Canada has a “language police”!

How is the integrity of Canadian democracy doing? In Saudi-Arabia you have a “religious police.” In Canada you have a “language police.” These public employees, paid by the tax payers, are supposed to make sure that products are labeled in English and French, unless the “language police” inspectors decide to overlook infractions. The situation is so arbitrary that sometimes you will find products on the shelves with only English, only French, only Chinese, only “Esperanto,” all of the above, or none of the above. It all depends on the whim of the “language police” inspectors. No wonder no one in Canada dares to criticize the “religious police” of Saudi-Arabia. Canadians seem to like our own!

A psychological exit strategy from Afghanistan.

The background: President Obama decided to pull out American troops from Afghanistan by July 2011, against the advice of the military brass. Who is right and who is wrong?

1. The president is right: A date (July 2011) for a pull out of forces from Afghanistan will force the Afghan government to speed up taking over the war against the Taliban.

2. The president is wrong: Hamid Karzai government is weak and corrupt and will never be able to take on the Taliban by itself.

3. Obama is right: A withdrawal date will raise troop morale, and provides families a goal to look forward to in getting their loved ones home.

4. Orama is wrong: Announcing July 2011 as the date of withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan gives the enemy an opportunity to wait it out and try to topple the Afghan government after July 2011.

5. Psychological conclusion: Everyone is playing politics with American lives, wasting tax payers money in a losing strategy in Afghanistan. A much better strategy would be for the United States to pull out its 100,000 troops right now, and send instead 10,000 specially trained “007” type Afghan savvy allied “insurgents”  ready to take on the Taliban, while at the same time give all Afghans (including the Taliban) an opportunity to apply for cheap loans for housing, job training, business expansion, or agricultural development, to win over the hearts and minds of the Afghan people with direct economic assistance to families in exchange for cessation of hostilities against Americans and against each other. No Afghan in his right mind will choose to fight and die instead of grab the financial opportunity to protect and improve the lives of his wife and kids. Ignore Karzai’s government, the people will take care of him the moment the US gives the average Afghan hope for a better life.

I would like to know what you think will be the obstacles to implementing the above strategy for ending the Afghan war?

The Supreme Court upholds the Second Amendment by only 5/4 majority!

What’s wrong with America? Four Supreme Court justices just voted against the US Constitution’s Second Amendment! Scary!  There is no legal justification for the Supreme Court to tamper with the constitutionality of the Second Amendment. The right of the American people to bear arms is an inherent right fought for by our founding father president Washinton himself! No left leaning pacifist Supreme Court justice today has the right to even attempt to take the right to bear arms away from us. What the US Supreme Court should deal with, instead, is its obligation to protect the American people from bad people owning guns. That issue has never been brought up in from of the Supreme Court. Listen, wisdom dictates that a strict gun registration law should replace the need to ban guns by local communities that the 4 dissenting supreme court justices tried to uphold.

It appears that something is wrong with Obama’s Supreme Court nominees. Wisdom is being replaced by ideology in the name of justice! You probably don’t see it my way but if you do, please post a reply because I like to hear from one of the last Mohicans of true justice in the United States. The only discussion regarding the Second Amendment to the US Constitution should be “how do you protect the American people without having to ban guns!”

The American people are on an environmental suicide mission!

British Petroleum get rewarded for their environmental carelessness. They are now drilling in Alaska, actually everywhere where there is oil off-shore. What is happening is that US laws protect BP and other polluters of our lives. Congress and successive administrations have legislated laws that protect people who damage our environment. The American people are on an environmental suicide mission by the way they vote for representatives who spend their money on drilling recklessly, wars and bailing out crooks on Wall Street.

Dear voters, this November is your first opportunity you have to send a message to Washington to stop hurting you. Don’t vote for any of the candidates or representatives listed on the ballots so far. None of them will make a difference. They just talk. The road to environmental hell is paved with their good intentions. Take responsibility for your votes. In our democracy the Alaskan environment is only as good as your vote. In our democracy, you are responsible for the 300 billion dollars wasted in Afghanistan so far. Please don’t vote in November unless your representatives come up with working plans how to solve our problems. Don’t take anyone’s word for it anymore. The environment is crying for you not to vote in November. Send a clear message to Washington.

PWS and the war in Afghanistan.

I believe that after 911 if President Bush consulted psychologists (PWS, Psychotronic Warfare Specialists) instead of army generals as to how to handle further threats to the US mainland from Afghanistan, the place would have been pacified by now! At a cost of 300 billion dollars and 1100 GI’s dead, any PWS psychologist would have done better than any 4-star General. We still expect to win because we live in the illusion that Afghanistan is a conventional war between 2 armies.

The “politically correct” way President Obama handled his problem with McChrystal and the US change in command in Afghanistan will get him reelected at a cost to the American people of another 300 billion dollars and countless  dead. Obama looks good and he knows it! If you want to know what a PWS would have recommended to do with Afghanistan after 911, you’d have to ask.

Understanding the feud between Obama and McChrystal.

As a psychologist who had served in the military, I believe that the outlook differences between The Commander-in-Chief and his insubordinate 4-star General Stanley A. McChrystal are profound enough to bring to mind the forgotten declaration by 5-Star General McArthur who once said, “When the politicians fail to keep the peace it is the job of the military to win the war.” The “big mouth” General McChrystal will have to go because the “clean mouth” President Obama thinks that he can be a better General!

The struggle between power and merit, politics and skill, influence and “know how” is an ill symptom of contemporary leftist American culture. You, Americans, will lose money in Wall Street, will lose livelihood in the Gulf of Mexico, and will lose wars in the world if you continue to let politics select CEOs, whether it’s in BP, AIG, or WH.

“Happy father’s day” lacks a deep meaning.

Yesterday, I celebrated “Happy Father’s Day” with 2 of my four grown up kids. They cooked me a nice dinner at home. I received a Facebook greeting “Happy Father’s Day” from my third grown up son, and I am sure my fourth son will soon call me from the States. It was nice. Many fathers would have liked such nice treatment from the family.

I am old fashion. For me celebrating fatherhood  was supposed to be more than that – something is missing in the two Western countries where I raised my 4 kids – the US and Canada. I realized that I had the misfortune of having  to share raising my children with values from the 2 cultures that I have chosen to live in for economic reasons. I love my kids, don’t get me wrong, but they all went their own ways. The wonderful values that I have had, that have brought me wealth, health and happiness, are not the values that my kids espouse. They are struggling. I have lost my influence as a father in competition with schools that don’t educate,  TV that don’t inform, friends that don’t know what’s important to know, and the superficial culture we live in. I crave to discuss philosophy, politics, art, economics, science, anthropology, or psychology with my children. I would love to teach them to invest and make a lot of money, but my children are more interested in  – the weather, dogs, games and what their friends say – much ado about nothing! No one in my family has my values, no one lives for something greater than themselves except my wife and myself. Do you think that may change after this posting?

A congressman apologizes to British Petroleum!!

Shouldn’t it be the other way around? Well, it should, but I want you to understand why it doesn’t. Watch the proceedings in congress, how politely they treat Tony Hayward, the CEO of British Petroleum and you will know what I mean. We Americans have lost our ability to “kick ass” and make people accountable for their behavior. Compare the “softies”  we elect as presidents nowadays to Teddy Roosevelt,  the “kick ass” president our grandparents elected in 1903.

I know, you don’t like oil spills, but you will continue to get a disaster after disaster until you learn to “kick ass” of those who cause the disasters or don’t fix them right.

Here is what YOU can do to save the planet!

The information on what you can do to save the earth is described in my last ten postings when I talked about “contingencies.” but apparently people don’t understand the word, so here is the bare minimum in behavior: RAISE YOUR HAND TO YOUR MOUTH POLITELY AND ‘SHUSH’ ANYONE WHO TRIES TO ‘EXPLAIN’ A SITUATION (E.G., THE BP OIL SPILL, YOUR FRIEND’S DIVORCE, THE BUSINESS FAILURE, BREAK UP, OBAMA, YOUR HEALTH PROBLEM, ANYTHING!) AND SAY INSTEAD (FORCE IT IF YOU HAVE TO, REPEAT YOURSELF): “STOP. PLEASE DESCRIBE ONLY HOW TO FIX IT, INCLUDING COST AND TIME IT WOULD TAKE.”

If we all do that earth will get better. Stop saying the stupid sentence, “This is not acceptable, or, that is not acceptable,” and say instead, “Fix it or I will take action.” (describe the action, make it appropriate).

Obama, the BP oil deception and your perception.

Do you get the feeling that president Obama is going to come out of the oil spill as a winner? I do. At the end of the oil spill in a few months the eastern shores ecosystem will be in ruins but CEO Obama will appear as larger than life to most Americans –  they judge him by his speeches. But, I would judge his CEO skills by when he finally plugged the hole and how well he did the clean up. That is the only thing that counts, and he gets a “D-”

Obama believes that if he is “nice” to British BP executives he will get than to work harder for the devastated American people on the eastern shores. Obama’s personality is lovable but lacks the understanding of other CEOs and lacks clout with them. Sweetness gets you elected president but sweetness kills leadership during disasters. Things just don’t get done! Obama should issue an executive order to freeze all BP assets in the United States, and let the Texans take over and plug the oil leak. And, don’t forget to pay the Texans from the frozen BP assets.

Do you want to be a really great president? Reimburse the fishermen 100% of their losses from the confiscated BP money!

BY THE WAY, I WOULD GET A LOT MORE RESPONSES TO MY BLOG IF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE CARED MORE FOR THEIR LIVES THAN FOR THEIR PERCEPTIONS!