Dog On A Root

 

 

- jim Young A lack of transparency results in a distrust and a deep sense of insecurity.” - Dalai Lama An election will soon be held here in Canada and to be 100% honest, I’m not sure at this time who I will or should be voting for.  The problem is, I don’t believe any of the people or parties that are my available options, best represent me and  ALL of the things that I believe will be the most important issues over the next few years. (Come to think of it, when rereading that last sentence, I just realized I could  have just as easily ended it at the second comma.) I feel like we are scraping the bottom of the barrel and may be left with the lesser of the evils as our choice for Prime Minister. That’s not a particularly good feeling. We deserve to have the luxury of deciding among the cream of the crop, not the lesser of the evils. I don’t believe in the adage that EVERYONE should vote. Mike Wolfe, an economics teacher I had in college once suggested, “Democracy is a gr...

 

School Days - jim Young "It wasn't just school to me, it was the chapter I never wanted to end." - anon Some of you probably know by now that I grew up in the small communities of Stroud and Painswick. Not unlike some of the local rural schools in the Argyle areas today, the schools were small and each classroom would be filled with 2 or 3 grades. It wasn't uncommon that we would find ourselves in the same class as an older sibling or cousin. In the first grade, the school I attended in Stroud was a two storey building that accommodated Grades 1 to 8. There were 2 entrances for grades 3 to 8 whose classrooms were on the main and upper level. One entrance was for the boys and the other for the girls who all had to line up and wait to enter the building before literally marching in upon the teacher’s command. Stroud School on the corner of Highway 11 and the 10th line in Stroud. Built in 1923. The lineups for Grades one and two however, weren’t segregated by sex. But it...

- jim Young "To him that will, ways are not wanting. (Or Where there's a will, there's a way. - from Jacula Prudentum by George Herbert, 1640. I don't know who Kenneth Simon is, nor do I know his Uncle Art. However, Kenneth recently posted this photo on Facebook with the following caption. "My Great Uncle Art in 1957, proudly showing off his invention: the TV remote. A pole with something on the end that fit around the dial and changed the channel. Life was good!" This was a good hack that Uncle Art created in the early days of TV; however it had its weaknesses. While Uncle Art could now change channels from the comfort of his arm chair he still had no remote control for the on/off switch or volume. I never really considered not being able to turn the television off or on from my spot on the couch a hardship. I figured it was just as easy for me to turn the tv ON before I sat down and then simply turn it OFF as I walked past the tv on my way to bed. Having a ...

 

  You can bet Trump didn't actually "buy" the car, nor did Musk "give" it to him. Chances are all those other people that can't afford the car are the ones ultimately paying for it. To add insult to injury, TRUMP is the reason the economy has tanked leaving these people unable to afford to buy their own car. And to think... it was just a few years ago that Trump had THIS to say about the Tesla and Elon Musk.

- jim Young That’s right, we need to take back America. The good citizens of the United States have referred to themselves as “Americans” for so long that the label “American” has become synonymous with the people of the United States. But that’s not accurate. The “United States of America” was chosen as their official name on September 9, 1776 but that does not give them exclusive right to the American moniker. While all people that are citizens of the United States may be Americans, it does not follow that all Americans are citizens of the United States. There are a total of 23 countries that make up North America and another 12 in South America. The total population of the “Americas” is over 1 billion people. That’s 1 billion Americans! Why are the people of the U.S. the only country in these continents being referred to as Americans? There are no other countries in the world that are named the “United States”. There is no “United States of Europe” or no “United States of Africa” th...

 

 

- jim Young “For the apparel oft proclaims the man.” - William Shakespeare, (Hamlet, Act 1, sc. 3.) If the proverb that “clothes makes the man” is true then I’ll take a dozen XL sets of the clothing that Volodymyr Zelenskyy wore to his recent meeting with Trump at the Oval Office.  Contrary to what a couple of thugs like Trump and his Yoko Ono sidekick, J.D. Vance would have you believe, Zelenskyy is the embodiment of “respect”, a quality that is sorely lacking in most politicians today and non-existent in Trump and Vance. It all began the moment Zelenskyy stepped out of his car at the White House to greet the President. The first words out of Trump’s mouth were, “You’re all dressed up today.”   Trump’s first words of greeting to Zelenskyy were a feeble attempt at intimidation. Most negotiation experts recommend setting the stage with a friendly rapport, but Trump chose, as he often does, intimidation. Seriously? Trump thinks he has bone spurs big enough to intimidate someone...