Zimmerman, Rosen, And Canadian Fly Toys

Zimmerman has been formerly charged. From what I've been reading (mostly law blogs), a conviction may be tough to get. Good liuck, Charlie.

The sad thing is even if the facts (and truth) prove self-defense some people have made up their minds  long time ago. It's as if cumulative injustices of the past should impact present and future cases in perpetuity.

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Hilary Rosen. I'll let the Christian Science Monitor take it from here. It was, no matter how it's diced (and I've heard some good ones), an incredibly stupid thing to say.

Didn't Ann Romney battle breast cancer and has MS?

Nice move.

I think it's appropriate to chime in with a "imagine if a Republican said that!"

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Canada has to upgrade, at some point, its fleet of CF-18 fighter jets. The recent F-35 controversy shouldn't detract from this fact. Canada isn't the only one to back out of the expensive deal. Australia did and so did the Dutch - though they'll just be buying less than originally ordered.

Here's the thing. Canadians still exhibit somewhat of a naive attitude towards the military. One I heard was "why do we need new jets when we're a part of NATO?" and the other is more of a classic "who will invade us we're so peaceful!"

Part of the reason why, and this is just a pragmatic guess I reckon, no one messes with Canada is, well, you know the most powerful military in the history of the world is our neighbor - and they happen to be friendly. I think you'd think twice before coming after Canada with a nation possessing all that hardware itching to use its toys.

So what we're a part of NATO? Does this imply NATO would automatically come to our defense? Shouldn't we first be able to defend ourselves? Besides, who would take the chance and wait around while an international may play politics during an attack however unlikely? If anything, it's the United States that would intervene on our behalf. Canadian nationalists, of course, would howl with derision but that would be the most practical and realistic scenario.

Second, because we're a part of NATO doesn't mean we don't have to pull our weight. One of those commitments includes upgrading our equipment.