Remembering War

Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers? Malachi 2:10 KJV

The good news is that in spite of the machinations of the powers that be, sometimes men remember their common brotherhood, and don't deal so treacherously with each other. One such time was during the Great War in 1914. In December, appeals had been made by several groups including the Vatican “that the guns may fall silent at least upon the night the angels sang.” Among the various governments, these appeals fell on deaf ears.

However, something almost unprecedented in the annals of military history was about to happen. Accounts of this event begin with stories of the German soldiers decorating their trenches with candles and Christmas trees on Christmas Eve. The guns fell silent. Then began the singing. The singing of Christmas carols. These spontaneous songs of desperate men ascended as it were to heaven and rang out across the battlefield, and lo and behold the British troops responded with carols of their own. No oath of fealty to king, ruler or country was to trump this spontaneous manifestation of brotherly kindness. Later, Christmas greetings were shouted out across the battle lines, and the soldiers arose from their trenches to exchange small gifts with the enemy. It is estimated that as many as 100,000 soldiers participated in this first unofficial cessation of hostilities. In some sectors of the battlefield the Christmas truce continued until New Years Day.

Today is Remembrance Day in Canada; Veteran's Day in the United States. When I think of war, I pray, “never again” and remember this spontaneous manifestation of peace.

Legalize pot...or not.

The very impressive sounding Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs in England recently rated alcohol as almost four times more harmful than marijuana. In other news, the IPCC claimed the sky is falling. In other words, just because it's written don't make it so.

In reality alcohol leads to slurring and unrestrained promiscuity, but pot makes everybody stupid. Studies indicating it's deleterious effects on both long and short term memories are legion and the shrunken amygdala and hypothalamus evident in regular users is a medical fact. It is carcinogenic and purportedly associated with the onset of schizophrenia.

I say, 'purportedly'. Proponents will argue the possibility that schizophrenia leads to smoking up, not the other way around. That 'possibility' being a given, when pot smokers are more likely to be diagnosed with the disease, (according to another British study) you do so at your own risk. Or do you?

When you're unemployable and on government funded medication to stabilize your condition, as a taxpayer, I'm very much on the hook. And therein lies just one of the problems with legalized pot.

Alan Shanoff in the Calgary Sun (Nov 7/2010) argues that all prohibition has "managed to do is push up the price of pot," making it less accessible. Reducing the number of schizophrenics in society. Long live prohibition, I say.

With apologies to C.D. Howe...

C.D. Why is a parodic nod to the C.D. Howe Institute, a conservative think tank based in Canada. It also originated with the initials of the surnames of three of our contributors. The content of this website represents the unique opinions and views of our contributors, and in no way presumes to be endorsed by or affiliated with the above mentioned organization.  We hope this effort will prove to be enlightening and ground breaking. Enjoy!