I STILL say it's a HOAX.

Some months ago, I published a post on global warming, as presented by the very-quiet-of-late Al Gore. I think he's a fraud and I think the manner in which he and his lackeys present global warming depends on faulty science and erroneous research. Note; the link on that page is no longer valid, so check below for other links.

In today's Australian, in an article by Christopher Pearson it comes to light that there are many organisations that not only question the current "orthodoxy" on global warming, to steal their excellent term, but put forth that the current 'science,' is not relating the whole story. I should say, rather, that only those opinions, scientific and otherwise, that support the collision-course point of view are entertained in the media. The news media being what - and who - it is, good news is not any news....

So, here you are. Read for yourself. After that, go have a look at The Great Global Warming Swindle, (you can get it here, via IsoHunt): which aired last year in May on BBC, which produced the program, I believe.

There are too many corporate interests involved in the whole global warming game for my comfort: too many of those guys and one cannot ignore the stench of profit mongering.... Of course, one should certainly do their due diligence on all subjects, this one included. We'll talk in a few years, when the Thames is again frozen over in winter.

About Travelling

I just had the most interesting experience....

Some months ago, my daughter and I travelled overseas. While abroad, we ate at a really great place (a chain restaurant, but great all the same). Over the meal, we had a conversation with the person serving our table about where they were from and what they were doing in the city we were visiting and such.

The conversation obviously lead to where we're from and all that. We're generous people and we've been the recipients of some very generous hosts, so we passed on our contact info in the (off, we thought ...) chance that the person in question would ever come our way.

Not too many weeks later, the person got in touch with us about coming to visit. We have spare rooms and the projected visit time was two weeks, so we offered lodgings.

In the months ensuing, we communicated back and forth, sent info on our city and attractions in and nearby, as well as information on the visas one requires to work in this country, as our guest was interested in pursing that option. I asked a few question about the person's plans while here but that got me "I don't have plans, I'll be on vacation." That raised a bit of a red flag but, as I'm occasionally really dense, I didn't pay appropriate attention.

So, finally the guest arrived. We had made some plans to show our guest around where we live, but, as we'd made it quite clear we work full time, we didn't anticipate we'd be on the hook for daily entertainment. We did, however, help with internet research and we offered to take our guest to the bus station and local airport so they could visit other places nearby our city.

As it turned out, our guest presumed we would be looking after their daily needs and entertainment and, as our guest quickly ran out of money, we were on the hook to pay for things or to see this person do nothing. I was quite disappointed for us and for the guest, because this person's travel experience was not at all what it could have been had they pre-planned and taken full responsibility for their travels.

As a result of this experience, I thought I'd write a little how-to-be-a-great-guest guide for anyone who's taking advantage of a generous offer of free room AND board. So here goes....

1. Never forget that you are the recipient of a very generous offer. Free room and board means that you're already saving what you'd pay for lodgings and food for two weeks. That's usually a TON of money and, after airfare, usually the bulk of your vacation's cost. You should offer to pay for food occasionally and, if you're offering to cook meals, you should offer to buy the groceries for those meals. Consider that you're probably saving something like $1500 USD (that's like $1800 CDN! HA!) by living for free for two weeks... you can spring for food ok?

2. Do NOT presume that your generous host is going to look after you or is going to ferry you around or take ANY responsibility for whether you have a good time or not. That is fully, 100% your responsibility. IF your hosts do decide to show you around, don't take it as anything other than they're being even more generous.

3. PLAN AHEAD. Research where you're going and make some plans for what you want to see and do. Your host has not offered to be your personal travel guide. They've offered you a room.

4. Take enough money and make SURE you have easy access to more. It is INSANE to travel to another country on another continent without easy, instant access to money. Either that, or you're already planning to suck off your hosts....

5. Under no circumstances delay paying back your host for anything they pay for. In our case, we booked skiing on our credit card (our guest contravened rule #4 by running out of money on day 4), but the guest NEVER paid us back, never mentioned it and had no shame at all about that situation or a later situation where we took them to an event, assuming they'd pay for themselves at the door; they didn't. No money and no advance warning that they had no money. Nice hey?

If your host has to put anything on their credit card for you, pay them ON THE SPOT. Anything on a credit card accrues interest, so you presuming on your host by not paying them instantly and by potentially causing them to pay interest on the funds they LEND you.

In our case, when we arrived at the ski hill, our guest had a second opportunity to pay their own way, but declined with "No, leave it on your card. I'll pay you later." WHAT? I may be a pushover and disinclined to argue but I was overtaken by shock at that point. I let it slide, thinking the guest would offer up payment later that day. Nope. TWO days later, the guest proffered HALF the money - at the gas station, where I was filling up so I could ferry the guest around.

6. If your host ends up paying your way for you, do NOT assume that you can pay off your debt by buying drinks or dinner. By doing this, you are deciding how your host spends the money you owe them. You are PRESUMING that they would spend it on drinks or dinner. Pay them immediately and in full if they've lent you funds or paid for something on your behalf.

6a. If you run out of money, then you must immediately speak to your hosts, explain the situation and make arrangements for how you're going to deal with it. It is NOT your host's responsibility to fund your trip - they've already provided you free accommodations!

6b. If your hosts provide you funds or pay for events/entries/food, you MUST make arrangements for paying them back and you MUST pay them back prior to departure. To do otherwise will leave your hosts feeling resentful and second guessing why on earth they ever agreed to host you at all.

7. If you're planning on exploring working options in the country you're visiting, plan ahead! Despite our having provided a bunch of websites about working in our country, our guest argued with us and everyone they met that the entry stamp on their passport allowed them to work in our country for six months. This was absolutely not the case. Passport stamps allow a traveller to be in the country for a specified period of time - in this case, six months. Unless the stamp SPECIFICALLY says "Work permitted," you cannot work legally no matter how much you argue about it.

Our guest was told that many times, prior to arriving and by several potential employers, that they couldn't work in our country without a work visa but the guest refused to listen, claiming their EU passport granted them special status. Our guest was labouring under the very erroneous belief that an EU passport allows them to work wherever they wish. Not the case. Our country is not part of the EU so no, you cannot work here without the correct visa. Our guest was so annoying on this point that one of the employers they contacted told them never to call back and that there was no way they'd ever get at job with that employer... Not a good start to any work search.

8. Do NOT ask your hosts personal questions about their relationships (with spouse or partner) or their family. Prior to arriving, our guest questioned me on my relationship with my partner and our living arrangements!!! No, I didn't answer. Also, do not suggest that you, the guest, are such a perfect catch that you should be dating anyone in your host's family. You're a guest, not a potential mate.

8a. Never, ever argue with your hosts. No matter what, unless they've stolen your kit or they're really treating you very badly (at which point you don't argue; you leave), do NOT argue with your hosts. It is incredibly rude to do so when you're living for free!

9. Do NOT, under any circumstances, tell your hosts how to live, cook, eat, raise their children. You are a guest and you're going to be leaving. The impression you leave behind is permanent; YOU are NOT. Our guest one day glibly informed me they had decided in what order I favoured my children! The guest also informed me about my children's personalities, what they were good at and how they could improve themselves! I was shocked into silence, and if you know me, you know I was pretty shocked!

10. Do NOT lie. Don't make up stories about your life. Don't embellish your life, your stuff, your accomplishments. If you've been invited to stay with strangers, they've already found you interesting enough to invite into their home. There's no need to embellish and frankly, most people are shitty liars. In our case, our guest's stories didn't check out at all. Neither did their resume....

11. Although you absolutely should help out around the house, ASK your host what they'd like you to help with, when and how. Your host will really detest it that you're barging ahead with no permission or request to help. Do NOT go through their cupboards. Ever.

Keep the room you're staying in clean and don't leave your crap around the rest of the house. Your host has already gone well out of their way by offering you free room and board. As a guest, your goal is to make yourself VERY pleasant and easy to be around and, occasionally, to be invisible.

12. Don't be pig-headed. If your hosts want to expose you to something they think is really interesting, don't respond with "Nothing you can say will change my mind." Be open to experiences and, more particularly, be appreciative that your host is willing to include you at all. If being included will really ruin your life, plan to do something else. Do not, however, go to the event and then insult your host's friends by arguing or confronting them.

In our case, we have a very interesting, educated friend whose point of view on world events and politics is very informed. We took our guest with us out for drinks (which we paid for....) with our little group. Our guest was so egotistical that they argued about issues they had absolutely no knowledge of. When asked from where they got their information - what books had they read to form their opinion - they said "I don't read." Worse, our informed and very generous friend had brought books for us. Our guest, who was getting a free ride that night anyway, presumed on our lovely friend and took off with a book for themself! Unbelieveable.

Best practice in this situation is to shut up and listen and, when appropriate, ask questions. At least don't expose yourself as a Joe Know-it-All.

Never forget that you are a guest. If your host includes you in their group of friends, your JOB is to be as nice and accessible a person as possible. You will certainly hear things you don't know anything about or that you disagree with but, as YOU are the non-permanent fixture, you only get to ask questions and listen. You don't get to annoy people by presuming to be part of the inner circle. Never, ever tell strangers they're uninformed or wrong when you have no clue what they're talking about!

Unfortunately for our guest, they've left with the idea that they're welcome to come back, which is absolutely not the case. They made no arrangements for repaying the various activities we funded; they presumed on our very generous offer of free lodgings by not planning their vacation, not being independent, by being argumentative, by being insulting and invasive; they made no comment about being out of money and no arrangements for dealing with that; and they very much limited their future options for employment by establishing, in the space of 10 days, a reputation for being uninformed and inflexible.

Last point: after you've been a crappy guest and you've alienated your hosts and their friends, don't slag them off on your public social networking sites... It isn't like they - and their friends - are not going to see it....

For additional opinion on this subject, check out The Indie Travel Podcast

The $200 billion bail-out for predator banks and Spitzer charges are intimately linked

Just posting a GREAT article by Greg Palast.

I hope, by the time you get here, that you've watched Zeitgeist.

By Greg Palast
Reporting for Air America Radio’s Clout

Listen to Palast on Clout at www.GregPalast.com

While New York Governor Eliot Spitzer was paying an ‘escort’ $4,300 in a hotel room in Washington, just down the road, George Bush’s new Federal Reserve Board Chairman, Ben Bernanke, was secretly handing over $200 billion in a tryst with mortgage bank industry speculators.

Both acts were wanton, wicked and lewd. But there’s a BIG difference. The Governor was using his own checkbook. Bush’s man Bernanke was using ours.

This week, Bernanke’s Fed, for the first time in its history, loaned a selected coterie of banks one-fifth of a trillion dollars to guarantee these banks’ mortgage-backed junk bonds. The deluge of public loot was an eye-popping windfall to the very banking predators who have brought two million families to the brink of foreclosure.

Up until Wednesday, there was one single, lonely politician who stood in the way of this creepy little assignation at the bankers’ bordello: Eliot Spitzer.

Who are they kidding? Spitzer’s lynching and the bankers’ enriching are intimately tied.

How? Follow the money.

The press has swallowed Wall Street’s line that millions of US families are about to lose their homes because they bought homes they couldn’t afford or took loans too big for their wallets. Ba-LON-ey. That’s blaming the victim.

Here’s what happened. Since the Bush regime came to power, a new species of loan became the norm, the ‘sub-prime’ mortgage and it’s variants including loans with teeny “introductory” interest rates. From out of nowhere, a company called ‘Countrywide’ became America’s top mortgage lender, accounting for one in five home loans, a large chuck of these ‘sub-prime.’

Here’s how it worked: The Grinning Family, with US average household income, gets a $200,000 mortgage at 4% for two years. Their $955 a month payment is 25% of their income. No problem. Their banker promises them a new mortgage, again at the cheap rate, in two years. But in two years, the promise ain’t worth a can of spam and the Grinnings are told to scram - because their house is now worth less than the mortgage. Now, the mortgage hits 9% or $1,609 plus fees to recover the “discount” they had for two years. Suddenly, payments equal 42% to 50% of pre-tax income. Grinnings move into their Toyota.

Now, what kind of American is ‘sub-prime.’ Guess. No peeking. Here’s a hint: 73% of HIGH INCOME Black and Hispanic borrowers were given sub-prime loans versus 17% of similar-income Whites. Dark-skinned borrowers aren’t stupid – they had no choice. They were ‘steered’ as it’s

Racists have no place anywhere, but espcially here!

This is the letter I wrote - me, a Canadian - to the Obama Campaign in protest of his 'spiritual advisor,' who is a fear monger and who uses patently false information in his divisive and stupid speeches. This man, Jeremiah White, has NO place in the Obama campaign.


Sir,

I listened to a post by Jeremiah White on YouTube and I must protest this man and his point of view.



"Race" is a political construct that serves as a divisive mechanism used by the power elite. The term and the falsifications attached to it have no other purpose than to create hate and fear in people.

The skin is the largest organ of the body - please look this up. Skin serves to protect the rest of the body, regulate heat and cold and maintain the body's hydration system, among its many functions.

The colour of skin is nothing other than a biological adaptation to heat/cold/sun. Skin colour has no bearing on anything else. Add to that the dispersal of mitochondrial DNA in the international population and one quickly understands that we are all one 'race' despite our physical differences.

For Mr. White to hound on 'race' shows that he is bought in to using 'race' to divide and conquer.

As for his allegations that the fictional (yes, FICTIONAL) person Jesus was a black man in a white man's world, well that is simply appallingly false and manipulative. Jesus is a somewhat modern renaming of the Egyptian sun god, Horus.

You Tube:



Mr Obama, I write you from Canada, where we are very, very tired of the malicious, stupid, financially corrupt Bush administration, it's demonstrable, long term business and personal affiliations with the bin Ladin cartel and its drive to bankrupt the US and ruin other countries in it's pursuit of oil revenues and global government.

Your campaign has been extraordinary in every sense. Your willingness to surround yourself with exceptional people and to remove, with their approval, those who are brilliant but might compromise your campaign, is anything but usual. For that reason, Jeremiah White has no place among your supporters.

We in Canada look forward to the revolution your Presidency will certainly be.

This is for my "friends" in Texas...

...and for anyone else who's coming by this blog.

I contribute to a bunch of comment boards and various other places and I encounter - on a daily basis - people who still believe the US government is out to protect them and that 9/11 was perpetrated by a guy in a cave.

OK. Let's go with that.

But in order that you and I are on the same page, so to speak, PLEASE view this movie - the whole thing (ok maybe skip the first 10 minutes but that is ALL).

PLEASE watch it. If you promise to watch it all the way through, with an open mind, and you come out the other end believing exactly what you believe now, I will have a discussion with you, by email if you wish, or via the comments section.

WHY? Because I am absolutely fascinated by those who can cling to demonstrably false beliefs and I really need to understand how and why you do that.

This is a real, from-the-heart request. I am really desperate to understand how people dispense with demonstrable fact and cling to demonstrable fantasy.

Someone please step up.

Thanks.

Yah. Good Plan USA

John McCain
Unabashed Iraq war supporter and war criminal
Husband of a druggin' Stepford wife who is also a convicted criminal
Thief in the Keating savings and loan scandal
Scary dude

For those in th e US who believe there couldn't be a worse 'president' than the current monkey, yes, there sure could be.

John McCain.

Y'know what really bugs me?

When dairy producers and grocery stores collude to rip me off!

A quick check of the dairly aisle revealed that a pound of butter is near the $5 mark! That is outrageous!

1 litre of 35% milkfat cream is $2.79. Guess what!?

I make my own butter people.

Get that cream, put it in a 2 litre pitcher that you can seal off properly - something with a wide mouth. I use a juice pitcher with a tight fitting lid and I put a sheet of saran wrap over the top before I put the lid on. The Tupperware version at right here is a great choice but anything that is similar will do. It just has to be a bigger volume than the 1 litre, so anything 1.5 litres up to 2 litres will do just fine.

Hold on tight and shake the cream for about 10 minutes. First, it will get all thick - basically whipped cream. Then it will separate and you'll get a pound of butter and two cups of buttermilk. If the cream is close to room temp, this works faster.

Drain the buttermilk back into the original carton (and relable it so you don't forget what it is. Then, give the butter a good nashing with a fork to get out the remaining buttermilk. Add a 1/2 tsp or so of salt and a good pinch of sugar.

The buttermilk can go to making really excellent bread or really awesome overnight bran muffins or pancakes. My mom drinks the stuff but I find it a bit sour.

Anyway, for$2.79 CDN you get what you'd otherwise pay over $7.00 and all it will cost you extra is the ten minutes it takes to shake the butter out and wash the jug.

This is my personal shopping anarchy.

Steven Harper: Alive or Cyborg?

Today, I went looking for Canadian news - Digg being so very devoid of it - and started with a search for "Steven Haper," our wooden, stiff PM.

I have not been impressed with this PM. He avoids the media as he would the plague, to use a cliche; he's a cold as a Toronto parking meter in the dead of winter and he seems to have great difficulty smiling or being human - reference his hand shake with his then 10 year old son as the latter trotted off to school.

My search lead me to a goldmine. There are, of course, pages and pages of links to Mr. Harper; however, on page one of my search, I found this: What is Steven Haper Reading. I was instantly curious (to know whether he reads anything than policy, and cursorily at that), so clicked the link to what is a blog by none other than the brilliant, thoughtful, Canadian writer, Yann Martel.

If you don't know this name, shame on you. Seriously! Yann Martel's novel The Life of Pi is brilliant work. Except that I wish you to read this post to the end, I should send you immediately to a chair with a copy of that book and order you to sit there until you have read it. Take that as an assigment for later today. (photo right is copyright, Daniele Schaub)

What is Steven Harper Reading is the eighth wonder of the world. Yann Martel, who is exceptionally well read, well educated and well travelled, has been sending Mr. Harper, every two weeks, an inscribed copy of a book, specifically chosen by Martel.

Can you imagine? Mr. Harper, that cold, cold fish of a PM is the direct beneficiary of gifts from Yann Martel's luminous mind.

Harper - his office, rather - has responded only once to these gifts and has since made absolutely no comment as to whether he appreciates the letters Mr. Martel writes or that fact that Mr. Martel blesses him bi-weekly with wonderful literature.

I wonder whether Mr. Harper realises how fortunate his is not only to be the beficiary of such lovely letters - some hand written - by Yann Martel, but to also have his reading list personally chosen by such a brilliant Canadian.

Yes, I'm jealous, but, as Harper seems disinclined, will be taking full advantage of Yann Martel's reading list.

If this bugs you too, you can send letters directly to the PM's office at:
The Right Honourable Stephen Harper
Prime Minister of Canada
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa ON K1A 0A2

Garland King's Co.

Nova Scotia

These photos are COPYRIGHT!

In order:

The cornfield at Garland, looking towards the Bay of Fundy












The fenceline on the Garland property
























Barbed wire on the fencline