What is going on in the world?

[Cheshire]

Well, what is going on? Oil at over 90$, Iraq situation hardly changing, Afghanistan slightly improving, US housing market, weak US dollar. I am not into conspiracy theories or any of that nonsense, but since Bush came to power, the world seems to have changed, and not for the better. I miss the Clinton years.

edited for bad spelling.....so there is a spell check! Mmmm.. :

 

[Shamrock]

I think it's more media inspired perception shift.

 

[adonis]

They are also bringing in the amero dollar, which I personally thing is completely stupid...

 

[Falange]

Well, changes always happen through time in society, economy, politics etc..etc.. etc... if you dont beleive me just look back in history lol.

The Amero... crap I would rather have the Sterling Pound or anything else rather than the Amero. Brutal idea that reinforces economic dependency brought to us by the gents of the Fraser Institute. It has the worst name ever made for any currency ever and I prefer to see Canada economically diversifying with other regions of the world

 

[Cheshire]

And another thing, the media, along the lines of Shamrocks post......

Whats with all this CNN "Planet In Peril" garbage? Are we in "Peril"???? Should I build a bunker, store food, and take wilderness survival training for the coming doom? ???

 

[a_majoor]

The prophets of doom are always out there, and if one prediction does not come to pass, then they simply pretend they did not make the prediction and pull out another cause of doom.

In the 1970's, we were told that resource depletion would cause the end of civilization and mass starvation by the end of the 1980's, or at least the 1990's, or the next century........Oil was going to run out in the 80's, no wait, the 90's, well peak oil is happening real soon now (as long as no one looks to the tar sands); The USSR was going to reach the Persian Gulf, nuclear war was going to happen in Europe because of Margret Thatcher, no wait,  Ronald Reagan, well you know George H.W. Bush will cause endless war in the Middle East....

These waves of alarmism seem to come in cycles; predicting the onset of a new ice age was on the cover of Time magazine in 1975, today it is Global Warming. The constant factor seems to be the desire to whip up hysteria and lead the mob "away" from these potential disasters, although the cure is always the same, some form of global socialist world order to regulate global activities to prevent the onset of the Ice Age, mass famine, peak oil, conventional conflict, nuclear war/winter/summer etc.

 

[Greymatters]

Well, what is going on? Oil at over 90$, Iraq situation hardly changing, Afghanistan slightly improving, US housing market, weak US dollar. I am not into conspiracy theories or any of that nonsense, but since Bush came to power, the world seems to have changed, and not for the better. I miss the Clinton years. 

How were the Clinton years better? 

And why speak of the world in terms of the American viewpoint? You should be speaking in terms of 'the Chretien era'.

 

[Flip]

A majoor,

+1 buddy! The most intelligent post in this thread.

The prophets of doom are always out there, and if one prediction does not come to pass, then they simply pretend they did not make the prediction and pull out another cause of doom.

Maybe because we're older? We see things in a more balanced way.

Actually, things are pretty fabulous. Our standard of living is high.
There are global challenges but most are either spun by media to look
a lot larger than they are, or are less immediate than we are being told.

GW Bush CANNOT be blamed for all of what's wrong with the planet.
That much is just plain goofy.  Wild Bill Clinton did play saxophone though.
Maybe that's what you miss.    The Clinton years were marked by inaction
and a lack of political resolve. - which had at least one disastrous result.

GW Bush came into office with a very different idea of how things would be done.
9-11 changed all of that. Policy was changed and his administrations' focus was
seized by a very different agenda from what was initially intended.

The rest, as they say, is history.

feeble rant over..........

 

[vonGarvin]

Well, what is going on? Oil at over 90$, Iraq situation hardly changing, Afghanistan slightly improving, US housing market, weak US dollar. I am not into conspiracy theories or any of that nonsense, but since Bush came to power, the world seems to have changed, and not for the better. I miss the Clinton years.

Ah, yes, the "good old days", when Canada was running deficit budgets, the US response to rising Islamo-fascist terrorism consisted simply of launching cruise missiles at empty tents in the desert, and a Canadian dollar not worth squat.  Yes, I miss those days too :

 

[observor 69]

Might I mention that most western governments cleaned up when the Cold war ended. Military forces and equipment were slashed by  England, Canada ,USA, Germany etc.
Martin, Clinton and most western leaders were in good economic times with the military budget money now available for other programs.
Which leads to most of those same countries now faced with the challenge of building their military forces back up.

 

[Greymatters]

Ah, yes, the "good old days", when Canada was running deficit budgets, the US response to rising Islamo-fascist terrorism consisted simply of launching cruise missiles at empty tents in the desert, and a Canadian dollar not worth squat.  Yes, I miss those days too : 

Eggzactly... dont forget the continued lack of support for CF equipment needs during that time, the sending of our troops into hostile areas without ROE to defend themselves, denial and/or ignoring of Canadian injuries overseas, blaming the military for lack of air support for attending foreign funerals so the PM could go skiiing, anti-war protest groups telling us to get out of Haiti and East Timor, house prices rising through the roof on the west coast due to Hong Kong being repossessed by China, the effects of the FTA finally being felt by small-medium sized businesses, globalization damaging the Canadian manufacturing industry, etc.