AMERICA - DON’T VOTE FOR A 70 PLUS CANDIDATE

I am 73 years old and I am advising Americans to think twice about voting for a presidential candidate who is 70 years and older.  Political correctness declares that age should not be an issue, but honestly, it is.  President Obama's hair colour is an indicator of the onerous burdens of the office. He took office at age 44. Imagine the cumulative affects of national governance on a president whose best years are 20-30 years behind him. Of course Trump, if elected, will never grey out because his present hair colour is simulated. That should not dupe anyone. This office requires grey matter. The synaptic gaps in Trump's brain are already too far apart for responsible information transmission. All other Republican candidates are 65 years and younger. Of the Democratic candidates, Bernie Sanders is 75, Jim Webb is almost 71 and Joe Biden who will soon declare his candidacy, is 74. Hillary will turn 70 before the presidential election and she gives evidence now that she should consider a position no loftier than co-host of The View.

WILL WE EXPERIENCE WORLD WAR III?

Will we see WORLD WAR III.

Wasn’t Obama the questionable recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize shortly after inauguration, having done nothing for peace but to talk about negotiation and discussion being the preferred means by which to end the greatest and deepest conflicts. Well he didn’t close down Guantanamo Bay detention camp. And he did authorize the bullets that took down Saddam Hussein. Now, Britain and USA are in geographical and philosophical positions at Syria’s doorstep to launch an attack, ostensibly to punish Bashar Hafez al-Assad for using chemical attacks on innocents in his own country. UN inspectors have been allowed to conduct an investigation but it has not been completed. The UN wants more time.

Changeless Change Agent

A NEW LEARNING
Christine and I visited Ephesus last year. One of this ancient city’s early philosopher’s was Heraclitus who lived from 535 BC – 475 BC. He is known for his doctrine of change as central to the universe and for establishing the term Logos (λόγος) to mean both the source of and fundamental order of the Cosmos. He said, “Πάντα ῥεῖ καὶ οὐδὲν μένει,” which translated means “everything flows, nothing stands still.” He also said, “Nothing endures but change,” a variant of which is the easily recognized, “The only constant is change.”

On the one hand I suffer change. Recently I noted the physical changes that accompany aging. The mirror is no longer my friend. The curmudgeon who peers at me is not someone with whom I want to have coffee. Yet Christine lives with him. It’s a good thing that memory fades with age – hers that is. She cannot recall how svelte and beautiful was the young man with whom she fell in love over forty years ago.

On the other hand I am a fan of change. I love rapid advances in electronic toys and tools. All of us are enthusiasts of continuous improvement. Consumers demand faster service, superior products, lower prices. It is critical for businesses to be asking what they should be doing and what should be done differently.

Every ascendant political leader pledges change. It’s implicit in the election process.
Have you looked at Barak Obama’s website? You should. It is a marketing masterpiece based upon the theme of change, specifically ‘Change is Coming.’ Canadian conservatives are hoping that Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s recent foray into the land where angels fear to tread will have informed him of his need to change his approach to working with the opposition in this minority parliament.

I concede that inherent within life itself is change. Yet Heraclitus slipped when he said, “This universe, … has not been made by any god or man, but it always has been, is, and will be an ever-living fire, kindling itself by regular measures and going out by regular measures.” Mistakenly he was satisfied that logos was simply ‘reason’ within the universe. My commitment is rather to this understanding of the cosmos. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Further, “In the beginning was the (Logos) Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made… And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory.” And you shall call his name Emmanuel, meaning ‘God with us’. The designer and effecter of change is none other than the changeless one about whom Hebrews’ author wrote, “he is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.”

This is the website for the President Elect
This is the site of his presidential election campaign
This is the Obama store for products bearing his name

Harper’s Conservative website
Harper's Store

Yes We Can

A NEW LEARNING
History was made yesterday. In his speech to a Chicago crowd of one hundred thousand people President elect Barak Obama cited the story of a centenarian woman who voted in this American Presidential election. He pointed out the dramatic events and changes that she has witnessed in her lifetime. Much of the focus of the historicity of this election rests on its racial significance and while we will eventually move past this emphasis, we cannot fail to notice what this moment means for African Americans and other ethnic minorities.
Within my own lifetime there have been historic moments in world and North American history. Here a random few. Allied troops stormed Normandy beaches in 1944. On a Montgomery, Alabama bus Rosa Parks refused to yield her seat to a white passenger and unwittingly launched the civil rights movement in 1955. The 1962 Cuban missile crisis of October almost sparked a nuclear war between USSR and the USA. President Kennedy was assassinated 1963. Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were also assassinated in the 1960’s. Neil Armstrong walked on the moon in 1969. The 1970 October Crisis in Quebec and two terrorist kidnappings of government officials by members of the Front de libération du Québec, the subsequent murder of hostage Pierre Laporte and the imposition of the War Measures Act by Prime Minister Pierre E. Trudeau. In 1971 the Canadian federal government officially adopted a policy of multiculturalism (i.e. French language on documentation including cereal boxes). Richard Nixon resigned as U.S. President in 1974. The death penalty was abolished in Canada in 1976. In 1977 Canadian highway signs went metric. In June of 1981 Terry Fox died in the middle of his cross Canada Marathon of Hope. In 1982 Bertha Wilson was the first woman appointed as a Justice of the Canadian Supreme Court. The Supreme Court of Canada struck down existing legislation against abortion as unconstitutional in 1988. In 1989 Heather Erxleben became Canada's first acknowledged female combat soldier, the same year that one-dollar bills were replaced by the "loonie." The Berlin wall came down in 1989. In 1991 the unpopular Goods and Services Tax (GST) came into effect. In 1993 Kim Campbell replaced Brian Mulroney as the head of the Progressive Conservatives and became Canada's first woman Prime Minister and in the same year Chretien and Liberals had a landslide victory reducing Progressive Conservatives to two seats. Terrorists topple NYC Twin Towers in 2001. A Tsunami devastates a widespread Indian/Asian region (2005). In 2005 Hurricane Katrina was the costliest hurricane ($80 billion), as well as one of the five deadliest in the history of the United States.
Is the election of Barak Obama a pivotal, even a defining moment in US history and its international relationships? I have the sense that it is. I am concerned for him. Secret Service security will need to be at its best. God must protect him. He won but almost half the electors voted for someone else. Yet the hope inspired by Obama's 'Yes We Can' credo may unite rather than divide. I hope that it can.