August 26: Mr. Baird is outraged....

That's what it says in the Montreal papers. And for good reason. There's a possibility those terrible Syrian government people have used poison gas. Oh, my goodness. It's a war, and they're killing people in a way that's not nice. But, you know, it's different when Syrians do it. Like, when the US smothered the surface of Vietnam with Agent Orange, it was a chemical weapon. It killed huge numbers. It caused starvation by destroyiing crops. It caused a huge rise in the births of hideously deforned babies - Babies with one eye, with no ears, etc. But I didn't hear any words of outrage from us. I can't recall any sermons about it -- and I would bet there were no special prayers at the Irving Chapel. The British and Americans used HE shells made of depleted uranium to plaster whole cities in Iraq. It still is radioactive - and will be for more than four billion years. As it is, babies are born dead or diseased, and their parents die of cancer in that wretched atmosphere. But, hey! Have you heard of anything that suggests anybody on this side gives a damn? In his final year in office, President Clinton publicly admitted to the killing of some 250,000 innocent and helpless Mayans in Guatemala. It didn't even make the news. Obama daily kills people, guilty and innocent alike, children and adults with drones and bombings. But Mr. Baird is not upset by that. Americans, British and Canadians combined to kill in Libya for reasons that are still not clear. Nor has it done Libya any good as it has lived ever since in chaos and violence. But we don't pay any attention to that as long as we get the oil. Harper distributes racist literature attacking native people on largely invented reasons. So who gives a damn? Harper is cracking down on those lowlifes who commit crime - longer sentences, tougher. But a prime minister who accepted bribes, then lied to avoid income tax, got a quick questioning, then was allowed to keep his loot and go back to his mansion so long as he paid the income tax. Where's the outrage? The owner of a pet shop has two snakes escape. It's headliing news for weeks - including a headline that says the owner's hands are soaked in blood. A prominent member of a prominent new Brunswick family has some association with a train wreck that kills 47 people. That story lasted for two days; the possible connection with the NB family was never mentioned - and they certainly were not accused of having blood on their hands. Nor have I seen any outrage from Mr Baird or anybody else in our government. 3,000 get killed in a suicide attack in New York. There's a rush to sympathy, and we all buy memorial souvenirs, and our churches have special services. Millions are killed in Vietnam. Over a million in Iraq. \over a half million in Cambodia. Nobody knows how many in Afghanistan, \Pakistan, Somalia, \yemen. Most were civilians. But they don't matter. Thay wasn't white folks, not really, and they didn't have our profound religious values. I mean. They were different. So we don't get mad over killing them, and how they get killed. Certainly, mr. Baird doesn't. Indeed, hypocrites like Mr. Baird will speak on \nov. 11 on how our soldiers died in Afghanistan to save our democracy. \And million of us will nod our heads - though we surely all know this is bullshit. Our democracy was never threatened byn Afghanistan. Nor was the US threatened. our soldiers died in Afghanistan because it seemed like good politics at the time. It'a a repeat of what happened over a century ago in South Africa when Canadians died to make very rich Englishmen even richer. I read that Pamela Wallin spent much of her Senate money to speak in support of our troops. She must be remarkably stupid (if she really believes that.). If she and those other politicians really supported our troops, they would have refused to send them in the first place. No, Mr. Baird is very selective in his outrage. Even sadder, we are, too. That just seems to be the human condition.