The Squamidian Report – Mar. 28 / 15
 
Issue #670

Including:
The Ontarion

Hi All,

We had been having incredibly nice weather out here for most of the winter, and when I visited Ontario I must have brought it with me because it was quite nice most of the time I was there. However, I must have either left it there or misplaced it somewhere along the way home because it sure didn't come back with me. This area is back to cool and wet, wet, wet. The kind of stuff that Easterner's associate with the west coast. Now, some of this cool wet weather is of my own doing because I got a bit tired of having to move the unused snowblower every time I wanted to get the motorcycle out of the garage. So to that end I put the blower back into the shed in the lower back yard. That action had an immediate effect on our temperatures, all of a sudden they dropped not just down to 'seasonal', but to below seasonal. Oh well, I guess there is nothing wrong with having some March in March, which isn't all that bad when you think about it. The rhubarb is almost ready to start being used and the lawn needs mowing and my blueberries are in blossom.

Well, there's really not all that much to talk about around here. Kyra seems to have brought a cold or some such thing into our house and we are all hacking and coughing. Haven't done very much either. That and the events of the last few weeks have left most of us in a bit of a fog. So, on that note, I'm going to sort of cop out this week and make this a very short one. Sorry, thats about the best I can do this time.

doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT

Hello everyone!

Just a few words on how trusting we are of so many individuals in our lives that we don’t even know. For instance, the recent situation with the Germanwings airliner that was crashed into the side of a mountain in the Alps the other day and how trusting the passengers in that plane were of the pilots at the controls. I’m sure that if asked, not one of the passengers would have given a second thought that one of the pilots was about to take the lives of all aboard in such a horrendous manner. These men and women that fly our most trusted mode of transportation all over the world every day are only human and obviously have the same tendencies any human being is capable of to unexpectedly and instantaneously flip out and destroy everything and everyone under their control and then some! This 28-year-old pilot managed to destroy the lives on the plane as well as countless lives of family members of his passengers. It is indeed a tragedy that could have been prevented with better planning and design of either the aircraft or operational procedures demanded of the flight crews of the airline. I’m sure that such organizations as the airlines of this world employ psychologists to study every possible scenario involving the operation of such incredible machines as the modern day aircraft so as to prevent such a tragedy as happened this week in Germany. In the aftermath of this tragedy I am gratified to hear that the airlines of Canada and also those of Europe have immediately put into place a system that should prevent any one person from having sole control of any aircraft in their fleets while in the air. The Americans have had this system of mandatory presence in the cockpit by at least two members of the flight crew of all airplanes at all times for many years now and I was shocked to hear that Canada and most of the European airlines did not! The chances of any one pilot wigging out and ramming an airliner into the ground at will are extremely slim but as witnessed this week, it can and does happen and shows the need to have even the remotest of situations of this sort guarded against by having a redundant system of control at all times! We all know that there are a lot of wacky people in this world and it’s a grave mistake to think that these things won’t happen to us! Let’s hope that this latest lesson will be well learned by the airlines of this world and such a tragedy will be less likely to happen again.

I may be a tad paranoid in saying this but we’ve got to start being more aware of our surroundings and the people we trust with our security. Who’s to say that the police officer that is patrolling our highways and city streets won’t be overcome by some personal situation and take his or her frustrations out on the next person he or she deals with during the course of their duties? I know it’ll be a sad world if we all start distrusting one another but we are deluged with news reports of crazy happenings involving crazy people every day. There are people who just lose it without any provocation, there are people that are religious fanatics that commit atrocities and there are people that are easily lead astray by fanatical organizations to commit terrible crimes and atrocities in the belief that their religion is the only one that matters on this earth and believe me, they do walk among us!

I for one am of the belief that it’s a mistake by our government to publicly broadcast plans of their military strategies in the Middle East on the evening news! In doing so such information is easily picked up by the very people we are strategizing against and this of course gives the enemies of our free world an edge when preparing a defense. Just simply opening their political mouths and revealing too much is a very big mistake!

With all the terrorism that goes on in this world, even television cop shows and spy movies tend to give too many plausible ideas to what I call the nuts of this world! Anybody with a screw loose can easily watch a TV show or Hollywood movie that shows how “the bad guy” accomplishes his or her dastardly deed and in turn go out into the world and copy the idea with a single murder or even a mass murder from such an idea. I know that all movies can’t and won’t be akin to “Mary Poppins” and “Bamby” but I do shudder indeed when I see something in a movie or TV show that can encourage someone already on the edge to commit a terrible act in real life. Like I said earlier, I may sound a tad paranoid but go ahead if you can, prove me wrong! They say “Art imitates Life” but I say it’s more likely that “Life imitates Art”! I sure as Hell wouldn’t want to live next door to one of those Hollywood writers that come up with these “Killer” dramas! What kind of mind does it take to write this stuff anyway?

That’s about it for this week folks!
Thanks a lot for tuning in and I’ll look forward to talking to you all again next week in The Ontarion Report!

Bye for now … Greg

PS: Something To Think About>
“Where there’s a will, I want to be in it!”
Sir Winston Churchill.

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Have a good one..
the doug
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