The Christmas Story

The Nativity

Those of us who celebrate Christmas as the birth of Jesus are quite familiar with what is known as The Christmas Story from the KJV. It begins with Luke 2:1 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed through to Luke 2:18 And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

Then we immediately go to Mathew 2:1 Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem. And read through to Mathew 2:15 And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.

Yet these two gospels were written by very different authors and for very different audiences. The Gospel of Mathew was likely written about AD 55-65, primarily for a Jewish Christian audience as extensive quotations from the Old Testament (62 times) show Jesus as the fulfillment of Jewish prophecies. The Gospel of Luke was written in about AD 60-80 primarily for Gentile converts to Christianity.

The authorship of the Gospel of Matthew has traditionally been attributed to Matthew who was one of Jesus' twelve disciples and a former tax collector. This attribution is supported by early church traditions and writings from church fathers such as Papias, Irenaeus, and Clement of Alexandria, who affirmed that Matthew wrote the Gospel based on his experiences and teachings of Jesus. Many contemporary scholars consider this attribution to be uncertain, suggesting that it was written by an anonymous Jewish Christian familiar with both Jewish law and Greek language. The Gospel was likely composed in Greek, possibly in Antioch, Syria, a major center of early Christianity.

Traditionally, the author of the Gospel of Luke is believed to be Luke, a physician and companion of Paul. Most critical scholars today believe it was composed anonymously. Two main possibilities for the author's background are proposed: 1. A Gentile Christian with knowledge of Jewish tradition, or 2. A Hellenized Jew living outside Palestine. The author assumed an educated Greek-speaking audience and focused on Christian concerns rather than broader Greco-Roman issues. The gospel was likely composed in a Hellenistic environment, possibly in Antioch or cities in Asia Minor like Ephesus or Smyrna. The author of Luke also wrote the Acts of the Apostles.

Whether this is important or not is hard to say. Likely not, as the tradition of The Christmas Story is more important than biblical historical precision.

But while we are at it, the Apostle Paul who created Christianity as we know it today wrote his letters to the churches before the Gospels and the Book of Acts, between AD 48 and 64. While scholars debate the authenticity of some letters, there is consensus on seven letters being genuinely Pauline:

• 1.      Galatians (c. 48 AD)
• 2.      First Thessalonians (c. 49–51 AD)
• 3.      First Corinthians (c. 53–54 AD)
• 4.      Second Corinthians (c. 55–56 AD)
• 5.      Romans (c. 55–57 AD)
• 6.      Philippians (c. 57–59 or c. 62 AD)
• 7.      Philemon (c. 57–59 or c. 62 AD)[6]

These seven letters, along with three others (Second Thessalonians, Colossians, and Ephesians) whose authorship is debated, were likely written before the Gospels. Therefore, at least 7 and potentially up to 10 of Paul's letters were written before the Gospels.

How Nicholas, Bishop of Myra became Santa Claus

Click to enlarge

Tanya and I visited Turkey for the first time in July 2008. We went to an all-inclusive resort near Finike and used the opportunity to go exploring by boat along the coast. Lots to see. An island filled with goats, a city submerged by an earthquake a couple of millenia ago. And Myra, home bishopric of Saint Nicolas. These are pictures we took of Myra and of the ruins of St. Nicholas Cathedral which is now several meters below the surface and was in mist of archeological  recovery and restructuring. 

Tombs in the rock

Amphitheatre

Closeup of tombs in the rock

St. Nicholas Cathedral

St Nicholas Cathedral

St Nicholas Cathedral

For better and more recent pictures go to this website: https://www.sacred-destinations.com/turkey/kale-church-of-st-nicholas-myra

Where does Santa come from? An article in The Economist

How a miracle-working Greek bishop, Dutch folk figure and early New York icon became the ubiquitous symbol of Christmas.

St Nicholas was a fourth-century Greek bishop, today beloved in many Orthodox Christian countries. In western Europe he became known as the patron saint of children. (One of his supposed deeds was giving dowries to three girls who otherwise would have been forced into prostitution; another was restoring three children to life after they were chopped to pieces and pickled in brine.) His feast day, December 6th, was long one of celebration and gift-giving for the little ones.

The Reformation deprecated the veneration of saints, instead encouraging the Protestant faithful to focus on Jesus. When the English church stopped celebrating St Nicholas’s day, Christmas, a few weeks later, became the main festive December celebration. This would later cause a conflation of St Nicholas with the native Father Christmas, originally a separate figure (often depicted in green robes rather than red

The mystery begins to unravel when you remember another that he bears: St Nick. St Nicholas was a fourth-century Greek bishop, today beloved in many Orthodox Christian countries. In western Europe he became known as the patron saint of children. (One of his supposed deeds was giving dowries to three girls who otherwise would have been forced into prostitution; another was restoring three children to life after they were chopped to pieces and pickled in brine.) His feast day, December 6th, was long one of celebration and gift-giving for the little ones.

But to England’s colonies in America came many Dutch Protestants. Their taboo against venerating saints had weakened somewhat, and so some celebrated the gift-giving Sint Nicolaas, who had become a kind of folk figure with his name shortened to Sinterklaas. From there it is not hard to see how English-speakers around them heard something like “Santa Claus”, first mentioned as an alternative to “St Nicholas” in a newspaper in 1773. Charles Jones, a 20th-century American historian, argued that it was American patriots in New York after the revolution who embraced the celebration of St Nicholas, reaching back to New York’s history as a Dutch colony; a saint associated with the Dutch made a fitting anti-British symbol

The Santa Claus we know and love today is a product of The Night Before Christmas and Coca Cola with a step missing. This Saint Nicholas from mid 19th century served as the precurser to 1932's Coca-Cola Santa Claus. 

Thomas Nast 1880

Merry Christmas to all

The Shepherd by Fredrick Forsyth

 

In 1979, As It Happens debuted its reading of The Shepherd, narrated by then-host Alan Maitland, whose dulcet, comforting tones earned him the nickname "Fireside Al."

The year is 1957. An RAF pilot is heading home from Germany for Christmas. Fog sets in and all radio communication is lost.

For one Royal Air Force pilot, one last hurdle remains between himself and a cozy Christmas morning in England. A sixty-six-minute flight in his Vampire fighter plane from Germany to Lakenheath. A routine flight plan and a full tank of fuel. What could go wrong?

But as the fog begins to close in, the compass goes haywire and the radio dies, leaving him in silence, lost and alone up in the inky black sky. All hope seems lost as he accepts his fate when, out of nowhere, a vintage fighter-bomber appears and is miraculously trying to make contact.

For one lonely pilot this is a miracle, but really the mystery has just begun ... 

CBC Radio has aired this reading every Christmas Eve or close to it. I am listening to it as I write at this link. The Shepherd | CBC.ca. It is about 30 minutes. 

 The short book is avilable on Amazon. 

https://www.amazon.ca/Shepherd-Frederick-Forsyth/dp/1804943908/ref=sr_1_1

If you are a movie fan, John Travolta stars in this 2:29 movie from 2023.

https://youtu.be/VOqk3HxtWYo?si=sgLQIevRIBqWQODU

Christmas Letters

 Long long ago, in a land far away, that is the 50s when I was a kid, Christmas cards were a big thing. My grandfather made a rack that held about 100 and sometimes it filled up. I think it cost 3 cents to send one as long as the envelope wasnt sealed.

Before the days of social media, people kept in contact by letter. It became a tradition to send an annual Christmas letter to bring people up to date on kids and cousins etc. Some people were good at it, some people were not. My late wife loved to write letters and spent many a Sunday afternoon at the kitchen table cranking out letter after letter. Her Christmas letters were personal for many years but she got tired of repeating the same stuff so eventually went to photo copies.

We used to get Christmas letters but with Facebook and Instagram, we got fewer and fewer. I appreciate any we get. 

When she passed away, I continued to write with lots of pictures and only enough copy to hit the high spots. Twenty years worth make a nice history of my family growing up. I used to send by email and a couple by mail. This year the bulk of them went as attachments on Messenger, a few by email, and since the Post Office is on strike, my one brother is out of luck. He'll get his from my other brother at Christmas. 

Some people have no clue how to write a Christmas letter and go into every detail of the year's activities, almost day by day. People love to make fun of them and the examples below tell you why.

Click to embiggen

This is a bad photo copy of a Hallmark card. I hope you can read it. We wrote a take off and read it at our church christmas dinner. My aunt was in the congregation and told us afterwards that she thought it sounded familiar. We had in fact used some famous lines from her and her sister.

This article picks out the standard lines from typical letters and I have to admit I may be guilty of some of them, so I usually let my kids write their own paragraph.

I would love to get a letter like this. Or send one if I had the nerve

Happy Holidays to all who celebrate the 20 odd holy days from mid-November to mid-January

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

Mistakes come back to haunt you. In my case it was telling the lady with the bad cold, on the run from CSIS and the RCMP, to dump her phone through the sewer grate in front of my office. I should have shredded it first. The GPS on it was still working.

So it was inevitable that one day my door would be kicked open and two men in plain clothes but military haircuts, obviously CSIS, burst into my office with right hands under the left side of their jackets, “just in case”.

“Are you Rick O’Shea? Are you aware you may have committed treason?”.

“I am indeed Rick O’Shea. I have no idea what you are talking about.”

“If you don’t cooperate you may just disappear. We ask the questions; you give us answers or as they say in the movies, ‘vee haf vays uff making you talk’.

“We tracked a phone to the sewer in front of your office. We have reason to believe the owner of that phone gave you a flash drive with confidential information on it which instead of turning it over to the authorities, you forwarded the material to The Globe and Mail.

“Fortunately, we have people on the inside who caught the material before it reached anyone else, or it would have created a national crisis.”

(What? Ottawa paid off a Quebec engineering firm again? That is hardly earth-shaking news.) That wild guess flashed through my mind.  

“Why blame me? I admit a woman came in here in a panic. I didn’t ask who she was or what her business was. The less I know, the better. She must have found my name in the phone book, no idea. She wanted a passport to get her out of the country and a burner phone. She paid well. I got both for her and she left. I never even look inside the passport. I went with her to the airport but never got out of the taxi. If she had a flash drive maybe she sent the contents over her burner phone. I know nothing about it”.

“Except Pete Picket said you bought two burner phones, Smart Ass”. And he told us the name in the passport”.

“Since you seem to know everything, why are you bothering me?” These guys made me seem like an amateur. How did they find out about Pete “The Fence” Picket? I was beginning to think I needed to find a store that sells paddles ASAP, as I seemed to be without one.

“The woman, Kryztyna Agnieszka is her real name, works for a foreign agency, International Democracy Union, bent on influencing the Canadian federal election, shifting it to the extreme right. The information she gave you was forged but would have checked out. Publishing it in the Globe and Mail would have given it credibility and it would have brought down the government. No one with any sense believes anything in the National Post.

She must have figured you as a patsy that would buy her story, though she was right in that we were after her. Maybe you should check some of your clients out before you do the gallant knight routine. She must have paid you well from the looks of the Scotch you are drinking. Even better than how Matt Gaetz likes his whiskey – 12 years old and mixed up with coke.”

“So now what happens?”. I was wishing I hadn’t lied about the second burner. Lying to cops is bad. Lying to spooks is worse. My butt gripped the chair so tight that if they took me, the chair would come with me.

“Nothing. You got lucky. Also maybe find a better line of work. Something you are more suited for. I’d give you a suggestion, but you might be insulted.”

After they left, I thought long and hard about my life of sin, over the rest of my Scotch. Maybe I should become a TV preacher. Wear my collar backwards but not my pants. I could put a coat hanger in my mouth, smile like Joel Osteen, rake in millions from the rubes and live in a mansion the size of Windsor Castle.

About 10:30 there was a gentle knock on my door. . . 

Thanks, She Who Seeks

Rules for Humans with German Shepherds

 I need a sweater that says, "I am my German Shepherd's Support Human".

These are so funny if you own a German Shepherd Dog. I'm sure they apply to other large breed dogs too, but they certainly fit our GSD Lucky.

Transforming identity, bigotry’s war against the reality of gender diversity

Transgender people make up about 0.5% of the general population. However, the percentage of transgender individuals tends to be higher among younger age groups. About 1.43% of those aged 13-17 and 1.31% of those 18-24 identify as transgender. 

The complexity of sex and gender development

For whatever reason, in the past decade or so, the religious right, aka evangelicals, in both Canada and United States, have taken a visceral hatred towards Trans people to the point they would gas them if they could. (and Trump may yet provide the opportunity).

There have always been Trans people though we didn't call them that. As a kid in the 50's I knew about sex-change operations. People had them when the inside didn't match the outside. My parents, who were very conservative Christians, thought nothing of it. My neice remembers in her early teens watching a CBC documentary on sex-change operations with them and they were amazed at what could be done.    

So now the entire LGBTQ+ spectrum is under assault by "Christians". "There is no hatred like Christian love". Banning any books that could possibly include sexual diversity, firing teachers and harassing librarians. Claiming Drag Queens and age-appropriate sex education is grooming kids. Yet kids taught from Kindergarten the proper names for genetalia and that they have the right to say NO, are far safer from grooming. The groomers and pedophiles are all people in authority. Teaching kids to obey adults unquestioningly sets them up for  exploitation.

Sex is a way of categorizing physical characteristics. Gender is a way of characterizing a social construct, often based on the physical characteristics but is rooted in cultural interpretations of them. And is basically how do you feel inside.

Sex: male, female, intersex. Gender: boy/man, girl/woman, tomboy, gender fluid, nonbinary, femme, transfem, masc, transmasc, depending on culture. Cree and Blackfoot cultures include man/woman and woman/man as genders. In India hijra is the third gender.

Different types of Intersex

It is totally expected from biology that there should be transgender people. Only people who never got past Grade 6 science class still think sex and gender are binary. 

Grade six science

The SRY gene on the Y chromosome blocks certain gene expressions on the X chromosome. If a Y chromosome doesn’t have that gene, the default is female. Some people may have XY chromosomes and the SRY gene, (or XX chromosomes and an SRY gene), but don’t develop as a typical male because their hormone receptors aren’t complete. And that’s a spectrum. 

Rebecca Helm, a biologist and an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina, Asheville US writes:

Friendly neighborhood biologist here. I see a lot of people talking about biological sexes and gender right now. Lots of folks make biological sex seem really simple. Well, since it’s so simple, let’s find the biological roots, shall we? Let’s talk about sex.

If you know a bit about biology you will probably say that biological sex is caused by chromosomes, XX and you’re female, XY and you’re male. This is “chromosomal sex” but is it “biological sex”? Well...

Turns out there is only ONE GENE on the Y chromosome that really matters to sex. It’s called the SRY gene. During human embryonic development the SRY protein turns on male-associated genes. Having an SRY gene makes you “genetically male”. But is this “biological sex”?

Sometimes that SRY gene pops off the Y chromosome and over to an X chromosome. Surprise! So now you’ve got an X with an SRY and a Y without an SRY. What does this mean?

A Y with no SRY means physically you’re female, chromosomally you’re male (XY) and genetically you’re female (no SRY). An X with an SRY means you’re physically male, chromsomally female (XX) and genetically male (SRY). But biological sex is simple! There must be another answer...

Sex-related genes ultimately turn on hormones in specifics areas on the body, and reception of those hormones by cells throughout the body. Is this the root of “biological sex”??

“Hormonal male” means you produce ‘normal’ levels of male-associated hormones. Except some percentage of females will have higher levels of ‘male’ hormones than some percentage of males. Ditto ditto ‘female’ hormones. And...

...if you’re developing, your body may not produce enough hormones for your genetic sex. Leading you to be genetically male or female, chromosomally male or female, hormonally non-binary, and physically non-binary. Well, except cells have something to say about this...

Maybe cells are the answer to “biological sex”?? Right?? Cells have receptors that “hear” the signal from sex hormones. But sometimes those receptors don’t work. Like a mobile phone that’s on “do not disturb’. Call and call, they will not answer.

What does this all mean?

It means you may be genetically male or female, chromosomally male or female, hormonally male/female/non-binary, with cells that may or may not hear the male/female/non-binary call, and all this leading to a body that can be male/non-binary/female.

Try out some combinations for yourself. Notice how confusing it gets? Can you point to what the absolute cause of biological sex is? Is it fair to judge people by it?

Of course you could try appealing to the numbers. “Most people are either male or female” you say. Except that as a biologist professor I will tell you...

The reason I don’t have my students look at their own chromosome in class is because people could learn that their chromosomal sex doesn’t match their physical sex and learning that in the middle of a 10-point assignment is JUST NOT THE TIME.

Biological sex is complicated. Before you discriminate against someone on the basis of “biological sex” & identity, ask yourself: have you seen YOUR chromosomes? Do you know the genes of the people you love? The hormones of the people you work with? The state of their cells?

Since the answer will obviously be no, please be kind, respect people’s right to tell you who they are, and remember that you don’t have all the answers. Again: biology is complicated. Kindness and respect don’t have to be.

Note: Biological classifications exist. XX, XY, XXY XXYY and all manner of variation which is why sex isn't classified as binary. You can't have a binary classification system with more than two configurations even if two of those configurations are more common than others.

Biology is a shitshow. Be kind to people.

Grizzly 399, Queen of the Tetons. 1996-2024. Rest in Peace

 Grizzly 399, arguably the most famous grizzly bear in the world was struck and killed by an automobile on HIghway 89 in the Snake River Canyon, about 40 miles sosuth of Grand Teton National Park. She was traveling between Grand Teton National Park and Bridger-Teton National Forest. Her yearling male cub, Spirit, was with her but excaped unharmed. It is hoped he is old enough to survive on his own. They were likely headed to Pilgrim Creek in Wyoming to den up for the winter. She was cremated and her ashes spread along Pilgrim Creek in the Grand Teton national Park where she spent much of her life. 

Grizzley 399 and Spirit Sept 7, 2024

Highway 89 through Snake River Canyon

Pilgrim Creek, Wyoming

Grizzly 399  was born in a den in Pilgrim Creek, Wyoming, in the winter of 1996. She resided on federal land in a range of hundreds of miles throughout the Grand Teton National Park and the Bridger-Teton National Forest. 

Named for the identity tag affixed by researchers to her ear, she amazed all by continuing to reproduce into old age. Unlike many grizzly bears, she was often seen near roads in Grand Teton, drawing crowds and creating traffic jams. Scientists speculate such behavior kept male grizzlies at a distance so they would not be a threat to her cubs. Some believe male grizzlies kill cubs to bring the mother into heat. She taught her cubs road safety and how to take advantage of teh annual elk hunt by watching for elk kills and feasting on the entrails left behind by hunters.

Grizzly 399 became famous in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, as she raised three cubs near the roads of the park during the summers of 2006 and 2007, giving thousands the opportunity to observe the family in the wild. The spring of 2011, she again emerged with another set of triplets. She had 18 known cubs in eight litters over the years, and some have been spotted with cubs of their own.

“People from around the world have followed grizzly bear 399 for several decades. At 28 years old, she was the oldest known reproducing female grizzly bear in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem,” said Hilary Cooley, Grizzly Bear Recovery Coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. One of the most nateable photographers is Tom Mangelson whose book about 399 will be a collectors item. https://www.mangelsen.com/grizzly-399-bkgrizzly399.html

A great many videos of Grizzly 399 are available on YouTube. Greg Balvin and his wife Sandy are noted videographers of 399. https://www.youtube.com/@gregbalvin 

Other videos are here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0qjQZY1CgE&list=PLvxs_j5q540b8Nus7j9MTbNiiucEHmnfU&index=1

In 2020, at the age of 24 years, she appeared with four cubs, highly improbable for a grizzly, especially one of her age. Then her fame really took off. Troopers were required to keep order on the highway and keep people at a distance from the bears. They reappeared in spring 2021 and 2022 when she sent them on their way.

399 and her quads 2020

399 and her quads 2020

She was, is, and will remain a legend to all who saw her or followed her on Social media.

A memorial was held for her on October 30, 2024 sponsored by PBS. 

 https://www.youtube.com/live/xlwERB_zxcEi=IRSbsvx9f1z31aGi  

A candlelight vigil was held in Jackson WY. Nov 2^nd in her memory

https://www.youtube.com/live/vbYL55b4X-A?si=l65xmGdkTYp-VDkL

Jericho Hotel Foxtrot Charlie, Whiskey Tango Alpha Foxtrot

 Trying to blog or actually do anything this past week has been difficult but at least I didnt go back to chewing my fingernails. Or drinking, as I am too cheap to guzzle booze at Canadian prices.

Of course Trump has declared himself the winner and at first glance it does appear to be the case. However with record voter turnout and 20 million missing ballots, it aint over until the fat man is in jail.

The media all act like voting was normal but Kamala Harris was not only running against Trump, she was runing against decades of Republican voter suppresssion. That didn't seem news worthy when results were being reported.

She is wise not to concede. Counting is not complete and recounting has not even begun. 

Just read that she conceded. Like Gore in 2000

Karolina Protsenko - Five years on

 Five years ago I published a bog post about Karolina Protsenko, a young violinist of Ukrinian background who busks on the street in Santa Monica. She is now 16 and has simply gained in skill, fame and family memebers. She now has two liitle brothers, the older one often "helps" . . https://dablogfodder.blogspot.com/2019/12/httpsfaerieworlds.html

There is no end of music videos to post. 

https://karolinaprotsenko.com/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQxHhJ8BftT6AD9_yLyn49A

https://www.youtube.com/@KarolinaProtsenkoViolin

The Loneliness of Old Age

" Grow old along with me! the best is yet to be, the last of life, for which the first was made:" Rabbi ben Ezra by Robert Browning.

Sometimes things catch me unaware. I know 1974 was 50 years ago but this meme sort hit me hard, because it really felt like "just like that!" 

 

There was an article a while back, which of course I can't find now and the link below is not it, about how lonely centenarians feel. They may have friends, family, an active social life, yet there is an emptiness. Their peers have all died. They have buried both parents, a spouse, possibly a child, their siblings, several nieces and nephews, and too many friends and neighbors to count, longevity comes with a curse. It is the dull ache of loneliness — reflected in every framed family portrait; every personalized calendar; every faded snapshot stuck on the side of the fridge. All those people are gone, and they're still here.

It comes with the knowledge that for all they have experienced, there is no one left to share it with. Maybe that is the hardest part. The solitude of unshareable experience. My mother had couins that tipped the hundred, as did my father, one of whom is still alive. I wish I could sit down with her and ask about how she feels being so old.

I need another 23 years to hit 100. My FB friend Natalie and I have an agreement that when we hit the magic number we will tell people who ask the secret that we ate a pinecone every day for 40 years. 

The 70s were 50 years ago. The 60s were 60 years ago. Every time I listen to a song (and it is mostly when I listen to music) and realize it was 50 or 60 years ago that it was released, I feel lonely. Those were times that can never be repeated. Some of the people I knew then are still here but they too have changed. 

Global Transportation Hub Please No mo'e Moe

 “Conservative governments are such firm believers in private enterprise they will spend any amount of public dollars to make it work”.

The Sask Party has destroyed our Health Care and Education with gross underfunding (though they have money for private religious schools which need not follow government education standards). They have untold money for useless mega-projects such as the Global Transportation Hub, the Regina Bypass which costs Saskatchewan taxpayer roughly $10,000 per vehicle that uses it, and now an irrigation project that even KPMG’s feasibility study says cannot repay the principle costs in 50 years.

A transport hub is a place where passengers and cargo are exchanged between vehicles and/or between transport modes. Public transport hubs include railway stations, rapid transit stations, bus stops, tram stops, airports, and ferry slips.

Regina’s Global Transportation Hub Industrial Park (GTH) is an integrated transportation and logistics inland port designed to encourage manufacturing, value-added processing, warehousing and distribution operations in the heart of Western Canada, according to their website.

GTH according to their website

The GTH became the subject of controversy over its involvement in a land purchase that disproportionately benefited businessmen with personal ties to Sask Party MLA Bill Boyd (Wikipedia).

Loblaws was the first business to locate in the GTH. Their warehouse is a disaster as they did not take into account the nature of Regina’s clay soil when pouring the floor. If, as rumour has it, they may have attracted attention of a large American regional chain with their own distribution centre, it would likely close if a merger occurs.

Several City of Regina (Emterra) and provincial crown corporations (SaskTel, SaskPower, Sask Liquor and Gaming Commission) have located there but don’t really count as location decisions were politically made.

The largest company to locate there is a Cargill canola crushing plant on the far west edge of the GTH. However, no modern large scale crushing plant will be built without access to both rail lines, e.g. the Yorkton crushing plants, so the government must build a spur from CPKC and CN to the plant to allow unit trains. The government built a CPKC (South) rail spur to create an intermodal terminal for container transfer.   Now it must extend it to the Cargill plant and build a spur from the CN line to the Cargill plant - at what cost?. I would love to know why Cargill located there. What did they pay for the land? How much are they paying for utilities? The government is paying for the rail connections.

GTH showing location of Cargill plant and the CPKC rail spur and intermodal terminal

Please, in the upcoming election, No MOE, no mo’e.

Of Doctors and Dentists

 Canada has a nonrefundable Disability Tax. I dont qualify as I get all my tax back every year anyway. I need more income. But for fun, I made a list of all my disabilities. Then I wondered how it is I am still alive. But it does explain why I seem to be doctoring all the time. Once I see a cardiologist I will have seen every specialist but a gynocologist and an oncologist. 

Last week was no exception as I went for a CT scan. And also to a dentist. I had two extractions last year and one filling. In September I had two more extractions and a filling. Oct 2 I had a root canal and an extraction. I was 2.5 hours in the dental chair. The extraction took over an hour and a half. The 25 mm (1") root refused to budge and came out one small piece at a time. My dentist did an expert job and I have no quarel with him, only with my genetics as my father's teeth were the same way. 

My dentist was exhausted when he finished. I said that I expected he would sleep the Sleep of the Just that night, though others prefer the sleep of the just after. My jaw still aches and I take pain killers at night to sleep

My plan is to post on my blog one day and then read all the blogs I follow the next day. My energy this week was at an all time low so I didnt read anyone's blog. I managed to walk the dog every day. I promise to do better. Though there is a saying attributed to a member of the Soviet Politburo, "We tried to do better but the result was just the same". For some reason Tanya quotes that to me every so often.

Speaking of dogs, Lucky is racist.  Dog PAAWS provide volunteer dog walkers for old people who need them. I need a relief walker whenever I get my knee replacement and my cataracts removed. The organizer is an 84 year old woman who taught English in refugee camps around the world. She found a volunteer and brought him to our house one evening to meet us and Lucky. The volunteer is a second year pre-veteriany student from India with dog training experience. 

Lucky acepted the woman immediately and then took 5 minutes of barking before he accepted Dev. Dev is brown. Lucky has only seen non-white people in the dog park where he ignores them. In our home apparently it is a different matter. Lucky didn't phase Dev at all and we have been walking several times together now. Dev can run with him which I cant and Lucky loves that. But he still takes a minute to accept him when he arrives at our door. What a Doofus.

Lucky with his favourite toys - tennis balls to catch on the bounce

Abortion is Health Care

 The Religious Right aka Evangelicals are violently opposed to abortion. They want it outlawed with serious penalties for anyone having or supected of having an abortion, including miscarriages. At the same time they are opposed to policies that actually reduce abortions because they would be paid for by tax dollars. And because the life of the fetus isn't reaally the point. It is to punish women for enjoying teh same sexual freedom that men have always enjoyed. Women are simply to be baby machines at and for the pleasure of men. They love to say that the bible is opposed to abortion. Of course they really have to work hard to find some way for it to say that, because it isn't. 

The Founding Fathers whom they worship like Lenin or Ataturk were not opposed. 

Benjamin Franklin gave instructions on at-home abortions in a book in the 1700s

They claim to be pro-life but the life of the woman is irrelevent. 

Texas woman almost dies because she couldn’t get an abortion

Abortion Bans Have Delayed Emergency Medical Care. In Georgia, Experts Say This Mother’s Death Was Preventable.

This woman died because of an abortion ban. Americans fear they could be next.

A fertilized egg, an embryo, including one in a petri dish, or even a fetus is not a living human being.

98.7% of abortions occure in the first 20 weeks

In a heartbeat

If it were about babies

Pete Buttigieg on Late Term Abortions

Eight cell embryo ready for IVF implantation

From Mother Jones

Note: Links are in bold

A dogs breakfast of memes and cartoons (some NSFW)

 

Find the wavy line

Rooster at Joyce Vance's chicken yard

My son's grade 7 class did this skit 35 years ago