My comment on the news

I just have to comment on some things that have been in the Canadian news lately:

HOCKEY:
Far be it from me to cast doubt on the mental capacity of Gary Bettman and other hockey movers and shakers, but doesn't it seem that their defence of  Zdeno Chara's hit on Max Pacioretty last Tuesday as "just part of the game" is a serious indictment of the game?  If broken heads are "normal & expected", then what does that say about the game?  After all Max didn't even have the puck, so what was the justification for hitting him? Maybe the average hockey player just isn't smart enough to play the game any other way, and maybe the average fan isn't sophisticated enough to prefer watching skill over brutality.  But then, I'm not a fan of the game, so I probably don't understand..

LYBIA:
Now, I'm no fan of American foreign policy.  To start with they are far more concerned with their own economic health than with any one else's well being.  In fact I firmly think they are socially and emotionally unfit to pretend to be the world's "policeman".  I certainly wouldn't want a mentally challenged, immature teenager, policing my community. However, for various reasons, the US seems to have accepted that role, and, surprisingly, the rest of the world has been content to sit back and let them do it. Which, in the case of Lybia is the real problem.

The US is faced with a dilemma. After propping up dictators throughout the world, (and in fact putting a lot of them into power), they now feel unable to intervene when they actually feel a moral obligation to do so.    So... where is the rest of the world?  Isn't there anyone else willing to take some initiative?  Doesn't any one else have an army?

FIGHTER PLANES:
It's interesting to hear Harper say that he doesn't want to get into an argument over numbers. But what big numbers they are.  The over-run for the new fighter planes will apparently be something like 12 billion dollars. When you say 12 billion fast, it really doesn't sound like much. After all it's only 12 of them. But say it as it really is: TWELVE THOUSAND MILLION DOLLARS, it has a little more impact. Or you could say that it is $400 for EVERY PERSON in Canada.  Actually, the total bill, THIRTY THOUSAND MILLION DOLLARS, is $1000 for every person.  Don't get me wrong, these may be the right planes to buy, and we may really need them, and if so, then tell us what the justification is and stop treating the critics as nit-pickers.