Wondering about Hostage Rescue

Why was there no great big hoopla when someone rescued the hostages in Iraq last week. I remember the noise and backslapping when the woman soldier was rescued some year or so back. Don't we want to take credit for the daring exploit that freed these hostages???

It makes my wondering antenna go wild. First we heard that the hostages were taken and the demand was made for the release of all Iraqi prisoners being held by the US on exchange. Then nothing for a long time etc.etc.

When the hostages are rescued/released we hear that it was not political but criminal...a band of hostage takers were holding them for ransom. But that's not what we heard when they were taken. So if these hostage takers were a skilled band of criminals as we are now supposed to believe, How come they took these people who were not wealthy by criminal standards and who (it seems) did not want to be rescued because the purpose of their being there was to protest US involvement and invasion.

I have never understood the motivation for suicide bombers. Nor do I understand these peace protesters who go to the war zone to carry out their protest. Seems like two sides of the same cloth. Kind of a peace suicide. In the 60's we kept the protest at home and eventually pushed the government to withdraw from Vietnam. Perhaps the powers that be in Vietnam would say that they forced the US to leave but that's another debate.

Back to this most recent rescue/release...I (paranoid as I am) believe that the US or some of the hired hands thereof engineered the hostage taking to shut the peaceniks up. All was according to plan with the protester activity being curtailed until the american member of the group was shot and killed. THEN surprise surprise, the US has a "suspect" who leads allied forces to the place where the hostages are. There is no report of a battle, no report of nasty hostage takers being shot and/or captured, no report of anything to do with the group that allegedly engineered the hostage taking. Duh...Release...Rescue...??? Let's not reveal our intelligence which led us to the hostages.

This whole thing smacks of an underlying scum similar to the lies that took us to Iraq in the first place. It stinks. Anyone who thinks should be asking again why the US went to Iraq in the first place. Obviously not because of 911 and equally obviously not because of weapons of mass destruction. It is time once again to take to the streets and protest the US involvement in the war in Iraq...even more so now that that more war rantings about Iran are on the table... Perhaps George is one of the four horsemen promissed in the apocalypse

Weighing the Scales

I decided to weigh my chances this morning and compose a blog about scales. This all began as I was driving home from Nova Scotia the other evening. I thought about scaling a cliff. Then I wondered aloud why the same word came to mean the act of climbing a steep incline and the act of cleaning a fish. Neither of these can be measured on a scale, nor do they have any tonal quality like the scale that is the curse of every beginning music student.

I have in my union days talked of a wage scale. That makes sense if we think of paying workers with a quantity of a valuable material (e.g. gold dust for the miner) which could be weighed out.

Then I thought of small scale operations where the word scale is actually a redundancy of sorts but makes for more colourful reading.

Back to my first thoughts, it occurred to me that both the scales on the fish and the act of removing them used the same word. That made sense in the same way that taking the skin off is called skinning. But why were the small plate-like dermal structures of fish and some reptiles called scales in the first place. Which came first climbing a cliff, or cleaning a fish?

We weigh our fish with or without scales on a scale which may be large or small. I weigh my chances when I take a risk. I weigh in with my opinion as I am doing now. I try to keep my scales balanced whenever I weigh in lest I be seen as way out somewhere.

When I weigh in with my opinion, I wonder if I weigh down those who consider it. So, I can weigh out something to determine it's weight; weigh in which means to add to or contribute; weigh down which means to depress or burden; and then there's the weigh anchor which means to lift. At the airport I weigh my words carefully lest I in greeting a friend say "Oh Hi Jack" and create a swarm of air marshalls. They weigh my luggage to make sure it's not over weight. And they don't use a small scale.

Now I think it is time to get my day under weigh...which I think means under way and comes from the mistaken impression that when we weigh anchor we then get under weigh.

On a scale calibrated from one to ten, how do you weigh this blog. There are a variety of ways...by word count, by import of significance, by laughter or by the amount of tedium and ennui developed. so have fun and don't let this thing weigh too heavily on your mind. Keep your scales clean and you'll always have a good weight.

Another Winter's Day

Outside the snow has changed to rain and there is slush in abundance. If I kick the ell out of the slush, it's just hush because there is no need or purpose in complaining about it. I only mention it because earlier this week I was in the yard relocating the dog's run, trying to clean up some of the winter poop left by same dog and friends who come to his place. Now the yard is covered again in a slush. Ah but my younger daughter tells me that she is cold in the 50 degree temperature in Bermuda. I guess that life is hard all over.

I am in Summerside this morning acting as chauffer for the morning road trip because the road is so bad. Later we will drive back to Charlottetown. Meanwhile I sit in the public library and amuse myself. Unfortunately the machines here are not java enabled so I can't get to my globe crosswords or sudoku puzzles but then there is always the afternoon for this exciting activity.

Because upon rereading this entry, I find it about as interesting as the poop I was raking last week, I'll bend my brain for a few seconds and end with a poetic appreciation for the weather and the wonderful things I could be doing if it were nicer outside.

When rain turns snow to slush
I tell myself to hush
The mess as you must know
Is just another form of snow.

When earlier I saw the snow
I knew my cheeks would glow
Coming back from walking the dog
Sitting down to write my blog

The snow is great to go for a run
Not too deep to have some fun
However when it turns to slush
the words I speak would make one blush

c.bob wall 2006