Response to Comment

My computer has shut down and had irritating fatal errors, so this may be scattered. I think your son is very brave and very noble to be going to Afghanistan, to fight for what he feels is a "good thing". It was not my purpose to minimalize and dismiss his or your ideology. I respect those decisions, as I respect all the soldiers that are over there fighting for the "greater good". Which possibly may seem hypocritical to my blog, but to me it is two separate issues. Albert Camus wrote "The true patriot is one who gives his highest loyalty not to his country as it is but to his own best conceptions of what it can and ought to be." My personal views vis a vis Middle East : I do support the troops over there, but I do think (imho) that the Canadian's role of "peace keepers" have been abused by the US. Unfortunately, the role that they are in, in Afghanistan (imho), is one of cleaning up the unfinished job of the Americans. The initial mission for the US was to find Bin Laden, and bombed the crap out of Afghanistan,~ the idea of helping was ancillary to that. The Taliban shite (human rights issues) have been going on for years, and thank goodness that Canada is there to try to clean it up. I would like to see some other countries giving a bit more help to the Canadians over there (if the job isn't done, it should be done faster). And yes, that is what the Canadian troops are doing, trying to support and nurture basic human rights, but there ought to be more support from other NATO countries. We have approximately 2300 troops over there, and other countries have sent troops, we are in the most dangerous area. Based on population other allies could be sending more. But again, it wasn't until the 9/11 attack that the American's actually seemed to have a huge problem with the lack human rights (not just women's) in Afghanistan. I agree with the good will and the effort that our troops have put in to the Afghanistan mission, but I am saddened every time there is a loss of life. I do not agree with the full head dress of women (reasoning behind it), that they do not have the right to education, or to go out alone, without the company of a brother or a male relative, the list is extensive.. I do not agree with a lot of the treatment of "people" in general. Lines between culture and inherent human rights are tough. There is no black or white, only shades of grey. I still hope that there will be true peace, but one that is not etched out of war, and fighting. Yet a peace that is founded by a deep realization, that although people may differ in beliefs and culture, it is not the dissimilarities, but the commonalities and the interconnections that people ought to focus on. Idealistic, yes, likely, no, but hopeful, yes. And yes, I do enjoy that my head sits on my neck quite firmly, and that I am not in a situation where I have to worry that it may become disengaged from my spinal column. Personal opinions on equality: In my opinion, we are all made of the same "stuff". . . .on the sentient scale, we are all equal, yes, even the Drug Lord down the street. . . . I may not agree in principle with the actions, but as a "person", with the same inherent make up, I would say that yes, because of this he is equal to me, not in action, but in existence. I may not like what he is doing, I may disagree completely with his code of conduct. As a person though, he has inherent rights. I may also bitch about the state of his house, and how I wish that he would get the heck out of town and stop trying to sell my kids drugs, I may despise all the slippery slope conditions that this man brings. I also may call people assholes, but , they are people who just happen to be assholes, not assholes that happen to be people. People in the first sense (cementing the basic right)asshole in the second sense. Would I agree with a group of cannibals, who by cultural upbringing, decided that my baby toe looked delicious, would I give it to them? (No!, Grab your own finger frittata.). Would I agree with what they are doing? No, here is where the formalist view comes in. I think cannibalism is wrong because it doesn't universally support or nurture basic human rights. Let me also say this: I am a die hard Synoptic Agnostic Relativist that can be seen sneaking sips from the Formalists and Contextualist Cups depending on the day, time, idea. I am the first to admit that I am not as up on my politics as I would like to be, native land claims, or sewer and water stuff , or what may be the best cheese in the world either ~gouda is always good. I may at times seem hypocritical, which, conversly I do not feel that it is a bad thing to change your mind if you have the facts, and if you responsibly choose to do so, or if someone nudges you just the right way, because of a very good argument. Hell, it is good to change your mind, that way you are not static. Being static and caught up in dogma is the worst thing in the world to me. And opinions are opinions, just like gourds, everyone has the right to them (lame digression), and I find it fun to discuss, because, you learn a lot more from listening then you do flapping your pie hole. Although, I have been known to do that at nauseum and argue a point that I do not agree with just for the hell of it, or to ruffle some feathers.