AMERICA

My December 07 blog...something positive for a change...

I firmly believe that in 50 years or more the world will still talk about and perhaps appreciate the life and times of this individual and the positive changes he accomplished in his lifetime.

This fellow (now 73) did more good than Mother Theresa, managed to have more influence on the US Government than Al Gore, in fact he even ran for President four times ( a mistake in my view) in 92/96/2000 and again in 2004, as a left wing Democrat, Independent and for the Green Party.

A Spoiler for the Democratic Party, a pain in the ass for big business and the government, a Lawyer, teaching Professor, Organizer , this fellow will not in his lifetime receive anywhere near the recognition or rewards for what he has accomplished.

His writings alone consisting of 30 bestsellers (books) and numerous articles should have earned him a Nobel Prize.

His first book Unsafe at any Speed, condemning the 60s GM abortion the rear engine Covair should have been enough to make him man of the year.

Aside numerous accomplishments in laws, improved food safety, additional institution's he managed to create,we can thank this man for the automobile of today..seat belts, airbags...and totally redesigned interiors to give you a better chance for survival in case of a crash.

Ralf Nader, Social Activist, Son of immigrants from Lebanon, the most decent American alive today...perhaps some day they'll make him a saint.

Canada/Kanada

...As I keep watching the world according to cnn...nothing much is changing...looks to me like it's getting cold a little early this year, so much for global warming, just another oilcompany conspiracy...Makes you wonder.

Renovation of the new, old house is progressing slowly... the working habits of our typical out of town reno workies is a joke. I have to call his home to see if he will show up...and even then it's hit and miss.

Kath was in town after a New York trip she stopped by in the big TO..she narrowly missed an Emmy Award for her movie short, but she is happy for the nomination.

This is a picture at the Eatons Center, a nice passerby took it with my camera.

...the other pic is from my livingroomwindow..at sundown...

...about time...

...the house renovation in Cobourg is going along fine, no serious problems.The kitchen is pretty well complete,new floors in kitchen, hallway and bedrooms as well. Had a little trouble with the enlarged front door entrance area...the local building code enforcement team hit me for a few bucks for the required permit...etc.

That part of the project should be all rouged in by next week,doors installed and so on. The concrete footings are in place for the rear of the house planned deck 10 x 16 foot should do it.

The other somewhat urgent thing to do is the bathroom upgrade with a new tub and that's about it for this year.

...this has absolutely nothing to do with the deer buck...but I did complete another acrylic 8x10 with a deer in it..

Canada/Kanada

November 11...the poppy thing..sadness..war..and here I am with my Cobourg renovation whining..

The front entrance desperately needs improvement, like a door,a bit of an entry area and so on. Failed to get the proper building permit..they need the few bucks in this small town, hard to believe but they have 3 ( yes three) full time building inspector types working in this area of 15,000 souls ...but so be it...we have to do things right.

...by the way this is a drawing by Katharine( 14) of me...just to give credit to an artist, inventor of the now famous planet bag.

the planet bag.com

oh canada

...after doing this depressing last blog entry...I simply had to do something a little more creative...so here it is, Fred's art...my second and or third effort to create something..

this is a moonlit scene at lake ontario...I started painting the canvas black...then the moon..the swan..finally the trees and foreground..note the bullrushes and the purple blue strife ....

...the other one is my idea of a waterfall scene, perhaps a bit too colourful, but here it is.

I've taken pictures of these two items with a small flash camera...perhaps not the best way to reproduce the colours..

AMERICA

...right after the war..the big one, 1945 statistics indicate that the number of newborn babies surviving the first year had dramatically changed, American policy or applied action systematically starved the Germans to death. I know it's true, I was part of it 1945 to 48. That's history,by now 3 generations back.

I recently viewed a bunch of blogs...the next blog feature of this blogspot Google thing. On a Spanish language blog I found a picture of what looks like a little boy eating trash from the ground. Filth.

I think it's a crime by humanity, that's all of us to allow this sort of thing to happen in the year 2007.

You will notice the war cost web counter on the left side here. About 4000 dollars are spent every second on this idiotic Iraq scene. Over half a trillion by now. I observed a figure on CNN recently quoting close to a trillion dollars spent, wasted.

Canada/Kanada

...my first ever painting....a small watercolour...do I have nerv or what..Diana is an accomplished artist.....,she made me do it.

AMERICA

SS Ascania/ Cunard

In conversation with a nice customer a few years ago I learned that he was a collector of ship documents, ships that had long been scrapped etc. He was also a retired writer for the long gone Toronto Telegram newspaper.

He happened to have some bits and pieces of info and pictures on the ship that brought me to Canada all these many years ago. While at sea, the uprising in Hungary ( defeated by the USSR)and the bombing of the Suez-canal ( by the French and British)were the news of the day. I was a passenger on the last voyage of this junkpile which took me from LeHavre to Quebec City.

Canada/Kanada

...truly,I'm astonished how time flies these days. Guess I should park my political ideas for a while.

Ontario has the Liberals back, probably just as well. John Tory the chief Tory got screwed up and did not even get elected in the riding he ran in.

Al Gore ( ex V.P. Clinton) got the Nobel Piece Prize, thats nice. I did suggest a while back to draft him for presidente..it may happen.

Daughter A is spending a bit of time inside and Daughter K has been nominated for an Emmy Award for a movie short. D is trying hard to teach me how to paint...can't believe I produced a small watercolour...it will appear here soon.

This is almost like dear diary stuff, but so be it. Brother G keeps insulting me god knows why.Wrote some chicken-little article on his blog, my comment was "quatsch" ( nonsense) and he got real mad called me some ridiculous names.... Don't think I'll bother with him for the rest of this year and next year who knows.

Canada/Kanada

...on a trip to Alberta Diana met up with her daughter Sara who took a break from University...USA, California, Berkley..Diana who is quite an artist found herself sketching , watercolor the laundryline...

AMERICA

worldconcerns
after Hitler, these two changed the world forever..

..the effects of the so called Potzdam conference are with us today, have played a role of the direction all our lifes have taken since 1945 and have essentially changed the world forever.

It was decided to split the world in two. The communist controlled by Stalins USSR and the Capitalist...American controlled.Truman....who must in my view be considered one of the worst mass murderer of all times managed to control Stalin to a degree by the senseless use of the atom bomb over Japan.

Britain at that point had lost their status as the world power, but Churchill somehow managed to do his own revenge thing in Dresden.

China emerged as a future World power...remember this was 1945 and along with Russia,Britain and the USA China obtained a seat at the UN permanent security council one of the only 4 seats with vito power.

How can we forget chinese participation in the Korea and Vietnam conflicts?
pirmasenser - 16. Sep, 19:45

AMERICA.....Dear Hillary:-

it's the economy stupid....remember those Clinton era sounds...well, it is true. The economy is what it is all about..The Boston tea party...no taxation without representation..what it boils down to is the economy, why send taxes to to England when we need the money...resources..etc.

The senseless north/south civil war...same thing, the economy. The war had little or nothing to do with slavery, in fact the capitals that is Washington and Richmond are about 100 miles apart..the southerners felt rich enough to control their own destiny rather than sending resources to the Yankees. Again economic circumstances.

The absolute worst situation ( yes worse than the civil war in many ways) was the depression..the great depression combined with the drought of the Western region of north America. The new deal, by the then president did not change much .

Entry by the US into the second world war stopped all that...commitment to Russia for billions of dollars of goods and war materials,and the incredible support of Britain to cripple and stifle the German war materials production, the almost total obliteration, bombing of the Reich and finally the invasion of German controlled Europe as a second western front...All of this contributed to the economic well being of the USA. Hard to believe that war, as horrific as was boosted the US economy to a level never seen before.

The Marshal plan aid to Europe ( often mistaken for aid to Germany)..further insured an ever growing economy of the USA.
The cold war with the USSR, the communists, Korea, Vietnam and the absolutely horrendous arms build up in Germany by the US as well as the senseless colossal production of war materials further assured a somewhat stable economy in the USA.
Finally...the personal computer can be thanked for a boost in the economy...and just as the computer had reached a somewhat useful level...glitches came along like millennium related screwed up programming..new computers were needed and marketed.
The USA ( and Canada for that matter) desperately need to replace or rebuild the rapidly decaying infrastructure. Bridges are collapsing, highways deteriorating, sewer and garbage disposal systems are in dire need for repair and replacement. Instead of wasting billions in Iraq and playing with star wars technology a way must be found, finally to fix up things at home.
it's the economy stupid..., if someone has the intelligence to recognise it and the guts do something about it.

Canada, the old villa

Another month almost gone...obviously...so what's the point?

The old middle green villa will be put up for sale this month, just a bit more cleaning up to do and stuff to be sold or taken to the dump....sold

EVOLUTION

My blog activity has been a bit slow this month. Had in mind to write about who and why of the past political scene and ...........there is a point as to why the Chinese have a veto at the UN security council ( along with Russia, USA and Britain...).

I will get to that...

The other picture is of Lizzy Van...being starved to death by the Brits...part of the Bur-war..south africa region.Inventors of the concentration camps, later copied by the Nazis and more recently in Yugoslavia...

the planet bag by Katharine

save the planet....use a bag, instead of all that plastic...

A word on those "cloth" bags that are at every grocery store now.
Have you noticed that most every grocery store now has fancy cloth looking bags with their name on them? Most are 99 cents to $2.49, and invite shoppers to become "green" by buying and using one of these reusable bags.
The problem is...they're plastic!
Polypropylene to be exact...which is made from ethylene, a byproduct of oil, like any other plastic.
Also, while the stores say they'll last 2 years or so, they more than likely will tear long before then. Many are made cheaply, and won't stand up to sharp corners, heavy weights, and washing machines for long.
But they're recyclable, right?
Technically, yes. Yet, we've scoured the Internet looking for places in the US that will actually take Post Consumer Polypropylene and have not found one yet.
Not one.
There are places that will buy misprints and scraps, and post industrial polypropylene, but not the bags that are flying off the shelves at the grocery stores. Wegmans out of NY reportedly sold some 300 000 of them in their first week's launch alone.
So what happens in a year or so when all these bags fall apart?
They'll end up as garbage.
Essentially, they've taken the plastic bags you get for free, put some together and pressed them to look like cloth, and sold them to you. It's kind of like delaying when the garbage will hit the dump, and getting you to pay for it.
The real answer is to use cotton bags. Sturdy ones that are large and will stand up to regular use and washing.
We really don't mind if you use other brands...honestly. Just please, use cotton bags!
Some brands we've found that are great are EcoBags, Port and Company, Oprah's GrOceries bag (which is organic), and Enviro-Tote. They are all well made and will last you for your money.
With the Planet Bag, we tried to make the perfect answer to "if not paper or plastic, then what?"
-The Planet Bag is affordable, around $5 when purchased in the 3 pack or set of 6, and $5.95 when purchased singly.
-The Planet Bag is large. Many of the cotton bags out there are small and have short handles. The Planet Bag is 15" x 16" x 3", with 28" finished handles. Each one will hold about as much as 3 plastic bags would. "Finished" handles means that they are sewn on both sides, and double X stitched to the bag. They are really long, so that you can carry your groceries on your shoulder and be hands-free when going from your car to your front door. Have you ever tried to fumble with your keys while holding plastic or paper bags? No fun! The 3" floor of the bag means that you can put wider items in it, and also it won't fall over when you put it in the car.
-The Planet Bag is what we feel to be the perfect thickness. A thin bag is useless, but a bag too thick is bulky and not really convenient to keep anywhere. The Planet Bag is the perfect balance between sturdy yet lightweight. It will hold up yet not take up too much space when not in use.
So there you have it. Honestly, it's so sad to see so many people going out and buying what they think is so much better for the environment. We wish there was a way to communicate on a huge level that these "green" grocery store bags are not good. Please do tell people and thank you again for using The Planet Bag...or any other good quality cotton bag.
REPOSTED FROM THE PLANET BAG'S MYSPACE...PLEASE FEEL FREE TO COPY AND REPOST ON YOUR BLOG/BULLETIN!

AMERICA

Mr.Al Gore....

Chances are.....if Al Gore had been elected President of the USA, America would not be involved in Iraq to the degree that it is now ......wasting billions of dollars and thousands of human lives in a situation the current administration has the nerve to call war...just a colossal waste of energy, and human beings that could be put to good use at home or elsewhere in the world...is it too late...can we draft Gore?

If not Hillary or this Obama fellow....why not

Al Gore for President...?

AMERICA

BLACK FOLKS OF AMERICA:-
Wake up, look at what's going on in Africa...your ancestral land. These horrors have been committed for years...I remember Biafra and the Mau Mau in the fifties. Enough, it is time to take action.
Just totally forget this stupid slavery excuse. Realise fully that none of you would have been born if not by the shear accident of somehow bringing your grandfather and grandmother together...
Enough whining...get over it already.
There must be more to life than hip hop, basketball and chasing blonds.
A local story on the metro news here tells all:
The Metropolitan Housing Authority is being sued for 5 million Dollars....Single mother of four...young son..8 and a nice kid I'm sure was shot in the leg with a pistol a year ago...he now has trouble walking.
Two black kids, about 16 were arrested and later released because of insufficient evidence.Gun play.
The Housing Authority tha is the local tapayers have provided thousands of homes for mostly immigrant families. Many from Jamaica. Some of these areas have turned into slums or ghettos. Not unusual.Lack of area supervision it is claimed. There should be more guards to patrol the developments the suit claims.
Now the taxpayers are sued and expected to pay for this mess.That's the thanks for helping the poor...I guess.
Get involved, do something positive...

America Africa

I am not anti American....so, please do not get the idea that I want to stand on my soap-box and hurl insults at my sort of fellow citizens for no good reasons whatsoever.
I would like the USA to take more care and support the ideas and ideals of the UN. After all, the USA is a founding member and the property host of the UN realestate/ headoffices etc,.
Not to take action in the horrible Darfur scene is a crime. But this current decider of the government has his head in the sand. His inaction to speak out is as much of a crime as the brothers in arms Churchill and Truman commited.
As well....Black folks of America....here is your obligation and opportunity to act. Get it together. Do something.
Now.
The two highest paid individuals in the USA today are Oprah and Tiger..golf guy. Some of the top cabinet members have been and are people of colour. Why are they not speaking out? They should be apolled of what's going on in Africa....or are they too ashamed to believe that this sort of thing is going on in the year 2007.
The Darfur conflict is an ongoing armed conflict between the Janjaweed militia group and the mostly land-tilling tribes of the region.This is a controversial conflict as the media portrays the conflict to be between Muslims and non-Muslims. Although this specific conflict in Darfur has occurred already in 2003, the mentality behind the conflict stems from the 1960s and 1970s. The ideology of Arab supremacism grew in northern Africa. In the countries of North Africa, as well as many Arab nations, a secret group called “Tajamu al Arabi”, or the Arab Gathering, formed and would emerge in the Darfur region in the 1980s. The Sudanese government became involved in the 1990s, funding militia groups who were carrying out the attacks. It was not until early 2003 that the Non-Arab Africans began to combine their forces to protect themselves against the militia groups. Two of the main groups—the Sudan Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement—combined to create the National Redemption Front. The Sudanese government, however, saw this uprising of Non-Arab Africans as a threat against the nation of Sudan and, thus began funding a group known as the Janjaweed to quell the rebellion of the National Redemption Front. However, due to the prospects of peace, a fraction of the Sudanese Liberation Army broke away from the National Redemption Front in order to come to a peace agreement with the Sudanese government—this prospect of peace would turn out to be an empty promise from the Sudanese government. An analysis in late 2006 concluded that "It is likely that the number of deaths for this conflict in Greater Darfur is higher than 200,000 individuals, and it is possible that the death toll is much higher."[2] The conflict began in February 2003, when rebel groups began attacking government targets. The government retaliated by launching a military and police campaign. The government has been accused of encouraging a group of Arab nomads called the Janjaweed to rape, murder and loot the African farmers[3]. Because of this, more than 3,500,000 people have fled their homes. Unlike the Second Sudanese Civil War, which was fought between the primarily Muslim north and Christian and Animist south, in Darfur most of the residents are Muslim, as are the Janjaweed.
Attempts at mediation by the African Union led to a peace accord between the Sudanese government and the largest rebel group in the Darfur region, signed May 5, 2006[4], but the United Nations says that there has actually been a dramatic increase in violence and displacement since the deal was signed [5].
Those who fled the Janjaweed now live in refugee camps across Darfur, as well as in neighboring Chad. About 2.5 million refugees have crossed the border into neighboring Chad.
Many Darfurian children, even in the refugee camps, are malnourished and starving to death. Aid workers and U.N. representatives in Darfur have been denied access to some of the camps[6][7]. The Sudanese government has opposed the introduction of United Nations forces in Sudan[8], but conceded to a small UN delegation of 3000 in April 2007. [9]
The United Nations has threatened military intervention[citation needed], but the Sudanese government argues that it is caught in a continuing civil war and that no outside powers should seek to meddle in its internal affairs[citation needed].
In January 2007, President Omar al-Bashir agreed to a cease-fire whereby the Sudanese "government and rebel groups will cease hostilities for a period of 60 days while they work towards a lasting peace" [10], however, according to the Save Darfur Coalition, this cease-fire was broken weeks later when military aircraft bombed civilians in Darfur[11].
The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for the State Minister for Humanitarian Affairs, Ahmed Haroun, and alleged Janjaweed militia leader Ali Mohammed Ali aka Ali Kosheib, in relation to the atrocities in the region. Ahmed Haroun belongs to the Fur tribe one of the non Arab tribes of Darfur and is alleged to have incited attacks on specific ethnic groups. Ali Kosheib is an ex soldier and a leader of the popular defense forces and is assumed to be one of the key leaders responsible for attacks on villages in West Darfur.
On May 29, 2007, U.S. President George W. Bush imposed economic sanctions against the Sudanese government.

AMERICA.....Dear Hillary:-

back to this for a moment.....
As I said I will briefly comment on the 4 mass murderers involved in ww2 and the aftermath of their actions with which we are stuck to this day.

Hitler: Schickelgruber was his real name. Austrian by birth, not even German. Wrote book mein Kampf (my Battle?) while in jail for 4 years. Gained power...34%. Rearmed the country. Took over some german or part german speaking regions. Connected Austria...Anschluss. Gradually reduced any opposition or people he disliked from his idea of an arean population. Mass murder in my view.

Many disappeared in places called

Konzentrazionslager ( after the model of the British concentration camps in South Africa). After sending old men and children into battle ( Volkssturm)...this coward killed himself just before the Russians took Berlin.

world earth thing...

.......interesting concept...green..reduce garbage etc.
I found this concert thing to be an earsplitting horrible rockband mess...worthless, the exception being the chinese contribution, a full classical orchestra with a singer, well done...the funniest was the australian contribution which looked more like a bunch of flatfooted englishmen trying to imitate natives or aboriginal people...worth a laugh.Sorry.

Dear Hillary:

....the picture shows a four leaf clover....Diana finds one almost every day....as long as the grass is green....I've never ever spotted one....

I was under the impression that I had created a new post, the title was "Dear Hillary"....an open letter to the front runner ,Democratic candidate and my personal observation re : Hitler, Churchill, Stalin and Truman.
I consider all 4 of them mass murderers. Can we learn from the past? Probably not much.

But I do prefer an intelligent, educated intellectually and mentally fit individual to be the leader of the USA rather than a senile populist or crackerjack right wing screwball.

I had some interesting enough comments on these four individuals but somehow they magically disappeared....computerglitch freeze up. I will again try to recall these details and republish. As a point of interest "wikipedia" the most widely known and much respected encyclopedia considers these fellows war criminals....it's not just my idea.



comments by jk:

sorry I took so long to respond but I have been bombarded as of late and I am sure you will understand...I always appreciate your outlook and outside view of mankind..as an observer rather than a follower...only a select few from any hamlet are able to differentiate hear say from text book fluff (which is the stepping stone of propoganda) and think for themselves...the only thing I disagree on is 1929 and America's economy burgeoning because of the war...in 1913 Woodrow Wilson signed in The Federal Reserve during Christmas while Congress was away and later said "I have unwittingly ruined my Country"..and as Thomas Jefferson said "Banker's are more of a threat to our republic than any standing army"...anyway...Section 8 of the constitution states "debts may only be paid in Gold and Silver"...also..."No State can print paper money"....but since the Reserve the "District" of Columbia (not a state) is above the constitution...so paper money is now a credit card to a privatized European bank...Reaganomic's states clearly that the Fed's do not see one dime of Income tax...Transportation infrastructure is paid through gas tax...Military through Industry...development through Commercial etc....anyway...what I am saying is...the depression was a Usurping of America...then Roosevelt took all of American's gold in WWII for war bonds...biggest hiest in history since states only accept gold and silver as currency the rest is IOU's...now yank's are brainwashed into thinking that a war will boost economy while europe reap's the reward's of thier bank notes....bank notes where started....dont hafta tell ya...you know the green back....I will finish later...I have company...it's all a scam...getting played like fiddles....the NSA is equivalent to the Gestapo....no rules when it comes to National Security...I will finish cause I have tonne's of proof and can even name names.....most people argue crap but don't even know who I'm talkin about due to ignorance and it drives me mad...but I see your game and like it..ttyl

war and o canada

Afghanistan

Clarington Ontario Canada

Close to home; that's Bowmanville Ontario about 50 miles east of Toronto, this young trooper Caswell ,22 ,killed a few days back was given a fitting farewell ...number 57 of the canadians murdered really in this horrible place Afghanistan.

And while the ceremony was going on, another three canadian soldiers were killed in a similar roadside bomb ambush scene. (Yes, Canadian Soldiers killed so far is now up to 60)..

Does any of this make sense?

Do we need to be there?

What happens if we are not?

The truth is that we should have left Afghanistan to the Soviets years ago. They had their hand full and finally disappeared from the scene long before the USSR Empire itself fell apart. Today, still, American aid weapens, bombs the technology to make this junk, most of it leftovers of the USA cold war efforts to keep communism in check. They need not have bothered, the writing was on the wall and the Soviet Empire would have fallen apart....as it did eventually.

I know the situation looks a bit complicated. In my view, we and all the others ( most certainly the Americans ) who in the end really have no business in this place, should simply get out. Go home. Take care of your own problems America....there are plenty.

...about time...

I think I'll call this one evolution...and I know if my goofball relative happens to see this he will once more be pissed off...so be it...

My next comments, if I can get it together...will deal with China, Japan, and whatever disaster I can think of...like the impending cathastrophic totally avoidable money screw up..that is the diminishing value of the greenback, and whatever caused it and why nobody cares. Bitter lessons of 1929 somebody should take note of.

Art

Mother and child this picture is called...would you believe it's a picasso?

Drawing by Albrecht Duerer; it must be noted that this fellow went srictly by how the rhino was described to him....he has never seen one or pictures of this beast...

AMERICA

It is extremely frustrating to see what's going on in the world....and feeling that there's not a lot one can do about it.

So, intead of whining the least I can do is either make fun of it or for my own peace of mind put it on this blog, that way while nothing is resolved my standing on the soap box and yelling may eventually find a few listeners...blah blah blah...

What else can I call this.? ..Mistakes by the big man...who is mr. big..how big? What else can he do with what's left of his mandate...other big men and their mistakes.

If Bush one had completed the task to remove Saddam we would all be a lot better off. But he did not, and so we are stuck with the bad mistakes of Bush two.

Money money money

Watch the cost of the war counter...totally wasted,4000 bucks a second..families disrupted, young men and some women needlessly killed or mamed for life.
And as far as the natives are concerned (the Iraqi people as Mr. big likes to refer to them) they just want to be rid of the foreign devils.
How did we get into this mess. Was it when Truman and Stalin split up the world into Communist and capitalist regions...was it when Hitler came to power?
Or was the beginning of this the great depression? Or the screwball end of the first world war...
Undoubtedly Churchill had a great deal to do with it. Product of English father and American mother he understood how to suck the USA into participating in the 2nd World War when it was clearly evident that the British were doomed without American participation.
Truman,Japan,China,Korea and Vietnam and here we are in the Middle East boiling pot.
Money:- the American Dollar is quickly eroding. With billions of resources wasted for no benefit I can see we must ask where are we going with this. Today a gallon of gasoline costs 16 cents in Venezuela 48 cents in Saudi Arabia and over $4 in Canada or about $3 in the States.
This rapid cost increase will undoubtedly leave it's mark on further erosion of the Dollar a loss of influence in the regions that should be more important to us than iraq ( central and south america)..and the way things are going I envision a rapid decline in our purchasing power perhaps as much as 40% within the next 5 years. In other words a different form of inflation.

AMERICA

It's not that I'm hung up as to who is president in the USA, or why...? But the fact of the matter is that the chief of the US government especially if the party is in power as well, will have a tremendous effect on the lives of many Americans as well as many other earthlings the American Imperialist ruling class happens to control.

Bush the Younger...God knows how he got there. He is probably a decent man. With a nice wife. And a great dad....but then what?

The world is screwed up. Again. Another stupid war.
No real enemy..can't even call it a war. More like the war on drugs, the war on cancer...the war on terrorism. Why call it a war.What else should we call it. Once more people who believe they are doing it for the freedom of their country and the world I suppose...are needlessly dying or getting crippled and mamed for what? What exactly? So the Saudi Royal family of about 6,000 and other oil barons and their pals can live the lifestyle they've become used to?

Or is it to supress the ever under the surface brewing restlessness in the worlds oldest democracy.The key effort always being to supress another 20s type of depression. Perhaps without a warlike situation somewhere in the world the USA would fall apart. Like the USSR did just a few years back. Who knows. Perhaps it is worth the lifes of a few thousand mostly young Americans and the useless spending of billions of taxdollars to keep this country hanging together somehow.

Some key industries are in trouble...GM, Ford, Chrysler, Aviation, Airlines...and all that in spite of good employment statistics. Where is all that going to lead us. Billions of trade deficit with China.??
More on the subject later...I have to look up some history facts...like how did we get into this situation...was it after the defeat of the japs and nazis when Stalin and Truman divided the world or at a much later key point?

AMERICA

Katharine, planetbaglady, actress, writer, moviemaker, etc. has a friend who creates art..commercial and other impressive stuff...

Name: scott hendry

look it over and you may want to visit his website as well..

Crime...attempted break in at my house

click on the picture to see Dianas artwork larger...note chicita the watchdog..

April 4 or better at about 1:30AM april 5th, I woke up to a bit of unusual noise...went next door, Dianas bedroom, she was sound asleep...more noise, from downstairs...My house is a bit of a fortress. Thermopane double glasss windows all around and the three doors into the house are steel doors with double glass slider windows. Double locks on the rear door as well.

In any case,more loud crashing noise at the back door. Glass breaking. I grabbed a short pointed shovel from the fireplace next to the door, opended the door and was face to face with a 6 foot plus intruder..

In any case...Diana yelled "I have a gun....get your hands up and keep them up" etc, as she called 911 for the police,

I held this creep at bay with a shovel until the cops grabbed and cuffed this individual....

the fellow was convicted of break and enter...restitution..to pay for my broken rear door window...turned out to be native ( canadian indian)
...more bad news...after fixing the riding mower...i left a battery charger and booster kit unattended at the front door...and it was gone, another 200 bucks theft..that's what you get when you own a home on a main highway...

AMERICA

what we need now.....

is to sit down...meditate...think of the horrendous amounts of money we are spending on this senseless effort we call war...and back off.

There's nothing wrong with mustering our resources and intelligently apply our talents to end this nonsense. The so called war was short...we won for what it's worth. But then because of gross mismanagement and stubborn actions we got deeper and deeper into this quagmire. Iraq is in a civil war state...simple enough. And we have to get out sooner or later.

The War in Iraq Costs
$413,180,420,073

AMERICA

check it out...save the planet...

AMERICA

http://www.theplanetbag.com/

please follow this link....click on it..thank you..

Canada;Cobourg...a road disaster

February 1/07


Cobourg Ontario Canada..
On my way to Cobourg, pickup truck loaded with kitchen renovation parts and related stuff..traffic near Port Hope on Ontario Highway 401 came to a sudden stop.

Apparently 20 km further east there had been a serious accident and all traffic east and west on Canada's busiest highway was totally diverted thru small towns and other highways to cope with this mess as well as can be expected.
Because of a sudden snow squall (lake effect snow created by wind blowing east, over the lake Ontartio) on an otherwise clear day a white-out situation created a horrible warlike scene within seconds on a relatively short stretch of road.
The driver of a PC cruiser-driver (car) was unable to see the road ahead and stopped suddenly on the road.
A lumber loaded truck hit this thing. More cars. A fuel truck with 30,ooo gallons of gasoline hit this scene. Then more cars more trucks...,the tanker burst, gasoline lit up more than 30 vehicles...it's a miracle that only two people were killed in this horrible inferno.

The 4-0-1 Highway was closed for more than 24 hours, in both directions. Whatever traffic there was had to be diverted.

Six trucks including the tanker truck, about 30 cars, diversion of traffic for 2 days, attention at the scene and the hospitals...countless unproductive or wasted hours, loss of life...surely this whole disaster could have been avoided.
We should by now have proper, modern warning and monitoring equipment to spot these common snow squalls. Tanker trucks should be limited maximum speed limit of 80km/hour. Trucks absolute limit of 90km/hr.
If the police and or the department of transport can not handle this problem another way must be found to control this type of problem...empower a road warden or instant fine collecting agency to control the traffic..\
Speed limits must be enforced by the OPP ( Ontario Provincial Police).
Recently I've seen these horrific traffic pile ups here and in the US.

I am totally convinced that excessive speed by trucks and cars as well is a mayor cause of these ridiculous accidents.

worldconcerns

I may throw this post out but at the moment I just feel like making a few notes:-

The astronaut thing...If you wrote a movie script with just a few of the bits and pieces of info emerging out of this Orlando scene, nobody would go to see it....It's just too bizarre. Love triangle, highranking officers, married with kids..43..It's just too hard to believe.

Went to see this Barat thing about a month ago...All that promotion fuss...Junk..A waste of time, the worst of Jewish humor I've ever come across. Do not bother to go and see this movie..Absolute trash.

About my Kennedy post ( my last post, below):
The Germans went wild when he visited Berlin and proclaimed: "Ich bin ein Berliner" . Just clever speechwriting that's all, Kennedy never said that. His line was actually...
" The proudest boast since the days of the Roman Legions is; ich bin ein Berliner".
..Something like that... he was saying that the Roman, soldiers around 20 B.C. or so were proud to be citizens of Rome...And boasted about it...Get it?

I'm writing this blog as Fritz. My name is actually Fred. In fact that's wrong too...My first name is Manfred,( that is German).

About a couple of weeks back I was struck by a sad note. As part of my daily half hour of CNN exposure I learned that one of the 5 young soldiers killed that day was named Bixler. Not a common name I believe. My poor uncle Fritz was wasted as canonfutter in Russia in 1943, he was my mothers younger brother. An older brother at one time or another went to the USA, an immigrant to the new world.
Because of the war the family totally lost contact with this fellow. Could the young soldier with the family name Bixler killed in Iraq be his grandson?
The age of the five American citizen soldiers was between 19 and 21 by the way.

I will comment on the 2.9 Trillion Dollar forecast budget next...As soon as I grasp the enormity of this figure.

AMERICA

Kennedy....President John F. That is:
After all these years I can still recall precisely where I was and what I was doing when J.F.K. was assassinated.
He campained in Texas ready to run for a second term. He was also reluctant to get too deeply involved in the situation in Vietnam, Indochina as the French called it. Johnson managed to involve the USA in the war the USA lost.
Who really killed Kennedy and why?
I recall the various conspiracy theories, and they may all be no more than a bunch of nonsense dreamed up by the media. But the fact is that certain documents are still sealed, they should have been made public 25 years after the event but by an act of congress apparently some sensitive information will remain restricted for whatever reason.
There may be others but here are some of the so called conspiracy theories as I recall them:-

1./The war mongers, military establishment and swordforgers killed the man; they needed a war to keep the economy rolling.

2./ Johnson was involved it was claimed by getting rid of Kennedy he would be president and free to go to war with Vietnam. As V.P. he played a minor role only and was often ignored by the president.

3./ Castro...To settle a score after all it was JFK who authorized the ill fated Bay of Pigs invasion. Oswald the accused assassin had a Cuba connection as well.

4./ The Soviet Union...It was said somehow was responsible. Oswalds wife was from there...he lived there for a while and had USSR links. I can't quite figure how JFK's demise could have benefited the Soviet Union but again that was a theory kicked around at the time.

5./ The Mafia...Yes, the mob. Harvey Oswalds killer Ruby had clear cut Mafia connections. Bobby Kennedy the presidents brother played attorney general and at times was hard on the mob.

6./ This is the strangest of them all. Onasis. One of the richest men in the world, at that time in any case, this fellow could have just about anything he wanted. With the exception of the American Presidents beautiful wife, Jackie. With JFK gone this dream could become reality.

For what it's worth, a stupid nut who wanted to get into the history books a misguided American named Lee Harvey Oswald killed the president...

Without any good reason or purpose and without any help from inside or outside the country.

Why Ruby shot him in turn and why that was so easy to accomplish is another mystery.

www.theplanetbag.com

AMERICA

We the people......
I
believe the declaration of independence starts with these words...
Much of this document was drafted by Alexander Hamilton.
I am a graduate of the Alexander Hamilton Istitute a college level business school. However, the use of the man's name may just be a clever gimmick to gain instant credibility.
In any case that was not the point I am trying to make here.
We the people consisted of 55 men, white men in their prime. Not young men, not old men, just a bunch of middle aged white protestant men. No Negroes, slaves, Chinese, ordinary workers or Indians ( natives) no women, no children....We the people....You get my drift, fraud from the word go...Our constitution.
Some comments please..../ I'm trying to be the devils advocate here.


Declaration of Independence
We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that, among these, are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; and, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it. -July 4, 1776. The Declaration of Independence