My teenage daughter’s recent purchase of a health/nutrition book has changed her life forever. One chapter was devoted to the topic of the cruel, inhumane ~ treatment of animals ~ at slaughterhouses. Well, this topic is enough to turn anyone into a vegetarian no matter how kindly it’s written. In this case it wasn’t written kindly at all. So, of course, she’s decided to stop eating meat and I don’t blame her.




Eating meat is not difficult if you don’t know the grizzly details of a day in the life of a slaughterhouse employee. You wonder who would want to work in a place like that but just be grateful that they do because meat is a staple in our diet.

So, I enlightened her by explaining that the production of our food is subsidized by the Government through our tax dollars and how that works. Suddenly, it came to my mind what our pets eat. I don’t have any pets at this time but I have had cats in the past. I fed them canned food … chicken, ham, beef, lamb. I’ve been noticing lately just how many people keep pets these days and how many people keep more than one pet. The Humane Society’s advertisements of animal abuse is seen often in the newspapers and TV and they encourage us to adopt a pet.



To think that a portion of these farm animals are being slaughtered to feed our kittens and puppies and, therefore, the Government subsidizes the production of pet food with our tax dollars. I wonder what they feed the animals at the ~ Zoos ~ across the Country? Is the Humane Society taking sides? By endorsing pet ownership are they killing farm animals and keeping people employed in slaughterhouses? Wouldn’t these slaughterhouse workers prefer working in forestry planting and cutting down trees or in the Post Office delivering mail?




Not too long ago I posted a ~ comment ~ on this blog from an article I read in the newspaper.

What can we do about this situation? Can the Government impose a limit on the number of pets we own in an effort to cut down on the number of farm animals sent to slaughter without enraging the public and provoking riots? Some apartments don’t allow pets. Maybe this will catch on thereby reducing pet ownership dramatically considering how many apartments there are in this City?

~ Maybe someone can start a trend? ~

~But who am I to tell anyone that they shouldn’t own pets?~



Then I remembered the Bible passage:

`

~Genesis~ 0l:26: And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

`

And so, as “Man” in the eyes of God, I feel an obligation to discourage people to own pets and to boycott
 ~ Zoos ~ because the slaughter of farm animals is cruel and inhumane no matter how you look at it.

Then, just when you thought you've got it all covered, along comes:

~ Another Point of View ~

Well, there's no argument about this one!  Just as people have their own carbon footprint, pets also have carbon pawprints.  The cows and pigs their owners feed them also have a carbon hoofprint.  Yes, even if the farm animals only breathe, eat and shit (which releases methane gas as it composts) they contribute to our planet's climate change problem.  So do our Zoo animals and so do all the animals that roam freely over the vast  hinterland across our Country.

`

We've just started a new school year and back to a routine and schedule. I haven't been with my daughters for several years but my youngest has moved back with me so she can attend college and now we have to get to know each other all over again and set new boundaries. So the other day we had a heated argument because I tried to pull rank ... ... and my daughter thinks ... ...

`

"YOU (me, her mother) think YOU can control MY life!"

`

"No, dear. YOU control MY life!"

`

"What do you want me to do? Do you want me to kill myself?

You want me to die, don't you?"

`

"No, not YOU! ME! I don't deserve this!

I deserve to die and go to heaven!"

`

And this will suffice ... ... until we reach our next hurdle.

I started ~this blog~ awhile ago, but with all my computer skills, I still can't find my way around the site. So I think I'll leave it here and I'll get back to it.

*

My computer is back in working order - minor details.

*

~ C'est La Vie ~

*

Alright! I admit it! I've been blogging on the job. Minor details. See, my computer crashed and I didn't want to stop my flow of creativity ~ and ~ it was on my lunch hour on the most part ~ and ~ my bosses were on vacation (they always are) ~ and ~ I had time to kill. Well, they know and now I.T. has blocked access to blogspots and YouTubes for the entire Company! Low blow!

*

Well, my computer is repaired and re-installed now, so - not to worry. Now that I've been reconnected, looks like all my YouTubes have been disabled! Oh, no! Now what do I do? All that work! Maybe it's just on my end. Who do I call? YouTube has no contact info and my Computer Repairman is on vacation. I'm getting pop-ups telling me my Java Script is not turned on or I have an old version of Adobe Flash Player. I tried to download the new version with no luck. It'll take awhile to get going again.

MADONNA'S LATEST

*

~ LIVE EARTH CONCERT ~

7-7-07

*

Are YOU talking to ME?

What To Do With Doggie Doo!

Well, my plans for buying a puppy have been foiled!

The cost of a puppy was a bit much, $1,000 to $1,600 for the breeds I liked at the pet store. Then I watched the YouTube on Dog Abuse at the ~Puppy Mill~ with Charlize Theron and Oprah also took a stand on ~Puppy Mills~.  Well, let’s give this some thought. I’ll find the right answer.
Then there it was in the newspaper:

~ THE TORONTO STAR ~


What was that he said? Too much doggie doo in the garbage in “My Toronto”.

~ What to do with all this doggie doo? ~

Now that I think about it, all I’ve been hearing over the past few years is that we Torontonians make ~ too much garbage, too much garbage, too much garbage! ~ But just who is making all this garbage? Well, now we know that these doggies add a heap to it. I hear Paris, France, has more dogs than people but do they complain about what their doggies do? What do they do with their doggie doo?
Let’s ask for their advice.

I can see it now in International News ~ Toronto is drowning in garbage and doggie doo. Is this good publicity? And the doggies are doing their part. What must the rest of the world be thinking about “My Toronto”! Who’s running this City? What does he know? Always complaining about the amount of garbage we make. Doesn’t every metropolis in the world make too much garbage?

I want to propose we present “My Toronto” in a positive light! There are good things about “My Toronto”. The rest of the planet doesn’t have to know that we make all this garbage and so do our doggies.

~ No one has to know! ~

Toronto Sick Children’s Hospital has been running a “Radio-thon” all week. Every time I turn on my car the radio station is campaigning to raise money for this Medical Institution by promoting the wonderful care and the “miracles” they perform through interviews with patients and family members.

They missed me! The reason being, I did not have a good experience with the hospital.

All things put aside, “HAS IT COME TO THIS!” Sick Children’s Hospital is literally begging for contributions from the general public. I thought it was our Government’s responsibility to provide a medical system for us through their budget by spending our tax dollars.

What was that you said? IT’S NOT ENOUGH! THEY ASK FOR MORE!

It’s been awhile now that after we pay our taxes, we’re expected to kick in even more by making donations to an evergrowing list of charities to keep this wonderful Country of ours operating.

Not too long ago we had a medical system and social system without the need for the Ordinary Joe to empty their pockets, deplete their savings and live off lines of credit using the homes as collateral, in part so they can participate in "Walk-a-thons", “Run-a-thons”, “Skip-a-thons”, "Swim-a-thons", "Bike-a-thons", “Starve-a-thons” and “Perform-a-thons” as an incentive for people to make larger donations.

~ And one day we’ll all be dead and nothing will matter! ~

MY SPEEDING TICKET

Last week, while speeding, I was stopped by the Police and she was so kind to notice, in addition to my speeding, that I didn’t have a 2008 sticker on my plate and I was fined $110 on top of my speeding ticket.

I would like to bring to the Ministry’s attention that I prepaid for two years and did not receive a new sticker in the mail, nor did I receive any notice that I was to renew the sticker in January. They must be having problems keeping track of this option to renew bi-annually.

Unfortunately, I now have a ticket for $110.00 and, to avoid additional charges, have renewed my license sticker for another $74.00. To think that the fine for not having one is more than the cost of the sticker! I don’t think this is fair that I should have to pay this additional expense since this was their error and I sent this as an e-mail and I will send a letter by mail to The Ministry office to try to rectify this situation. It’s ironic that at this time, this is an unaffordable expense for me since I have been unable to find work for five (5) years and I am employed on a temporary basis off and on earning a mere pittance, and, on the day I was issued this ticket, it cost me more to go to work than what I earned that day.

I also think that this method of issuing these stickers is archaic! Let’s not forget this is “The Age of Technology” and we now have space stations in outer space. After all, what is $74.00 a year? A mere pittance if you think about it. Can’t this charge be absorbed through all those taxes we pay for gas? I can’t imagine that it even covers the expenses of staffing, leasing, furnishing, producing the sticker, designing and supplying all those forms required to get the finished product. I think this is just a way of complicating our lives every year as we stand in the line up to get these stickers and giving us one more burden and timeline to meet.

Is this sticker really necessary? Can’t we find a better way?

OUR DAILY BREAD

Several years ago when I was living in suburbia and was an at home Mom (there were lots of us in the neighborhood), I purchased a breadmaker. It was a novelty at the time and everyone else in the neighborhood had one. The bread recipe called for skim milk powder. I had never used skim milk powder before but I picked up a bag next time I went shopping. Well, that bag went a long way since I only used one tablespoon per loaf.

One day I thought, “Look how many trips to the store I’m saving myself to buy a loaf of bread because I can make a loaf whenever necessary.” Bread is something I always ran out of and had to make a special trip to the store for.

Then one day I ran out of milk and realized I could use that skim milk powder and save that trip to the store until grocery day. I didn’t particularly like the taste but in coffee and for the kid’s cereal it was a great idea.

Now I realize I didn’t really need that second car because, after all, I used it a lot for trips to the store to pick up bread and milk when I ran out. I could have called a taxi for those necessary trips to the Doctor’s Office, etc, etc., and there would have still been a savings since I didn’t have to pay for insurance, gas, maintenance and let’s not forget depreciation on the vehicle.

My mother didn’t have a car. She didn’t even have a drivers’ license. Wow! She really was good at economizing. Think of all the money I could have saved! Why did we have that second car? Well, we lived in suburbia and everyone else had two cars.

What a difference a breadmaker can make to a person’s life!