It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world

Image from GlobalResearch: US Troops Guarding Opium Fields in Afghanistan


It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world*

Thoughts on remembrance, esurience, severance.

Since when did a poppy become a designer accessory?  Since the Canadian Legion provided instructions on the correct way to wear one and even to touch one:

CTV: The respectful way to wear a poppy for Remembrance Day

It's no longer what's in your heart; it's a fashion statement. But ...

I've just now come from shopping for groceries, where it surprised me to have to quickly remove a box of poppies from the end of the conveyor belt so my purchases would not slam into it. Maybe the Legion needs to review its own study lesson?

I never wear a poppy, myself.  They remind me too much of what was done to Afghanistan in the name of "freedom".  I say this every year: the Taliban got rid of opium and America brought it back.

GlobalResearch: Drug War? American Troops Are Protecting Afghan Opium. U.S. Occupation Leads to All-Time High Heroin Production

Westerners have been, and still are, duped into supporting ongoing hegemonic wars in large part by a deliberate mental implant that any religion other than so-called Judaeo-Christian is Satanic and therefore non-Christian countries (except Israel with which God will deal later) must be systematically cleansed of their religious leaders and symbols.

Sure, Hussein's Iraq was supposedly secular, but secular in Iraq is not necessarily Christian, so it was up to good Christians to reduce the whole country to rubble.  The Devil, however, resides in the details and a closer look strongly suggests that it all boils down to avarice.

Artha: avarice ~ noun    rare

•  1. reprehensible acquisitiveness; insatiable desire for wealth (personified as one of the deadly sins);  2. extreme greed for material wealth;

Also: rapacity (gluttony), cupidity (rhymes with stupidity).

By now everyone should have guessed that a major problem with the Taliban in Afghanistan was/is that they would ban the growing of poppies. The rest of the wars are about oil, so there still have to be bad guys, even badder guys, to justify the quest.

ABC: Oct. 29 - ‘It is going to become worse’: ISIS prisoner predicts attack on Europe after al-Baghdadi death

ABC: Oct 31 - ISIS confirms death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, announces new leader

• "Do not be happy O America, for the death of Sheikh al-Baghdadi, and do not forget the cups of death at his hands," Abu Hamza warns, adding in a shot at Trump: "Do you not look how at how you have become the joke of the nations, your fate controlled by a stupid old man, who goes to sleep with one opinion and wakes up with another?"

The object is to be seen to slaughter the one to prove the good guys are there to fight terrorism; then create the other to keep the battle on track -- because the object is still total control over the world's oil supply.

Trump mentioned oil 22 times in his announcement of the death of Baghdadi. 

Meanwhile, back in the land(s) of the "free" as Remembrance Day approaches:

CTV: 'Pizzability' owner saddened by 'cruel' treatment of disabled staff

• The owner of a Denver pizzeria staffed primarily by people with disabilities says she is struggling to keep the doors open after the restaurant went viral, prompting an influx of “cruel” customers.

Some people order food, then take a "selfie", then cancel the food order and leave. Yeah -- in America the beautiful, kept "safe" by wholesale death, destruction and thievery elsewhere.

CBC: McDonald's app account hacked

• The so-called Hamburglar is still at large, hacking customers' McDonald's app accounts and ordering food on their dime. For some victims, their troubles didn't end there as they were unhappy with how McDonald's handled their cases.

(And some people wonder why I will support cash transactions until my dying day.)

Meanwhile, across the ocean:

CTV: German city of Dresden declares 'Nazi emergency'

• "For years, politicians have failed to position themselves clearly and unequivocally against the right-wing extremists, and to outlaw them," Aschenbach told CNN, adding that he wanted Dresden's city council to support citizens' initiatives, education and culture in the city.

Apparently, you can blast the Hitler out of a nation, but you can't take the Nazi out of at least some of its inhabitants.  Germany is, of course, a Christian country - mostly.

And, now, here at home in Canuk land:

CBC: Wexit making waves? Hundreds rally for western separation in Edmonton

• ‘We’re separating and that’s what’s going to happen,’ Wexit Alberta leader says

So there.

​It's bittersweet that there's still a child in all of us. It's always the occupants of the seats farthest away from the front of the class who draw lewd pictures of the teacher and mutter amongst themselves.  It's only teacher's pets who are content to sit at the front and eagerly raise their hands in happy participation. Suck-ups, I believe they are called. But there's always going to be a back-of-the-room, and tossing spit balls can't change that.

Neither will threatening to quit school as a tactic rather than an actual intention:

• "Separation is our only bargaining chip. I don't really support the fact of splitting because this country, I mean, all the people are great," ...

Oops!  Maybe it wasn't prudent to say that out loud.

Other solutions offered:

TheHill: Forget Greenland — Trump should offer statehood to these Canadian provinces

• President Trump’s offer to purchase Greenland from Denmark was front-page news in August, but a better option for expanding the country’s geographic footprint would be to offer statehood to the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, as well as the interior of British Columbia.

Hardly! What about what we affectionately call "down East" where separatist fever is alive and kicking. Wikipedia

And why is Quebec left out in the cold?

Not to mention:

Cheatsheet: There Are Actual Secession Movements in America

• With the United States becoming more polarized politically than ever before, it’s probably high time someone decides to separate from the federal government. Surprisingly, there are many active separatist movements throughout the United States that seem like they could work.

Their problem?

Red-StateSecession: The cultures of red states will continue to be diluted until they secede

• [Graph] makes it pretty obvious that the next president will give the vote (US citizenship) to tens of millions of potential Democrat voters from third-world countries. 

The trouble is that there are Red states (Repub) and Blue states (Dem), and some are seeing Purple (Mix). Wikipedia

Well, actually, it's the Red and Blue states seeing purple because they want hard election swings, not the freedom to vote any old way one pleases.  Why, why ... that would be, like ... democracy!

Democracy is not what it's cracked up to be and it never was.  Call me simplistic, but I kind of like the song, "Why can't we be friends?" {YouTube}

* Movie: "It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world" 1963: IMDB