North of 49

Hello Blog fans and a prosperous New Year to us all. By the time I post this it will be 2014! The season of Joy as the christians would call it is a time of year that doesn't really bring visions of presents or a little baby in a barn somewhere. It has been an anchor point in my life. A place on the calender that means family and close friends. I started the season right with an influx of cash from an injury settlement. I'm like everyone else in the world short of cash over the holidays. This was the first one where I had an excess.  My travel plans included none of the sub -15 temperatures or the buzz which is Fort McMurray.  I was looking forward to Baklava Mmmmmm visiting people like this old duffer to the left. Yup my Dad ! I haven't had a lot of one on one time with any of my immediate family for a very long while so this was a wonderful opportunity to do just that. I had time, from the 14th of December til the 3rd of January a...

Thank you Bob for those fine lines of prose which described the stress and confusion over the changing of the guard. Yes the times they were a changin.   A work full of vivid images created through poetry of the modern age warming are hearts to the libertines who were seemingly taking the reins of power away from their fathers and the last vestiges, the patina of wholesomeness left by their grandfathers was rubbed away and polished into what we have before us today. I have six or seven posts started but not posted.  Why is this happening? It seems pointless. When I was young and I mean between 6 and 10 I some how was introduced to politics. Well lets say it was an process of intellectual osmosis rather than anything structured and focused which probably has done me right in keeping my sociopolitical horizons broad. At that time I saw the political arena to be more self serving than a public domain. Well let me be more precise. It seemed to me as though partisanship was ...

A rogue thinker back in 1516 There are in any age those who lead the pack in thinking Sir Thomas More bringing the word and idea of Utopia to the masses was one of these people and while it was one of his lesser feats it is still a quirky little idea and his book Utopia has had a readership through out the centeries. Not that More is a personal favorite but this idea of utopia makes so much sense unless you are an elitist, then it's simply loathed. A society where we all are equal and all is made for the betterment of the society not for the profit of individuals. This idea has been around for a while in the circles of humanists through out the ages. Aldous Huxley wrote Island which is a fantastic story that transcends a purely utilitarian rant but contrasts one way of living with another.   If we can agree that within the limits of physical laws any behavior is possible then it is only our imaginations that limit us by putting up barriers of fe...

Finally the Workers Compensation Board got a hold of me to arrange a one hour examination by their orthopedic specialist. Good gosh they must have more than one! You might think this has to do with my wretched  left thumb, yes it will be under the same sort of review in another year or so. Could be for my back and shoulder which are in bad shape and related to a work injury. It's none of those, this trip to Etown and this exam are related to my fractured calcanus and the arthitis which seems to have set into the foot. The best worried look ever. Two years after a traumatic injury claim the WCB looks at lingering effects of the injury relative to your everyday life. As I have said the fracture of my heel has resulted in arthritis forming which has led to constant discomfort that can ramp up to severe pain making it impossible to walk without a massive limp. Not to worry as the WCB is reputed to be fair in it's dealings with the injured...

 Money and lots of it! All of this comes from the sale of drugs in various locations and is just a drop in the bucket of goo known as the illicit  DRUG TRADE. It would truly stun you into a coma if you had all the illicit profits made in the world in one month from the sale of said illicit drugs in one place. I'm thinking an arena Or Maybe A big hole Just think about the amount of diverted funds  or resources that keeps the under world alive. It makes you wonder why the government does get in on it rather than fight it. Money money money. It truly is an illusion. The act of gaining wealth by creating nothing is not very useful but it's a marvelous trick. In fact I'll go out on a limb and say that it's counter productive for societies to be paying the warrior, the administrator, the clergy it's something for another commentary but through out the ages of settled civilization we have been paying out to pe...