Update on the dishwasher thing...

Yesterday someone from Cannabis Culture Magazine posted a link to a British game show that was parodying the US prison system. They were attempting to make a joke of it - and it is a joke - but the reality is so brutal that, although one might laugh, it is the choked laughter reserved for the truly disturbing subjects.



Apart from all the commentary I could launch into about the state of US prisons and WHY they are structured that way, I make note of the percentage of appliances produced by inmates: 36% of all appliances are manufactured by inmates... in a country where it is illegal to import anything that is produced by those incarcerated....

As this relates to me, I'm curious to know whether my non-working, noisy (when it is working) mostly plastic appliance (the poorly-named 'dishwasher') was manufactured.

If anyone reading this knows how to find out if appliances were produced inside our out, please pop me a comment.

If mine was manufactured in a prison, I can somewhat forgive its poor construction: I'd be unmotivated too... what are they going to do? Fire the guys?

If, however, it was produced in a factory that people choose to work in and are paid for that choice, then there's no excuse for production of crap.

Oh, and Mr. Harper - yah, you! The dictator who is currently masquerading as the Canadian PM... what for is Canada accepting the garbage that passes for consumer products from the states? Hm? Is it penance for shipping our poisonous asbestos off to India?

Just a warning...

When we renovated our kitchen, we bought one of our new appliances from Trail Appliances in Calgary. We have a really crappy Amana furnace that has caused us all sorts of problems for over 20 years but the Trail salesman, Jason, assured us their new generation of appliances was much better and that we'd have no problems with our tall-tub Amana dishwasher....

What a scream! The dishwasher ceased washing dishes within four months. The design is such that the filter, which is meant to filter out small food particles, becomes completely blocked due to its very fine (plastic) screen and a grinder that doesn't grind finely enough for the intended filtering action to happen.

We went to Trail - went, as in went down there - asked to speak to the salesman, who passed us off to two other people (managers, he called them) who never crossed the floor to speak to us but who stood around on their phones for over an hour until we became disgusted and left.

Since then, I have fixed my own dishwasher several times but the filter now needs replacing. However, that problem is overshadowed by the fact that the door mechanism, which is where the electrical connection that allows the dishwasher to start is located, is completely broken.

Yet again, I headed to our local parts supplier for a replacement part, which I got after a three-week wait, only to discover the housing into which that part fits is also broken. The problem? Fittings that should be made of metal are plastic - fittings that are subject to pressure every time the dishwasher's door is opened.

Today, I received a link to my friend's great blog... about Trail appliances and his over $600 of spoiled food in his new fridge, purchased from Trail, which refused to help him....

So, be advised that you're totally on your own if they buy anything from Trail. They'll sell you the moon, but they will NOT help you in any way if that moon goes wrong. They do NOT honour their warranties in any useful way - they'll send you off to the product manufacturer rather than helping you - and they will literally pretend you are not there if you go in to the showroom, although someone will try to sell you something.

Scare them off by telling them you're there for a replacement. Believe me, they will scatter, warn off all other salespeople and leave you hanging for as long as it takes for you to become disgusted and leave. THAT is their customer 'service' policy. You'll get better service from a seller on www.Kijiji.com or www.craigslist.com

Caveat Emptor; buyer beware.
www.trailappliances.com AVOID.


Try Coast Wholesale instead.

Oh and buy European products instead. I'm all over the Buy American policies of the US, given that the stuff produced there is CRAP and should never, ever cross a border.

American-made appliances are representative of the poor construction and decay that characterises US society: looks ok on the outside but absolutely full of crap that will not last.

This is what I've been up to for the last 10 days...

Yeah. here's what we did:
CLICK




On January 12th, Haiti was struck by a huge and devastating earthquake. In another, wealthier country, such a quake would be equally terrible, but there would be the offsetting hope for quick rebuilding.

In Haiti, this will not be the case. Thanks to a devastatingly poor and under-educated population, a dictatorship that has been the puppet of many meddling US administrations, a general lack of technology and access to news and a population that is characterized by illiteracy, Haiti does not have the same hope.


A couple days following the quake, three of my Twitter buddies, Angela MacIsaac, Camilla di Giuseppe and Alex Ruiz, all seasoned media gals, dropped a few tweets about doing 'something.' Five hours later, that something had begun to look like something huge.

Within days, Calgary's Flames Central was on board with a venue; The Calgary Flames, The Calgary Stampeders, The Calgary Hitmen and the Calgary Roughnecks had all stepped up with offers of help, merchandise and donations. A day later the donations started to roll in - at a rate of about 60 emails a day - filling my inbox to the brim.

10 days later, my guest bedroom is packed with donations of all types: art, photos, team jerseys, gift certificates that range in value from $1000 to $4000 (that, thanks to WestJet, Canada's favourite airline). Oh, and yeah, that other one: a $15,000 travel package with return flights... yeah.

If you're in Calgary, Thursday night is your night to get on board, support this event and help the people of Haiti.

We can't fix what happened in that country but we CAN make a dent in it.

YYC4Haiti. Be there.

I Discovered a New Man Whilst Laying in Bed Last Night

Last night, whilst reading a lovely, metallic-sheathed copy of Wired UK, thoughtfully given to me by my man, who loves to indulge my very fleshy inner geek, I came across an article with a deck that caused my eyes to pop wide open.

"Will it one day be erroneous to view Al Gore as a saint," which was followed by, "Does history tell the truth?"

Did I just read that in PRINT? Glory BE!

This headline instantly convinced me its writer was not only brilliant but obviously supernaturally influential for having got such a deck - a subheadline - into a major publication.

Said writer is Matt Ridley, possessor of a PhD in Zoology from Oxford University and journalist since 1983.

The Ridley's piece in Wired.Uk is a bare page long, yet lays open a cavern of questions that sent me rocketing to my google search engine. In particular, Ridley's use of a gentle 'What if?' format lays open the criminal misrepresentation of the currently 'hot' climate debate as if it were a two week old cadaver subject to a giant slicing blade....

To quote, "The more I read, the more I find history full of fables."

More to the point - and this is the place where I went madly off to my search engine - was this part of the article:

"Item: As a good, green-reared conservationist, I thought acid rain killed forests in the 80s - until I read Gregg Easterbrook's account, A Moment on the Earth, of how the biomass of European forests actually increased during the 80s and 90s, while in the US, the official, ten-year, $500,000, 700-scientist, government-sponsored study did a great rash of experiments and found 'there is no evidence of a general or unusual decline of forests in the US or Canada due to acid rain.'

Ridley goes on to write, 'When asked if he had been pressured to be optimistic, one of the authors said the reverse was true;'" (I'm paraphrasing now) the Environmental Protection Agency worked to keep the researchers from providing Congress with their findings. Hm...

Sound familiar? Not six weeks ago, a massive raft of emails from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia (UEA) in Norwich, England, was exposed to the public, all damning. These emails make it clear the CRU suppressed (at best), manipulated and flat out created information to support the ridiculous theory (as they state it) that humans are killing the planet via CO2....

And, to make matters critically more interesting in terms of information manipulation, CO2 - the gasses you and I and the entire rainforest and cows and your house-cat breath out - has been declared POISON. Yup. Poison. More on Human Events, HERE.

Weird, because I believe the destruction of the Amazon Rain Forest was HUGE news not 10 years ago.... So, given that CO2 is now poison, will that pave the way for its destruction finally? I smell CORPORATE INTEREST and PROFIT....

Here's my theory, based on nothing other than a gut feeling: certain environmental 'catastrophes' have been floated (as false flag events) to see if any could stick. Acid Rain; El Nino/La Nina; the ozone layer: none of those could stick because none of those had aspects that could be easily controlled/manipulated. CO2? Yeah, that can easily be manipulated and made as the foundation to foster fear. The fact that CO2 has now been declared a poison should give us some clue as to how far this insanity might go. Will it become a terrorist act to breathe?

I'll continue this shortly. I've just Twittered Matt Ridley to get his permission to quote him, link him and repost the Wired.UK article. in the meantime, I encourage you to search and read anything you can find from this writer.

Oh, and as an added bonus, Mr. Ridley is an evolutionist, which I know is a very dirty word if you're some people, so I'm even happier to include him in my list of people to read. Here's a bio via Reason Magazine.

Off topic, but related to Mr. Ridley:
To a (I hope) reader, LMA: this guy should be on the TOP of your reading list, particularly for his book, The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation (1997), in which Ridley showed how natural selection led to human morality. Not a SKIFF of religion in that mix. A point: perfectionism is equal to control (and indicates a terror of being out of control), not diligence; those two concepts cannot be confused and are mutually exclusive.

Back soon. Off to stir the shite a bit.

Things that are tooooo stupid to hate...

Disgusted

I just want to note my disgust with those who claim to religion but will not speak out, LOUDLY, in an international forum, against a radical in their own ranks.

Particularly in the US but also in this country, there are endless calls from so-called Christians that Muslim people and leaders to speak against the radical acts of their 'faithful.'

But when one of their own, in this case, the disgusting mouthpiece, the so-called "Dr." Pat Robertson, blames the people of the most disenfranchised country in the west of being the authors of their own devastation, not a word is spoken.

Pat Robertson, for millions,is their head - a significant 'leader' in their cult. Yet, when this excuse for a human again (because he did the same for those devastated and forced to live for weeks like animals in New Orleans) chastises devastated humans for somehow manipulating nature, there's not a Christian voice to be heard.

Pat Robertson and his ilk - the Ted Haggarts, Jerry Falwells, Peter Popoffs, the desperate, faithless attention seekers they ALL are - are nothing short of nuclear bombs where it comes to religion. The fact that the Christian faith is a patchwork of so much garbage, lies, fabrications, mythology, contradictions and frank lacks in any concrete proof of its own events, let alone its central players, pales in comparison to the undo-able damage these angry, oft-closeted, faithless and inhuman men - because they're always men - MUST be spoken against and their dreadful ideas must be put down.

Today, Pat Robertson shares the shit-covered stage with 'Pastor' Fred Phelps of www.godhatescanda.com ... or www.godhatesfags.com .... or www.godhatesladygaga.com....

Same shit, different filthy mouth.

IF you are one of the s0-called 'faithful' and you do not speak out against this excuse for a man, you are complicit.

If you DO wish to join the ranks of humans, go to This LINK and phone, write, email, scream, bitch and make a HUGE, HUMAN issue of this guy and his mouth.

We cannot, in a modern world, rely on this man's self-serving interpretation of misinterpreted, misunderstood, mis-translated, bronze-age tribalism.

Thanks to Marion Gordon at www.freakingnews.com for her excellent PhotoShop graphic.

Also thanks to writer, Ray Garton, for his blunt but thoughtful and pointed comments regarding Robertson's incomprehensible outburst last week. Mr. Garton has generously agreed to my republishing these:

“Robertson is an amoral douche bag, but until the Christians stand up and say otherwise, I see no reason not view him as one of their biggest representatives and spokesmen. If they don't like being thought of as hateful, ignorant, racist assholes, they should speak up and SAY Robertson and his ilk are not representative.

“Until they do, then as far as I'm concerned, he's their man and they've got absolutely no excuse to bitch and whine about being criticized, vilified and dismissed. People dismiss him and call him an idiot, but the truth is, he speaks for a frighteningly large segment of this country's population.

I listened to talk radio today & they were calling in by the droves to support and agree with that fuckwit. And yet they simply cannot understand why anyone would have a problem with them. Ugh. Sorry. Pet peeve of mine, and I tend to rant and yammer.”

Ray also generously added (and I am not adverse to a shameless plug from someone who is a more-than-legitimate writer): “I hadn't read your blog before. I LOVE YOU! I've been saying Al Gore is a fraud for years & most people are appalled. Nice to know that someone who's intelligent and outspoken agrees.”

Ray Garton: Bio

Ray Garton is the author of 60 books and dozens of short stories. His 1987 novel Live Girls was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel of the Year. In 2006, he was presented with the Grand Master of Horror Award by the World Horror Society, putting him in the company of fellow recipients Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Peter Straub, Anne Rice, Clive Barker, Ray Bradbury and others. His work has been called "artful" by the New York Times and Fangoria magazine says, "Razor-sharp and gut-punch brutal, Garton will scare you." Three of his works -- the novels Live Girls and Lot Lizards and his story "Graven Image" -- are in the works as movies. He lives in northern California with his wife Dawn and their many cats, and is currently at work on his next novel.

Here's a synopsis of Scissors, Garton’s latest book, just arrived in bookstores:

Stuart will never forget the horrible thing Dr. Ferguson did to him when he was a boy. The pain, the blood and the snip-snip of those glinting scissors will live in his nightmares for the rest of his life. But now Dr. Ferguson is back and not just in Stuart’s dreams. He’s very real. He’s determined to perform that same horrible procedure on Stuart’s young son. And his scissors are nice and sharp.

A list of Garton’s most recent novels from Leisure Books can be found HERE

Read Ray’s Blog HERE

Remember War of the Worlds? Yeah, so, About Al Gore...

Unless this is your first time here - and if it is, welcome, - you will know that I believe, with much evidence in support, that Al Gore and machine is a huge, huge fraud.

The global 'warming' industry is just that, an industry, upon which he and many others are making a killing - and I mean killing, because people who live in failed democracies and failed countries, are suffering beyond with we in the 'developed' world can imagine, even if we have wildly good imaginations.

Canadian journalist, commentator and TV personality, Andrew Coyne's article (linked above) appeared on line and in MacLean's Magazine this week. PLEASE click the link and have a read.

The comment board following the article is huge, and rightfully so. It seems that, apart from dewy-eyed environmentalists, who too often, despite having their hearts in the right place, don't know shite about their subject, many people are questioning global warming -the Gore version.

You may have noticed that the term has morphed into 'global climate change.' This is an important change in that, when Gore's production is exposed - or more exposed than it is now - for the utter, falsified garbage it is, the players in the drama can say, "We said climate CHANGE," thus saving their dirty, lying faces. Such is revisionism.

A comment that came through my email today really caught my eye. The writer has a background in climate science - Mr. Gore has no such thing unless you consider high school science to be an appropriate background - and points out a couple glaring problems with Gore's ridiculous theory.

Here's the comment:

"I did extensive reading in world history before 1960, and I recall the Viking settlements in Greenland and the evidence of Viking settlements in North America. It was a given that the climate was warmer at that time (now known as the Medieval Warm Period, MWP) to support crops and herds in these northern climes. Then the Vikings deserted Greenland when it become colder.

So, when the hockey stick was published and the MWP was nowhere to be seen, I had a surprised reaction, “How could that be?” It was soon obvious that there was a scam in progress, and it was steadily revealed that the scam was political and economic. This is a trillion dollar fraud, and Al Gore and accomplices have somehow subverted a large number of scientists and the UN to pull off the fraud.

Still, it was no big deal to enlist the UN in the fraud. It was only seven years ago that the UN was central to the Oil-for-Food fraud, with payoffs in the billions of dollars while the Iraqi people, the supposed benefciaries of the Oil-for-Food program, were shortchanged in food, medical supplies, and health care. Many of the same players were principals in both frauds.

When someone is obviously lying, it does not require a whole lot of analysis to verify and correct the fraud."

Anyway, the bottom line is one MUST consider the players in this drama, who stands to gain and by how much before one goes madly off exchanging carbon credits (into Gore's pocket, no less, as he owns a major label in that industry.

If you really want to do something concrete for the environment, watch what you consume - and how what you purchase is packaged; plastic is costly and dirty to produce: drive one day less a week; eat meat one day less a week. That's it, that's all. It is really that easy.

On another note, about the US and it's definition of 'security' and how the current President, who looks more and more like a really handsome, well-spoken straw man - said in his INTERNATIONAL address the other day, that these new security measures are to make AMERICANS more safe....

Excuse me, mate, but if you're gonna naked scan my middle aged ass, you better be including me in that security. But then I don't think there is a terrorist under every seat.... I notice this week there are more and more people protesting the new measures as highly invasive and useless.

Click here for a whole 'nother rant,, The Idiot Empire, by Rabble.com writer, Murray Dobbin.

This is the UK, covered with Global Warming...(otherwise known as 10 inches of SNOW)

.... or Global Climate Change, which is the new name designed to protect the very guilty parties from losing face, when the whole thing is revealed as a massive, greedy, corporate moneygrubber's sham.

No, I am not cynical....

My Big Fat Secret Butter Chicken Recipe

I'm in a 'please make me warm mood' due to the grey, cold and snowy day out here in Western Canada.


In honour of it being mid-winter (and me detesting mid winter), I'm posting this really, really delicious recipe with credit to my friend, Bella Patel, who is a lovely person and who was able to sweet talk the basic recipe out of the cooks at a Bombay House in Calgary.

You can do this a few ways, all equally yummy.

Most Indian restaurants use left over (not old, just from yesterday) Tandoori Chicken. No point in wasting delicious Tandoori and what better use than butter chicken?

Tandoori Chicken:
2 roasting chickens (because SuperStore sells 'em that way)
1/2 cup plain yoghurt - or mango yoghurt
2 TBSP Tandoori Paste (SuperStore always has it as will your local Indian Spice shop).

Rinse the chicken and pat dry
Mix the Tandoori Paste with the yoghurt and set aside for a minute
Score the chicken's skin in several places and then rub the birds with the paste. Put them in a large container that can be covered and let them sit for a couple hours in the fridge.

Set your oven to 450 degrees. When hot, cook the chickens until their juices run clear. Depending on their sizes, this should take 30 - 40 minutes. If they're slightly underdone, it is not a problem - they're going into a hot sauce where they will cook further. DON'T discard that yummy juice.

If you want to make a fast version of Butter Chicken, use fresh or defrosted chicken breasts cut into reasonably bit-sized pieces; coat them in the yoghurt/Tandoori paste and set them in the fridge while you make the rest of the base.

Butter Chicken.
My recipe has onions, which is not traditional but which is very, very yummy.

Peel one large onion. Cut in half, place the flat side down and slice thinly.
Heat a LARGE skillet to medium high; add 1/8th cup butter and yes, I do mean butter. Thou shalt not skimp or worry about calories with this recipe.
Let the onions lightly brown - very lightly and then reduce the heat to low. When the heat is reduced, add 1 TBSP water and cover. Let the onions cook down and caremelise. This will take about 1/2 an hour - stir occasionally.

In the meantime, you're going to rip all the meat off the bones of one of those chickens you cooked. Cut the meat into large but still reasonably manageable pieces. Set aside.

Once your onions are lovely, carmely brown, bring the heat back up to medium and add 1 TSP of coriander and cumin
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 - 1/2 tsp hot chilli flakes, ground up
2 packed TBSP brown sugar - the darker the better.
Also add 3/4 cup butter. Yup. 3/4 cup.
Next, add 1 - 5 ounce container of tomato paste. It's good to have another one on hand, just in case you really like your BC tomato-y.

Stir this all up so it's smooth and drop in the cut up chicken - you can add some of that nice chicken juice in too. Stir it all up so the chicken is nicely coated.

It'll have started smelling delicious by now... best to have a glass of nice Indian beer beside you or wine. Wine is always good. Red, by the way. White will die next to this stuff.

Lastly, add 1/2 - 3/4 Litre of whipping cream - yes, that's the really, really fattening stuff; 33% milk fat... Ok. I conceed; you can use 1/2 litre wipping and 1/4 litre 10% or you can just use 18%. But seriously, you've gone this far and there's all that butter... may as well buy the whole farm, yes?

Give this all a really good stir up so everything is nicely incorporated and turn the heat down to low, low, low. You can let this all sit now and if you have time to let it sit for an hour, so much the better.

While all the flavours are getting to know each other and make 'babies,' get your basmatti rice on. This too has butter... Check the package directions for quantities as per the number of people you're feeding.

Heat a saucepan to medium high: add 2 TBSP butter (or ghee if you have it), three green corriander pods if you have 'em and maybe a dash of safron; then add the rice. Stir to coat.

Add in boiling water and cover (or you can add hot tap water, bring to the boil over high heat); reduce heat to very low and let the rice steam for about 18 minutes. Don't lift that lid there, Oh Curious One... give it at least 15 minutes and then you can check it, ok? Once it's done, take it off the heat and leave the lid off to let the remaining steam escape.

If you want some vegetables, and you should have some vegetables you can cook them in coconut milk - same as using water, really only way, way yummier. I use frozen veg, as they're parboiled and don't need as long to cook. If you put your veg on right after you get the rice going, all this is gonna happen pretty much together.

NOW GO LOCK YOUR DOORS. I'm serious. Once people start smelling this stuff, they're gonna come knocking.

Serve butter chicken with a ladle over the hot rice with veg on the side.

FYI, I dry my own chillies. It's easy. Buy four or five fresh chillis - jalapenos are great; get out some string and tie the chillis onto the string at intervals far enough apart that the chillies don't touch each other. Hang in a sunny window (yeah, I know. It's winter...).. in about 2 weeks, you'll have dried red chillis. Crush 'em up (wear rubber gloves and don't touch your eyes or nose) and store in an airtight container.

Bliss in my mouth!

Oh yum... totally stumbled on the most delish omlette combo...

I'm having three eggs (made with 2 TBSP water, a touch of salt and some rub - the kind you'd use for BBQ), spread with Spinach Skordalia and some goat cheese. Screamingly delish.

Skordalia is super easy to make.



Get out your food processor; pop in four peeled cloves of garlic, 1/2 cup pine nuts, 2 TBSP lemon juice, 2TBSP olive oil, 1 tsp or so of sea or kosher salt (or whatever you have really), 1/2 cup bread crumbs; cram the rest of the container full of fresh, washed spinach and puree.

Spread this on your omlette and top with goat cheese; fold in half, wait a sec for the cheese to melt a bit and then enjoy. Seriously yummy.

This skordalia stuff was also excellent last night on my sherried risotto, which is like classic risotto but with sherry - about a cup of it - instead of white wine.

Recipe for Skordalia, courtesy Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska:

Yeah, I know this blog is super schizophrenic....