Don, your dour oh dear is superb. I'm only gonna comment on this one thing you well put:

"As far as the, 'sky is not falling' it's just another term to create a false sense of security while the
powers secure a tighter grip on stronger chains that bind us to their reality....once we are convinced
we will bend to their will and accept a heavier load.."

Kinda reminds me of II Chronicles (not of Narnia) 10:6-15 or was it I Kings 12:6-11? The counsel of the "old men" (and women, God bless Hazel) has been forsaken by leadership in favor of the advice of the "young men" (or maned young lions). And folks like you or I, we're simply the "middle-agers" who should just shut-up and move quickly into old age, with unforeseen bills and a regiment of pills, that combat the ills which tinkle into the tills over stress riddled conflicts incognito instills.

Here is a PRIME example of how misbehaving, spoiled little BRATZ influence a bad daddy's decisions:

Libya 'to pull Swiss bank assets'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7662856.stm

Gaddafi in Russia for arms talks
(the headline has since been changed)
Gaddafi seeks Russia energy pact
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7702488.stm

The world is full of these flippant aristocratic characters who drag us all into their personal quagmires of discontent.

If you don't see my inelegant prose around the halls, having my say, it only means I'm focusing on my homepage http://wrcu2.static.golden.net/ where I've abridged current events day by day. Because as you say regarding have your say: "they are issues that seem rather trivial...and are more inline with keeping one distracted...form real issues..."

When I stop in there the next time, I'll be sure to try and swing the trivial into a travail. TheSpec really should have a comment section for EVERY news byte it prints, like theBBC or theCBC or even like theStar. The deeper I get into the Hamilton Spectator, the more shallow it becomes by far.

Blessings...

Yes I am still around, as to commenting in "have your say" they are issues that seem rather trivial...
and are more inline with keeping one distracted...form real issues...

When it comes to the Arctic, the last frontier, it will be propagated and divided amongst the wealthy
while the average person will continue to carry the burden of slavery, like mediaplexis,
great ideas that are breed to hold us all in ball and chains while poverty increases. The doorway to
world government; while local governments will justify their positions of taxation with the folklore
that they have no control on world markets.

As far as the, "sky is not falling" it's just another term to create a false sense of security while the
powers secure a tighter grip on stronger chains that bind us to their reality....once we are convinced
we will bend to their will and accept a heavier load..

With regards to the "October Posting"
"in the near future is understanding that many of the people who you thought would be true blue
to the end will fall by the way side"
Perhaps  it's already a fact...we don't even know who our neighbors are any more...friendship has
become use and abuse...and when they have served their purpose you discard them and on you
go to the next....a little like marriage....When it comes to God....as far as the majority is concerned
He is there to bend to their will...They have become Gods, unto themselves...perhaps as Milton in
Lost Paradise quoted Satin as saying, "It's better to reign Hell than to serve in Heaven."

Peace!

I Got the "new post" notification email today. Glad to see you're still around Don, I've missed your comments in "have your say." (Oh, and greetings MSR & MSN by the way)

Stand back from your newsreader proxy for a moment, far enough away to take in a whole bunch of news bytes from the past thirty days or so. Chilling isn't it? I mean you'd have to be standing outside to take it all in. Imagine how it's gonna feel in Iceland this winter. US and Prussian big chiefs meeting in Finland gets you thinking. As does US, Canadian and French chefs cooking in the Adirondaks autumn twinkling. There's lot's to eat and C-rank stink about when you're old farts like us, EH Don? It's always big business when the bean counters are kissed round the fire at clamp David's butt.

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Russia_To_Set_New_Border_Line_In_The_Arctic_999.html

The Arctic will become an interesting place in the coming years. The respectable Lords and Ladies know this and we should pay attention to these stories as they emerge like a timid poof, betwixt a French maid's cheeks as she's dusting (off) an armoire's dear delicate glib glass. Canadian officialdom has been mute lately and there's a wait-n-smell attitude coursing through the muscle of the mediaplexis too. Folks are consumed or should I say, consumers are per-fumed with the news of global finances lately. The last I heard from Mark Carney was a "have no fear" message to the liberal chicken literals:

'Sky is not falling:' bank boss Carney
http://thespec.com/News/Local/article/454607

Maybe we shouldn't be looking towards the sky? Maybe we should be bowing our heads in prayer. Maybe it is the ground which is rising, with the rubble of our crumbling system. Our family, friends and neighbors either riding the heap or beginning to lose traction and slipping into the crack. Everywhere you look there's Henny Penny's back or a sing-a-long quick equity Quack.

Over here near Ottawa, between the farmer's markets both north and south, we feel blessed in this city, this country, this "land." We harvested a double bumper crop of raspberries this season and the female mulberry produced exquisitely grand. Even going all the way back to spring I recall a brilliant sensual display from the lilacs around May. The corn stretched around Hamilton as you travel into the sticks, is as tall as a wall like some vetch illusionist tricks.

But I digress, I'm back to watching the pirate drama unfold out there near Somalialand. But it keeps popping off my radar and I can't seem to find the zoom button whenever there's a blip. The latest I seen was the US Navy was offering $7 million to examine the mysterious 7 sealed containers. One of which has allegedly been breached and was apparently quite fatal:

16 pirates died after handling substance on captured Iranian ship
http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2008/me_iran0630_10_22.asp

Even Israel is more than a little bit curious as to the contents.

Here are some words from a genuine "rocket scientist" that he posted this past week. He frowns upon the pasting of his prose, but these words touched me. I recently purchased a small quantity of uncorrupted corn kernels from him of the dent variety that I will attempt to propagate next season for seed stock. This is his website:

http://www.jmccanneyscience.com/

"October 25, 2008 posting ... one of the hardest things that you are going to have to face in the near future is understanding that many of the people who you thought would be true blue to the end will fall by the way side ... people you thought "had it together" and really understood what was really going on will just not be there ... when the real BS comes down ... you do not need people who are fare weather cheer leaders and mouth pieces ... you will soon discover ... when things get rough ... that there are just a few ... a VERY FEW people that count ... it will surprise you who they are ... people who you would have never guessed were REAL will come out to be leaders and contributors ... and people who you thought were on the top of your list will fold like an old worn out suite ... yes ... the most difficult thing you will face is turning from people who just do not get it ... and understanding that you have been preparing not only with physical means ... but vastly more important ... mentally AND SPIRITUALLY ... these are things that do not come over night ... you have to maintain YOUR STANDARDS ... but i have a little thing that will help you through the toughest of times ... something that was taught to me by an old man once up in the canadian wilderness when a large group of people were struggling to survive ... it was brutal ... not fun ... but what i learned was that when you cannot figure out where to go or what to do ... when things are too big and you are too small ... sit down and ask the big guy up there to help you ... sometimes things are just too big for any of us to imagine ... but the big guy will help you .. if you ask ... just remember that ... when things get really out of reach ... you take the high road and i'll take the low road ... and i'll get to Scotland before you ... i know ... i do it all the time ... few of you have to deal with the issues that i do ... take it from an old Israelite ... jim mccanney"

Don't be a stranger my old farted friend
In wafting just thoughts that off blend

Greg..
My reading of this and other remarks by Dmitry Medvedev are posturing...but trying to persuade the Us to keeps it's nose out of what
they feel is not the world's business, Georgian.

Russia is well aware of the US costs that it has occurred in war over the past years and including the state of the US economics on the home front.
Perhaps a little like Harper recognizing that the Liberal party was broke and economically things were going to get worse...consequently a call for a
election on the balance would automatically give him a 50% advantage...

Medvedev  vagueness I think was intentional...but I think it was just political rhetoric, as I don't think Russia has the resources or the will of it's people
to go in that direction...

Just thoughts..


     
 

Interesting developments in the world these days include US and Canadian elections
and thoughts of deep gloomy recessions, depressions or new IT inventions. But is
anyone actually paying attention to what local news most often don't mention?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/27/russia

The Guardian article has these words by Dmitry Medvedev:

"Just recently we had to rebuff aggression unleashed by the Georgian regime. As we
discovered, a local smouldering conflict - even occasionally a frozen one - can flare up
into a genuine war," Medvedev said, addressing Russian troops.

What does Medvedev really mean by "A Frozen One?"

A cold war frozen in time?

A conflict in the arctic?

A dead Russian on ice aboard a Ukrainian cargo ship off the coast of Somalia
containing Russian armaments being held by "pirates?"

Or is it something altogether different? (Note: Nuclear Winter is not an option)

The link posted above returns an error, page not found.

I seen the Mayor in person earlier this summer when he addressed some folks over WSIB. He didn't appear to me, to be a man with some kind of an agenda. However, we're living in the "Times of the Signs" and everybody is looking for one. We all wish to make the right decisions and perhaps the Mayor is being surrounded with experts to do just that.

I don't know what else to say without first reading the article that was made reference to, although I am reminded of a column I seen recently:

THE CASE FOR HANGING ERRANT PUBLIC OFFICIALS
http://www.newswithviews.com/Devvy/kidd380.htm

Don, I see you're trying to make a connection. Today there were 71 comments about unkempt medians and I still haven't bothered to read them. As you know, I did post a short comment in the Hallmark's blog that you provided a link for above. I see that Cal and MAW made an appearance there as well.

What I see is a city hall scrambling for some fast cash and cutting corners. We (Tracy and I) just learned a month ago that the previous owner of our home, which we purchased last year, was over $500 delinquent in the water bill. No problem, the city went directly to our mortgage lender for it without notice. Technically, this utility should not have been in arrears when the house transferred to us. We have no recourse except perhaps a long drawn out and expensive legal battle which is always a lose or lose-more situation.

The truth is that our city is just as broke as we are as individuals. Everyone is getting squeezed and we're all about to burst our pipes.

The trouble is that our leadership is not being upfront with us while the depression truly sets in. We're rationed falsehoods like this:

Flaherty: Canada not in recession
http://thespec.com/News/Local/article/378140


The biggest deception is a faked annual wage increases at 6.2%, because unless you're a government employee on the taxpayers dole, the private sector wages have been flat lined for a couple of years. The Canadian Auto Workers accepted a wage freeze for the next few years. And because of this, consumer confidence is ultra low and people aren't buying anything. The banks are also feeling the squeeze:

Canada's big banks take earnings tumble
http://thespec.com/News/Business/article/378113

- The real reason for not cutting medians is not enough cash
- Something big requiring a superhighway's capacity is just up the road
- It is trivial to bury large capacity pipes during gigantic road construction
- In the business of water, plumbers are the masters
- The fastest way to Kansas, is to click your heels three times and say, "There's no place like home"
- Contrary to what we've been told, the future isn't friendly for little fishies.
- Carp are greasy but tasty like pork, that clings to yore fork.

So in knowing a little bit of what lies ahead, the question for us now is, what can be done to lessen the hurt and heighten the hope as we plunge into our forlorn future?

Greg...
What is reflected here is the total inconsistencies within Hamilton's city hall, no one having an overall perspective; a grab bag of ideas floating in every direction
and no accountability. These issues continue daily, it's no wonder that Hamilton is in the state that it is...down the drain.
http://hallmarks.thespec.com/2008/05/down-the-drain.html

Such incompetence creates such mistrust making it almost impossible to develop any forward motion, a merry-go-around, like rats in a cage searching for food
and end up devouring themselves...Such realities have cost us millions in the past and it seems, the more things change the more they remain the same...

I chose not to post this to Hallmark's blog because of a potentially bad word and as of this posting here, I haven't read a single one of the 38 comments accumulated since yesterday:

http://hallmarks.thespec.com/2008/05/a-median-matter.html#comments

I would've been commenting on the Mayor's pitch to allow Hamilton's highway medians to go fallow with this article:

http://thespec.com/News/Local/article/375540

=============

Since Mayor Fred Eisenberger is wily in some things, should we allow medians to fallow wildly of green things? Perhaps he can sense what's wallowing amok alongside the embankments of the controversial superhighway fustercluck (thanks Ryan). He defended the idea of forming a local stakeholder committee by saying. "I don't think it's an attempt to have one message. It's an attempt to understand what all the messages are."

http://thespec.com/News/Local/article/375508

It's ashame council doesn't wish to share in his wisdom and portent. There is a bright side to these Under-Naturalized superhighway projects and Public Works should pay better attention to their WM tending. Maintenance requires Way Much more than just bending and trending.

In a future glance towards wildflower and treed medians, tall enough to swallow our own littering display, one can glimpse the subject of vibrant peak oil sketches by budding Canadian artists someday. Many years down the road these canvassing works could fetch millions for the action blocking catch quirk pavilions:

http://thespec.com/News/Local/article/375535

Unfortunately it seems, without a clear understanding of what all the messages are, toll collectors will continue to reap as tole painter's spray cans become all the more cheap amongst Hamilton's most irreproachably sheepish of peeps.

http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/23/2364.asp

Clostridium Difficile has now surpassed two other common hospital infections -- MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus) and VRE (vancomycin-resistant enterococcus).

http://thespec.com/News/Local/article/353528

This is a problem being experienced by elderly patients admitted to hospitals world wide. In the UK it is responsible for one death every hour. It contributes to the deaths of four times as many people as MRSA. It is being called a SUPERBUG.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7361150.stm

Another superbug is cause for typhoid (spotted fever) and ironically, if one looks in the dictionary between typhoid and typhus there will be found the word, typhoon. In many ways the affects of C. Difficile are just as catastrophic as these deadly formed wind storms also known as hurricanes and cyclones. Try to find either Clostridium or Difficile in the common dictionary and you'll be at a loss for words, C. Diff. is a scientific term that I believe closely resembles Crap Ridding Difficulty or Colon Difficulty. This is probably how and where our bodies try to dispose of the bacteria (through waste excretion) and consequently where the bug thrives. Because of the battle it wages in our gut and entrails, our uptake of water and nutrients is diminished and we will become lethargic.

I am not a medical professional and cannot cure diseases or infections. I can however assure people that these kinds of superbugs, in the ranks with HN51 Bird Flu, SARS and their ilk, are being battled daily, by the dedicated men and women in the health care industry. It is not their fault these microscopic hooligans find their way into our hospitals and clinics. These nasty nano-scum hang out on the skin of healthy people and even animals we come into contact with every day. This particular bug has been around since the days of the dinosaurs, the problem is that the bugs are mutating and multiplying in biblical proportions much like wind storms and waves. We often have little warning and defense against such mega-storm movements across the globe when they arrive in their elemental force of an ill manifest nature. It is our environment and it is not just going to go away with a new designer pill, stronger soap or a higher bill to cope. But we can ease the suffering in the aftermath with love, hope, charity and walking a straighter narrower path with the Holy Sprit's clarity.

We are all to blame for the blood spilled on our soils that feed, the poisons sprayed into our air breathed and the pharmaceuticals laid to rest in our waters that bleed. Is it any wonder the elements are gathered, agitated against us and our seed? How can we, from this debauchery be freed? Where is the gallant steed that wisps us away from peril in our times of greatest need?

Can anyone pray Jesus Christ come hither and Godspeed!

Comments Welcome