stuff.
Her parents--- completely non military and would do cartwheels if she announced she was leaving the military
She got into it in high school... hanging around with the military crowd (I am not really sure what this is... in Canada we don't really have a military crowd) then in college she joined to help pay for school.
her goal is to stay on active duty two more years and then find a guy and have a couple of kids. She was on her way to see her boyfriend who is a major...
Likes Hillary for president
Absolutely normal pleasant woman who loves her country and is completely committed to her job.
Even though the war is completely crazy here is woman who builds bridges and works hard to do justice to her commitments.
Morale in the troops... If you have a real mission like she does or patrolling then its good... if you don't have enough to do like you are the transport group and nothing has to be moved for weeks then you think its a complete waste of your life..
Peace to all on Remembrance day
