Canada

I am using this blog as a vehicle to air my anger and absolute disgust in reference to Canada Post...surprise...or more specifically question the ignorance of this obviously miserable link in the Canada Post effort to deliver first class mail.

Canada Post should receive the 2007 raspberry prize if there was such a thing.
I'm renovating a 1956 built home in beautiful Cobourg , close to Lake Ontario, near the local water works.The plumber- renovator ran into a bit of trouble with the hot/cold water module of the shower control unit.A small tiny part, the size of a loony.
Dec.10/07...I called the manufacturer and they immediately mailed first class the needed small part. Mailed the same day..., nice people Brasscraft .

I waited....and waited. Finally....

Jan.15/08...I find a sorry can not deliver card in the mail, dated Dec.15/07..as well a final reminder notice to pick up the parcel from the three mile away sub/village office, the card was dated Dec.17/07 and it stated that the parcel would be available until Jan.7/08.

The excuse on the door hanger card was that because of snow the mail could not be delivered (or the card or the follow up final reminder to pick up notice)....

Jan16/08....I rushed to the sub office but was informed that the first class small parcel was returned to sender. Admittedly December 07 was the worst snow month of the last 30 years..no problem. A few days delay...no big deal.

But early January there was at least a 10 day period, total meltdown..no snow whatsoever and yet, the the door hanger card and the final reminder card were not delivered until it was too late...

I suspect it was lost in her mailbag for a while....
Shabby service, not even third class ,a useless waste of time and expense to get the small part to me.
"And they pay them 22 bucks an hour" somebody remarked.

The pictures show the 43 feet from the curb walk to the mailbox, as well, instead of the old mailslot in the door I provided a much easier to reach box...

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.