I'd Rather Live in Paraguay

Justin Trudeau at the 2006 Liberal leadership convention. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)


Anybody catch Doug, (Geezeronline), Jamison's post this week

about the group of  impoverished kids in Paraguay who are

making extraordinary music with recycled junk? 

 

I found my own tears forming when tears welled up in the eyes

of a 15 year old girl as she spoke about how grateful she was to

her parents and how much she loved them.

 

If you missed it you can watch it here.

 

Okay.  Here's my second question.  

 

Anybody catch the news that Justin Trudeau is going to pay back

the charity that paid him $20 000 to be a guest speaker? 

The charity lost money on the deal and it was hurt feelings all

around I guess.

 

But I don't get it.

 

How is it that Justin Trudeau would charge a charity $20 000

and what kind of a charity would have that kind of money lying

around earmarked 'guest speakers'?

 

I guess $20 000 is small change in the world of celebrity guest

speakers and large high profile 1st world charities. 

 

 

Jeesh.  

 

Something is very, very wrong with our society.

Best o' the Blog List

If you haven't checked out any of the blogs I follow, this might a good day to do some investigating.

The weather is crappy and hopefully you are all warm and snugly in bed with ... your laptop?



Anyway, go to either of my blogs and check out the sidebar on the right.

Click on any blog or blogger  that looks interesting.

Here's a hint of what you'll find:


TBTAM (The Blog That Ate Manhattan)

Dr. Peggy's blog post is called "The OBG Why Me Blues."

Funny song involves stirrups, an examination table, doctors in latex gloves - all the things that make you shiver.



Heinous hats

If you haven't checked out her tri-weekly assortment of unusual, bizarre, cute and just plain odd hats this is the week-end to dive in.

It's all about bunny hats!



Geezeronline

Well somebody had to give us the final answer.

This week Doug Jamieson learned which day will host the end of the world!

Read this blog and prepare to face your maker or makeress!



She Who Seeks

Funny/sad savage chicken cartoon about Earth Day was posted by Debra yesterday.



***



Anyway I'm off to do some Green stuff this morning and my poor dog has developed sore hot spots on her paws so I'm going to be scouring pet shops this afternoon.
(If anyone knows of a remedy PLEASE pass it along.)



Have a great Easter Sunday!

Authentic Old White Woman

There are a lot of evil-looking, bloated things floating to the surface during this election campaign.


Much of it alarms me and for what it is worth I do find myself making outraged tweets and posting blogs every few days.



But on twitter I usually feel a lot like my family's late, much loved, old beagle.


Banjo liked to think he was in the thick of things.

If bigger, younger dogs were roughhousing, he would bark and run along beside them pretending to himself that he was part of the action.



I post the same things I say on twitter to face book, but I have a completely different feeling about it, mainly because on fb more people read my blogs.

Worse still, people I know read my blogs.

The result is that while I feel like a non-player on twitter, on face book I feel like a political zealot, a crazed Louis Riel raving away at the Federal government issuing fatwahs every second day and I always suspect that people think that I have gone over the edge.



I worry about that.

A lot.

Probably more than I should.



This morning I read Geezeronline's blog about being authentic.

http://geezeronline.blogspot.com/



Heaven knows most women spend their lives trying to please other people - unless they are as rich as Oprah or on anti-depressants in which case they don't give a flying fig about anything.

(Speaking from past experience.)



I guess a benefit of being an old white woman with no addictions at present other than blogging, is that I can be authentic, (online anyway), and say what I really think.



If I could just get rid of my guilt for daring to say it ...

How To Become a Pirate

Image via Wikipedia

Did you watch Market Place last week?

Ostensibly it was a humorous search for Canada's worst cell phone bill.

More pathetic than humorous, I'm afraid.


The three finalists were all people caught in a conglomerate nightmare, either because they had not understood their contract with Bell, Telus or Rogers or because fate had dealt them a bad hand.



The 'winner' had a $17,000.00 cell phone bill with Bell.



He had taken his cell phone to Moscow on his 'trip of a lifetime' and had not understood the consequences of using it while abroad.



Bell said it was his fault.



I agree 100% and his bill should have been, well, (I'm being generous to Bell here, just in case there are some hidden costs I don't know about), $74. 99.



The cost to Bell was $4.00.



Where does Bell get off charging $17,000.00 for something that cost them $4.00?



After Market Place appeared on the scene they lowered the bill to $5,000.00



So kind.



Makes you want to run away and join a pirate ship or something.



Well now you can.

Yes, you can become a pirate!

You can get your own pirate t-shirt 

and

fight the Ship of Corporate Greed

by joining the

Pirate Party of Canada 

(which I first read about in Doug Jamieson's 'Geezer online' blog. 
(http://geezeronline.blogspot.com/)



Here's a little blurb I lifted, (probably illegally), from the manifesto of The Pirate Party of Canada:



"Private monopolies lead to excessive prices and large hidden costs... 


The monopolist’s goal is to avoid fair market price and healthy competition, where as the free marketers focus is on price and quality for the benefit of the consumer...

We aim to limit the abuses committed by such monopolies."





Shiver me timbers, matey!


It's worth a read, so just click on the link above or google 'Pirate Party of Canada'.

Related articles

• Telus profit jumps 45% (theglobeandmail.com)
• 5 ways to save on your cell phone bill (moneyville.ca)
• Pirate Party starts its own ISP (boingboing.net)

Don't Panic! I'm Sharing My favourite Plague Cure

Image via Wikipedia

I've got an appointment with my dentist at noon and I'm not in a good mood.


I slump at my computer and check face book. I get a little cheered up when I win a game of lexulous. I schmooze around fb for awhile then I jog over to blogger.

It's Friday so I know there will be a few good posts.

As 'Heinous Hats' starts to unfurl across my screen I wish I could be organized enough to commit myself to a time schedule. Heinous hats is published three times a week. Good heavens, even when she had food poisoning she managed to drag herself to her computer to tell her faithful readers she was too sick to blog!

I beat myself up for awhile about my lackadaisical attitude.

I'm depressed again.

But wait! What a blog! Hats made out of cakes! (There is a reason I have so many root canals and another one is looming.)

I'm smiling again.

More cheerful now, I blog on over to see what the Geezeronline learned this week.

PLAGUE IN SASKATCHEWAN?

Somewhat alarmed, I click on the link and this is how, in my pre-dental appointment funk, I read the article from the Star.

The plague has been found in a dead prairie dog in Saskatchewan 's Grasslands National Park, but staff say the risk the notorious disease poses to people is “very low.”
The plague which killed millions during the Middle Ages, is a disease caused by a strain of bacteria that can affect both animals and humans. It’s naturally occurring throughout the southern Prairies in wildlife such as ground squirrels and mice and can be transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected flea...

The plague is usually is extremely rare in humans and treatable if diagnosed in time. The last case of a human contracting the plague in Canada was in 1939, but there are 10 to 15 cases every year in the south-western United States.

Two deaths were attributed to plague in the United States in 1996.

There have been several outbreaks of plague in human history. It has killed 200 million people around the world. In 14th century Europe, plague — or Black Death, as it was known — killed 30 per cent of the European population by some estimates...



Jeesh!

Luckily, I know the only cure for the plague is a chocolate hat cake or you don't have one sitting right there on your counter - warm scones with jam and whipped cream... mmm.

Cancelling my dental appointment...

Doukhobours Want You Naked!

Doukhobours plan to take over Canada and force everybody into nudist colonies!

Preposterous? I agree and I think it’s just as preposterous as the e-mail I received this week telling me that Muslims are planning to take over Canada and impose Sharia Law across the land. The Muslim people I came across as a teacher in Niagara had no more interest in taking over the country than do the Doukhobours. They were gentle people interested in raising their families and practicing their faith in peace.

I am a fan of Doug Jamieson, AKA Geezeronline (twitter). His blogs are sometimes funny, sometimes thoughtful, whimsical, serious, thought provoking etc. In a recent blog he spoke about an e-mail he received recently. Although the scenario was different it was similar to the one I received in its anti-Muslim message. He writes so eloquently I am takng the liberty of quoting him here because I believe what he says is true.

“This kind of thinking is bred and spread among fearful people who move only among their own kind, feeling threatened by the "other." It is tribal, and flies in the face of Canada's desire to be a welcoming, multicultural, nation. It leads to division and, ultimately, to retaliation.” By Doug Jamieson/Geezeronline

I have one other thing to say this morning. A few weeks ago there was letter to the editor of the Standard from a woman, (I’m sorry I don’t remember her name), who asked why we are not hearing from the moderate Muslims in our communities. I have to agree with her. The woman who forwarded the worrisome e-mail to me is my friend, an educated, reasonable person, but as a new grandmother of a baby girl, she was frightened by its message.

Muslim Canadians must be more vocal. Tell us that you are as appalled by the terrorists as we are.

Tell us why being a Canadian is important to you.


*This blog was first posted to The St. Catharines Standard blogsite.