Category: Uncategorized

[date Thu, Sep 8, 2011 at 1:41 PM]

PN:

The alarm bell has been ringing non-stop for years. The able are old and retiring. The young? For the most part, amiable but unable.

Gubermint solution? You don’t want to know….. it will only upset you.

Source of problem? Now THAT’S an interesting question.

Anyone who knows me well and many people who are acquainted with my daily activity will conclude that I spend a lot of time “mechanically occupied”.

Those who have been in my presence while working on machinery over the years will have noticed my degeneration……. At one time (ah! the folly of youth!) I loved to take things apart, see how they worked, repair them, and on to the next. Now when I take something apart the most likely reaction I have is a continuous stream of vindictive, cursing the engineers / designers / builders of the machinery I’m tinkering to fix. What happened? Was it me…………… or ……………… them?

How is it that a vehicle built in 1939 is easier to work on, cheaper to fix, and gets better fuel mileage than an equivalently sized vehicle of today? What would happen if the miracle of computer control, the miracle of metallurgy, the miracle of robotics were used to produce a modern equivalent of a ’32 Ford sedan?

I’m not a fan of Maclean’s Magazine. I found the following article to be very insightful. Take a read:

Continue reading Thursday – Able vs Amiable

[date Tue, Sep 6, 2011 at 5:37 PM]

PN:

I was in Keremeos on Monday, calculating what it would cost me to “rescue” an old Ford truck from a well meaning but neglectful owner. Nice man – reminded me awfully much of Norm MacDonald in appearance and speech (not content or context) ( [youtube http://youtube.com/w/?v=0eKOyI6l03Q&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL8BC144D428E86F04] ).

The point of sharing this is the privilege I had of working with him, and meeting two of his children. The boy wasn’t really relishing the return to school today, having experienced “schooling” four times previous. The girl was younger, and about to start kindergarten today. She was on her tiptoes in anticipation. They live in the “country” about 5 miles from downtown Keremeos (a thriving metropolis it’s not). Shy and curious, wondering what this strange man is doing with dad and that tired truck. They watched us struggle to resuscitate that old diesel beast for over 2 hours.

September light on the hills of Keremeos. Summer is past – you know this is true because the hornets you don’t see all summer have lost their purpose and direction. They become visibly aimless. They fly around your face, into your drink, land on your hair. They don’t know the end is nigh for them (do they?). The sun finally goes over the mountain at 4 p.m. My host says they don’t see the sun from the end of November until February – their farm is on the north side of a rather large mass of rock. A mountain, I reckon. They celebrate the return with a bonfire. Brrrrrr!

We finally coaxed the old Ford to start.

How do you tell a man the price he is asking is twice the value of the item while he is standing there with his children expecting a certain outcome?

I don’t know, so I didn’t.

Continue reading Tuesday – Back to Skool

[date Sun, Aug 28, 2011 at 12:37 PM]

PN:

Time is a thief. A seductive, sultry thief. The fourth dimension…..

Today, an accumulation of items from the Intertubes that caught my eye this hectic week – mostly entitlement oriented.

The NDP codswallop-er Jack Leighton departed this mortal coil. Sister Karen and father Don were staunch Dippers…… A source of many discussions / debates / arguments in our past. Logic was often abandoned….. along with math, law, justice, duty, mercy, and common sense. Them was the days! And they’re not over…..

In the Canadian diaspora-tic soup of “social justice”, “moral equivalence”, and “multiculturalism” the canonization of a political leader can only be a political maneuver. Really, a state funeral for Taliban Jack? Here’s the low-down from Sun News’ Mark Bonokoski questioning “Layton as Saint?”:

http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/video/featured/prime-time/867432237001/layton-a-saint/1129166863001

A follow-up article from Elizabeth Thompson discussing the hypocrisy of “donations” to a worthy cause with added tax benefits (the NDP supported and supporting Broadbent Institute) instead of …… wait for it……. the Canadian Cancer Society. Words often fail, but sometimes they hit the spot:

http://ipolitics.ca/2011/08/25/flowing-broadbent-institute-cash-through-ndp-provides-big-tax-breaks/

While I’m on the “social justice” (entitlement) rant, here’s another excellent (albeit dripping with irony) exposé of “entitlement”. Take a read of “Bury My Heart at Wounded Negro”:

http://takimag.com/article/bury_my_heart_at_wounded_negro#axzz1W8KIbQyr

The above article must be a solid disconnect for the entitlement community, da? The Russians say “Не повезло” (tough luck). Or, in Cherokee, “o-yo-i e-ha”. Actually, the quote means “No good lives”. I don’t think the Cherokee believe in luck….. couldn’t find a word close to it….. Here’s a compelling argument from Chief Joe Sitting Owl of the Cherokee Central Band, linking Cherokee ancestry to one of the lost tribes of Israel:

Continue reading Wednesday