Live 8

I took a look at the Live 8 website, and am watching Bryan Adams on TV right now. (Of course he's not picking any of his songs that I like -Ed.) I support the need for a better approach toward African aid, and the fact that a child in Africa dies every three seconds is compelling, but the pledge of doubling aid is just unrealistic and irresponsible. Giving aid is a good thing, but if we ruin our own finances not only does it hurt our own population, it leaves us less able to send aid in the future. I support a more fiscally balanced approach as I do with finances here at home, we should only send what we can afford to send, because sending more is irresponsible and dangerous. Apparently most Canadians agree with me.

I do not however have any problem with the elimination of debt, because lending money to countries such as these is like me lending money to this guy Mark I know. I know I'm never going to get it back anyway, so I take that into account when I lend it to him.

That being said I hope Live 8 is a success in the sense that I'd like more attention paid to this issue by the United States, however with Dubya trying to figure out a way to get the 10 Democratic votes he needs to get an Ultra Conservative put on the bench. (This is why the election of 2004 was so very important, and why it's loss was such a huge blow to moving social policy forward instead of backward, two justices including the Chief Justice are expected to retire during this term -Serious Ed.) I doubt this will even be on the radar screen down there, the only hope I have is Tony Blair, coming to Dubya with his hat in his hand saying "You owe me, BIG TIME."