Friday, May 15, 2015.
Oh MY! I have horrible news - I have done the math. ten thousand hours, that mythical milestone to get good at something - at my rate of three hours a day (which is an exaggeration) times 5, d will take me twelve years to get good at Blogging.
So, if I had practiced the piano for eight hours a day, like Mr. Bedford said, and all concert pianist know to be true - four years would have been my ticket to the stage.
This is a fabulous math lesson to teach kids in grade seven.
"Hey kids - do you have any idea what you want out of life? Ten thousand hours of dedication will get you to the chance to participate".
Seriously. Is this really guaranteed? I struggle with the idea of parenting, and how to motivate kids to try their best. I attended a wonderful surprise wedding last week - my friend who has tried her best her whole life, and has been bashed and crushed and punched, got married. She faced breast cancer, and never complained. She now has faced ovarian cancer. She did not need 10,000 hours of practice in fighting the cancer. She has faced all of her difficulties without complaining, wearing a smile and always talking about pleasant things. Am I missing the point about the axiom?
I will work on what I am trying to express for another 11 years, my time is up for tonight.
And that is how I learned that to be a part time author ain't good.
Friday, May 15, 2015
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Seinfeld on the Twenty!!
Tuesday, May 12, 2015.
Oh my goodness!!! What I have done since I last posted!!!
I delivered the sequence of events regarding my tale, and I AVOIDED ALL CONVERSATIONS that would involve any negotiationsa taking place! As a sage of how to talk to 'Devils' (a skill I developed going through my hell) I have taken a break!! Just for a quick update....The Magician, sold the Alabama house...we hired a mover, there were some complications, I drove with Natalie in my Canadian tagged vehicle, as I feared having the jet asset (the easy option) damaged by Hail, packed up, shipped out, and today, after spending a brutal day, sat down to watch NBC - and Lester HOLT
Passing thought about my Blog.
Some of my friends asked "why are you blogging?", "who do you want to reach out to?"
"did you give up blogging for Lent?" and my favourite
"please continure to Blog, I like reading your S ___t!"
I have been faithful to NBC nightly news since Brian Williams fell from Grace. I have always liked how Anne Curry and Lester Holt read the news - and so I try to support them by sending emails to NBC and watching to boost ratings.
TONIGHT MAKES ME BLOG!!!
Hey America!!! As a Canadaian - I have no right to comment on the way you conduct business....but the twenty dollar bill story just make me go insane.
What group started this STUPID STUPID STUPID IDEA?
As a woman who has talked about the Sisters of Loretto from the 16th Century,
duh?
You are changing a TWENTY DOLLAR BILL?
Canada eliminated a dollar bill and the 2 dollar bill with a cheap coin.
"MAKE IT RIGHT ON THE MONEY"???? is the closing quote from the correspondent?
Dear people of Earth,
Money, is not the answer to correct the evils of this world. We have bad boys, and accomplices who happen to be women, who continue to do all sort of super bad things. May I suggest, after the ordeal that I witnessed and lived through last year, I understand that MONEY CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY.
You cannot right a wrong, nor re-write history by changing your past, or erasing it America. Why was Andrew Jackson put on the TWENTY IN THE FIRST PLACE? We live in a world where men abuse women, and call it religion, we watch racism do its evils since 1492, to today, WW 2, with ethnic cleansing, and WOMEN are still waiting to celebrate the Centential anniversary of the right to vote in the Western countries!?!?!?!?
WHY NOT PUT A FEMALE ON THE ONE MILLION DOLLAR BILL AND THUS, GIVE WOMAN, THE VALUE SHE IS WORTH?
WHY NOT TELL THE REST OF THE WORLD, WITHOUT SACRIFICING SONS AND DAUGHTERS THAT YOU SEND INTO THE BATTLE FIELD, " We love and respect women".
What the funky are you thinking???
People of America - and NBC???
You need Jerry Seinfelf to crack the code of America! He could see the absurd.
Oh my goodness!!! What I have done since I last posted!!!
I delivered the sequence of events regarding my tale, and I AVOIDED ALL CONVERSATIONS that would involve any negotiationsa taking place! As a sage of how to talk to 'Devils' (a skill I developed going through my hell) I have taken a break!! Just for a quick update....The Magician, sold the Alabama house...we hired a mover, there were some complications, I drove with Natalie in my Canadian tagged vehicle, as I feared having the jet asset (the easy option) damaged by Hail, packed up, shipped out, and today, after spending a brutal day, sat down to watch NBC - and Lester HOLT
Passing thought about my Blog.
Some of my friends asked "why are you blogging?", "who do you want to reach out to?"
"did you give up blogging for Lent?" and my favourite
"please continure to Blog, I like reading your S ___t!"
I have been faithful to NBC nightly news since Brian Williams fell from Grace. I have always liked how Anne Curry and Lester Holt read the news - and so I try to support them by sending emails to NBC and watching to boost ratings.
TONIGHT MAKES ME BLOG!!!
Hey America!!! As a Canadaian - I have no right to comment on the way you conduct business....but the twenty dollar bill story just make me go insane.
What group started this STUPID STUPID STUPID IDEA?
As a woman who has talked about the Sisters of Loretto from the 16th Century,
duh?
You are changing a TWENTY DOLLAR BILL?
Canada eliminated a dollar bill and the 2 dollar bill with a cheap coin.
"MAKE IT RIGHT ON THE MONEY"???? is the closing quote from the correspondent?
Dear people of Earth,
Money, is not the answer to correct the evils of this world. We have bad boys, and accomplices who happen to be women, who continue to do all sort of super bad things. May I suggest, after the ordeal that I witnessed and lived through last year, I understand that MONEY CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY.
You cannot right a wrong, nor re-write history by changing your past, or erasing it America. Why was Andrew Jackson put on the TWENTY IN THE FIRST PLACE? We live in a world where men abuse women, and call it religion, we watch racism do its evils since 1492, to today, WW 2, with ethnic cleansing, and WOMEN are still waiting to celebrate the Centential anniversary of the right to vote in the Western countries!?!?!?!?
WHY NOT PUT A FEMALE ON THE ONE MILLION DOLLAR BILL AND THUS, GIVE WOMAN, THE VALUE SHE IS WORTH?
WHY NOT TELL THE REST OF THE WORLD, WITHOUT SACRIFICING SONS AND DAUGHTERS THAT YOU SEND INTO THE BATTLE FIELD, " We love and respect women".
What the funky are you thinking???
People of America - and NBC???
You need Jerry Seinfelf to crack the code of America! He could see the absurd.
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Germanwings, elections and idealists
Friday, March 27, 2015.
Years ago in 1974, when I visited the original location of the Courtauld Institute in London, I discovered one of the most divine collection of pictures. Two of my favourite paintings were there - a painting in sepia/umber of Don Quixote and another painting, a Manet still life a vase with lilacs.
Tonight Turner Classic Movies featured the musical 'Man of la Manch' with Peter O'toole, a 'one star feature', and I am struck by the fact that the screenplay has so many healing words so important to remind humanity, far from the original work of Cervantes, but very lovely nevertheless. 'To dream the impossible dream, to right the unrightable wrong, to bear with unbearable sorrow....to reach the unreachable star'.
Truly inspirational lyrics, but screenplay that registered with me "You are a fat pudding".
MMMM
I am struck by our modern global problems and the counterpoint, that the battle between evil and common good goes back for centuries, the debate captured by great literary minds, great philosophers and idealist, and that is how I learned I should stop writing about large ideas. I just wanted to expose the Tale of Greg in my blog, and the abuse of federal monies by Republicans and Democrats as the tenth anniversary of Katrina is fast approaching. An election is looming and a cycle of deceit begins.
Years ago in 1974, when I visited the original location of the Courtauld Institute in London, I discovered one of the most divine collection of pictures. Two of my favourite paintings were there - a painting in sepia/umber of Don Quixote and another painting, a Manet still life a vase with lilacs.
Tonight Turner Classic Movies featured the musical 'Man of la Manch' with Peter O'toole, a 'one star feature', and I am struck by the fact that the screenplay has so many healing words so important to remind humanity, far from the original work of Cervantes, but very lovely nevertheless. 'To dream the impossible dream, to right the unrightable wrong, to bear with unbearable sorrow....to reach the unreachable star'.
Truly inspirational lyrics, but screenplay that registered with me "You are a fat pudding".
MMMM
I am struck by our modern global problems and the counterpoint, that the battle between evil and common good goes back for centuries, the debate captured by great literary minds, great philosophers and idealist, and that is how I learned I should stop writing about large ideas. I just wanted to expose the Tale of Greg in my blog, and the abuse of federal monies by Republicans and Democrats as the tenth anniversary of Katrina is fast approaching. An election is looming and a cycle of deceit begins.
Earth Day and Peach Production and Carnivores
April 22, 2015.
Earth Day
I have neglected to tell you that Betty brought me into an environmental issue.
The Cheltenham Badlands, and since today is Easth Day, I sent a greeting to all of the people involved with the issue as a jab and now I think it is important to tell the tale of trying to be an activists.
I happen to live near the Cheltenham Badlands, and the house I built, is on the world Biosphere called the 'Niagara Escarpment' - which actually translates to "lets talk big and say that we love the environment in the text of the laws of Ontario, but actually, let un-elected Government employees do what they want" and I am not kidding!
So, this is not my focus of my blog of passing thoughts, I did write Chapter One, and I am waiting for Chapter Two when it is safe to do so, and so I digress. Please bear with me while I try to explain a very tedius sequence of events. The Ministry of Natural Resources and the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Heritage both oversee the Cheltenham Badlands. The land became property of the People of Ontario in 2000. Last year, the NEC gave their approbal to pave a million dollar parking lot for 30 cars on this unique land formation, to enable more visitors to have safe access to site. Since 2000, not a penny was spent to uphold the Bill Of Environmental Rights as passed by the Government. Clearly the elected Ministers do not read every law that affects their Ministires. The Ontario Government has owned the land for 13 years and yet has done nothing to "preserve or protect", but the people who live near the site have watched the gradual destruction of the Badlands as the popularity of the site has increased, almost on a daily basis. The proposed parking lot would allow 'safe' access to the site, an "Area of Natural and Scientific Interest"(ANSI) and "Environmentally Sensitive Area" (ESA) as recognized by the Government of Ontario. Betty wrote a letter, after receiving a notice of "permit" to develop, asking what exactly would the parking lot do to protect and preserve the land, and Pandora's box opened! She has become the appellant, and there is a major appeal, costing taxpayers more money and possibly leading to and OMB hearing. Newly elected Councillors have approached her to 'drop' her campaign. WOW! So today, on Earth Day, I think it is important to remember that the dinosaurs once ruled the earth. Today - with mass migration from developing countries and you name it, I don't know, there are too many people fishing the oceans and climbing Mount Everest and walking dogs and camping and partying on the Cheltenham Badlands, and it goes on and on, why would you approve paving over land that you know is unique and not restrict access? Especially when you have paid for studies that document its destruction?
And that is how I learned that Government is all about smoke and mirrors, and why on Earth Day I write that the power to preserve the earth should not be in the hands of humans. The earth should belong to man eating carnivores. Please read my blog about GO ZONE BONDS
Earth Day
I have neglected to tell you that Betty brought me into an environmental issue.
The Cheltenham Badlands, and since today is Easth Day, I sent a greeting to all of the people involved with the issue as a jab and now I think it is important to tell the tale of trying to be an activists.
I happen to live near the Cheltenham Badlands, and the house I built, is on the world Biosphere called the 'Niagara Escarpment' - which actually translates to "lets talk big and say that we love the environment in the text of the laws of Ontario, but actually, let un-elected Government employees do what they want" and I am not kidding!
So, this is not my focus of my blog of passing thoughts, I did write Chapter One, and I am waiting for Chapter Two when it is safe to do so, and so I digress. Please bear with me while I try to explain a very tedius sequence of events. The Ministry of Natural Resources and the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Heritage both oversee the Cheltenham Badlands. The land became property of the People of Ontario in 2000. Last year, the NEC gave their approbal to pave a million dollar parking lot for 30 cars on this unique land formation, to enable more visitors to have safe access to site. Since 2000, not a penny was spent to uphold the Bill Of Environmental Rights as passed by the Government. Clearly the elected Ministers do not read every law that affects their Ministires. The Ontario Government has owned the land for 13 years and yet has done nothing to "preserve or protect", but the people who live near the site have watched the gradual destruction of the Badlands as the popularity of the site has increased, almost on a daily basis. The proposed parking lot would allow 'safe' access to the site, an "Area of Natural and Scientific Interest"(ANSI) and "Environmentally Sensitive Area" (ESA) as recognized by the Government of Ontario. Betty wrote a letter, after receiving a notice of "permit" to develop, asking what exactly would the parking lot do to protect and preserve the land, and Pandora's box opened! She has become the appellant, and there is a major appeal, costing taxpayers more money and possibly leading to and OMB hearing. Newly elected Councillors have approached her to 'drop' her campaign. WOW! So today, on Earth Day, I think it is important to remember that the dinosaurs once ruled the earth. Today - with mass migration from developing countries and you name it, I don't know, there are too many people fishing the oceans and climbing Mount Everest and walking dogs and camping and partying on the Cheltenham Badlands, and it goes on and on, why would you approve paving over land that you know is unique and not restrict access? Especially when you have paid for studies that document its destruction?
And that is how I learned that Government is all about smoke and mirrors, and why on Earth Day I write that the power to preserve the earth should not be in the hands of humans. The earth should belong to man eating carnivores. Please read my blog about GO ZONE BONDS
Thursday, March 26, 2015
Senseless murder
March 26, 2015
I repeat, The opinions expressed in this blog are solely my own.
The horrific news coming from the voice recordings taken from the Germanwings 'black box' really makes it hard to be funny, but I am still working on that.
I would like to start a movement to radicalize people to persue the common good. I would really like to see a movement that unifies people with a goal of love and respect for one another and to work on making earth a better place for the people of earth and the animals of earth. I just don't know where to start this process.
How is fire and blood and explosions and death ingredients for joy and love and peace?
I repeat, The opinions expressed in this blog are solely my own.
The horrific news coming from the voice recordings taken from the Germanwings 'black box' really makes it hard to be funny, but I am still working on that.
I would like to start a movement to radicalize people to persue the common good. I would really like to see a movement that unifies people with a goal of love and respect for one another and to work on making earth a better place for the people of earth and the animals of earth. I just don't know where to start this process.
How is fire and blood and explosions and death ingredients for joy and love and peace?
Monday, March 23, 2015
Lee Kuan Yew and The Lady Peach
March 23, 2015
So the Latvian brain isn't as big as one claimed, some Bloggers are super successful, and have created multi-million dollar businesses thanks to having millions of followers. Today I am going to try to think about how to become more popular and generate interest in The Peach, as obviously fashion and style have more appeal than the topic of justice. I guess that saying "that's not fair", just sounds like belly aching, cry-baby stuff and a real turn off!
In truth, I have focused on the precept that "I am better than you" creates problems. Last week, I had the passing thought that there must be a way to present ideas, without that irritating and provactive edge, (I am better than you), just like math is taught. Teaching addition and subtraction is very straight forward and every teacher has many ways to present the lessons. Mme. Montessori famously brought tactile things into 'Casa' for 3 and 4 year olds to learn abstract thinking at an ealier age, rather than just teaching by rote. There has to be a way to present good ideas, better ideas and the best ideas known currently, to childern without finger pointing. Co-incidently, CBS this morning showed a clip from an old interview with Charlie Rose and Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, and Yew said that his whole agenda for Singapore was to provide education for his people which in turn would lead to better lives for people, because everyone wants to eat and be happy.
So, how am I going to increase my popularity - and bring my message to people who don't have the means to have a computer or internet access? This is going to require some pondering. First I have to research how many people fall into that demographic in North America and then work on lighter subjects. I need to be amusing, and then somehow get back to the justice and truth topic. HMMMMM.
So the Latvian brain isn't as big as one claimed, some Bloggers are super successful, and have created multi-million dollar businesses thanks to having millions of followers. Today I am going to try to think about how to become more popular and generate interest in The Peach, as obviously fashion and style have more appeal than the topic of justice. I guess that saying "that's not fair", just sounds like belly aching, cry-baby stuff and a real turn off!
In truth, I have focused on the precept that "I am better than you" creates problems. Last week, I had the passing thought that there must be a way to present ideas, without that irritating and provactive edge, (I am better than you), just like math is taught. Teaching addition and subtraction is very straight forward and every teacher has many ways to present the lessons. Mme. Montessori famously brought tactile things into 'Casa' for 3 and 4 year olds to learn abstract thinking at an ealier age, rather than just teaching by rote. There has to be a way to present good ideas, better ideas and the best ideas known currently, to childern without finger pointing. Co-incidently, CBS this morning showed a clip from an old interview with Charlie Rose and Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, and Yew said that his whole agenda for Singapore was to provide education for his people which in turn would lead to better lives for people, because everyone wants to eat and be happy.
So, how am I going to increase my popularity - and bring my message to people who don't have the means to have a computer or internet access? This is going to require some pondering. First I have to research how many people fall into that demographic in North America and then work on lighter subjects. I need to be amusing, and then somehow get back to the justice and truth topic. HMMMMM.
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Tesla the Genius and Peaches
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Opinions expresssed are solely my own and are not those of anyone else, or any business.
My Blog began January 1 2015.
Sufficient time has passed since November 2013, for plenty of wounds to heal. Natalie went to the Dermatologist today - and next week will actually be the one week anniversary of my visit after the melanoma surgery, and able to see my doctor after sitting in Alabama. Because of the melanoma experience, I am now very pro-active about spot and dots and moles, and so I made appointments for Greg et al to be screened when they came to Florida. It is so easy to get to see qualified people, not like back in Ontario!!! BOO Hiss.
Greg is fine, thankfully all of his dark spots were thought to be OK, but Natalie did have an 'ugly duckling syndrome' removed: translation? A mole that does not look like any other on your body is thought to be an ugly duckling and should be investigated.
Based on my own personal experience, I am not worried as I know we are on top of this concern.
But I digress.
I went to Barnes and Noble last week to pick up a copy of "America's Test Kitchen - The Complete Vegetarian Cookbook" and while wandering about the brick and mortar store I saw a 20% discount sticker on a book titled "TESLA", and of course I purchased it after reading the rave reviews featured on the back cover. Actually, it was with some degree of difficulty that I actually found what I was looking for, and I had to ask a store clerk to help me. Her hours were cut after the Christmas season, apparently sales were not as good as they expected at the store, and so she cannot organize everything alphabetically, in the less than 20 hours she is given weekly. Of course B and N can't compete with Amazon - but I sure will miss all of the old fashioned experience of wandering aimlessly and the accidental discovery (much like used to happen in the library with index cards), of a fascinating book, a new trajectory for an attention defficit syndrome brain and explorer! I pine away for the dead - those were great mental gymnastics, were they not? Natalie and Karina never experienced the imaginary travels thanks to well thumbed corners of some of the cards in the index that co-incidence might trigger.
But I digress.
So I bought the Tesla book - a novel written by Vladimir Pistalo, translated from the Serbian.
Although I am actively trying to return to funny subjects - I must say that last year's experiences do make me think about the past, and I recall that in my youth, Eastern Europeans were not so respected. Today I realize that EASTERN EUROPE would include Poland and Chopin - and I guess Latvians and Serbs like Tesla.
The book is difficult to read - but it certainly is clear that those poor Eastern Europeans were taught the keystone philosophies. Even poor children attending school would be given synopses
of the great thoughts and discoveries since the time of cave men who learned how to make fire. I know for a fact that Spinoza, St. Augustine (long list of names found thoughout the lines of the book) are not familiar names in Canadian or American grade 5 social studies classes. I had to think that perhaps, just perhaps, some of our modern problems, as written about by famous Pulitzer prize winners, and respected journalists and 20th Century novelists, recently mentioned in my BLOG, might be related to the fact that school curriculum really has been silly for over a hundred years. Surely, some educators should be able to present a topic in such a manner, that the student would understand that to put your hand into the flame might not be the best option. Surely we can teach 'ideas' that are not tainted by prejudice and biases - but just teach ideas that seem to work!
And the Tesla book is how I learned that I know diddly squat, and kids in school will know even less!
Opinions expresssed are solely my own and are not those of anyone else, or any business.
My Blog began January 1 2015.
Sufficient time has passed since November 2013, for plenty of wounds to heal. Natalie went to the Dermatologist today - and next week will actually be the one week anniversary of my visit after the melanoma surgery, and able to see my doctor after sitting in Alabama. Because of the melanoma experience, I am now very pro-active about spot and dots and moles, and so I made appointments for Greg et al to be screened when they came to Florida. It is so easy to get to see qualified people, not like back in Ontario!!! BOO Hiss.
Greg is fine, thankfully all of his dark spots were thought to be OK, but Natalie did have an 'ugly duckling syndrome' removed: translation? A mole that does not look like any other on your body is thought to be an ugly duckling and should be investigated.
Based on my own personal experience, I am not worried as I know we are on top of this concern.
But I digress.
I went to Barnes and Noble last week to pick up a copy of "America's Test Kitchen - The Complete Vegetarian Cookbook" and while wandering about the brick and mortar store I saw a 20% discount sticker on a book titled "TESLA", and of course I purchased it after reading the rave reviews featured on the back cover. Actually, it was with some degree of difficulty that I actually found what I was looking for, and I had to ask a store clerk to help me. Her hours were cut after the Christmas season, apparently sales were not as good as they expected at the store, and so she cannot organize everything alphabetically, in the less than 20 hours she is given weekly. Of course B and N can't compete with Amazon - but I sure will miss all of the old fashioned experience of wandering aimlessly and the accidental discovery (much like used to happen in the library with index cards), of a fascinating book, a new trajectory for an attention defficit syndrome brain and explorer! I pine away for the dead - those were great mental gymnastics, were they not? Natalie and Karina never experienced the imaginary travels thanks to well thumbed corners of some of the cards in the index that co-incidence might trigger.
But I digress.
So I bought the Tesla book - a novel written by Vladimir Pistalo, translated from the Serbian.
Although I am actively trying to return to funny subjects - I must say that last year's experiences do make me think about the past, and I recall that in my youth, Eastern Europeans were not so respected. Today I realize that EASTERN EUROPE would include Poland and Chopin - and I guess Latvians and Serbs like Tesla.
The book is difficult to read - but it certainly is clear that those poor Eastern Europeans were taught the keystone philosophies. Even poor children attending school would be given synopses
of the great thoughts and discoveries since the time of cave men who learned how to make fire. I know for a fact that Spinoza, St. Augustine (long list of names found thoughout the lines of the book) are not familiar names in Canadian or American grade 5 social studies classes. I had to think that perhaps, just perhaps, some of our modern problems, as written about by famous Pulitzer prize winners, and respected journalists and 20th Century novelists, recently mentioned in my BLOG, might be related to the fact that school curriculum really has been silly for over a hundred years. Surely, some educators should be able to present a topic in such a manner, that the student would understand that to put your hand into the flame might not be the best option. Surely we can teach 'ideas' that are not tainted by prejudice and biases - but just teach ideas that seem to work!
And the Tesla book is how I learned that I know diddly squat, and kids in school will know even less!
Friday, March 13, 2015
First World Problems and Alabama
March 14, 2015.
I just have to write something on Friday the thirteenth mindful of the "Ides of March" just around the corner, especially since the 15 of March will fall on a Sunday which of course lines up with my day of rest, and I know I have had many days of rest that were not Sundays, but I have indulged myself!
(Please read my blog - which started on January 1 2015, so that you understand where I am coming from).
After telling my 'Tale' I lost interest in regurgitating the horror of being falsely accused of a crime, while trapped for a full year in the legal system that exists in the United States, but today, it is odd that the most amazing stories in the news continue to come out of Alabama. Is it possible that others are not hearing what I am paying attention to? Today, the Alabama Supreme Court struck down Federal law regarding same sex legislation. Juxtaposed is the Apple CEO who outed himself, in Alabama. Apple introduced the Apple time piece this week. Huntsville, Alabama: a Judge decreed same sex divorce, legally.
In all sincerity I want my blog to be a source of comedy and humour, but since I am living first world problems, as is everyone in the 'first world' - I want to put to rest this stupid viewpoint, summarized in three words. "First World Problems"
In my opinion, and I speak for no one else, and I do not reflect the opinions of any business or any institution or any person connected to either, what the hell does that mean? "First World Problems".
It is tough to be in a society where we 'think' about how to make life better. It is tough to run an economy that is based on 'profit' which easily transforms into greed. Just try and get union folks to back off from their piece of the pie, and try to get shareholders of public companies to back off from their return on investment, and try to get the bosses to back off from their perks and salaries. Those are first world problems. Gay rights and equality for women and visible minorities, those are first world problems. I am so sick of conversations of real substance that are dismissed with this phrase "First World problems".
What should we be talking about? First world problems are not third world problems. Third world problems continue, but please don't dismiss the validity and serious aspects of "First WORLD". Is it really that horrid to stress over equal pay? Is it horrible to debate education standards and the value of a University degree? Is it bad to talk about who can afford an education? Is that silly? Have the accomplishments of the inventions and progress in the first world not worthy or continual debate? Is democracy not worth talking about?
So, while I was in Florence Alabama, one night, Greg and I were in our new home, getting to enjoy our new nest, and we were cooking on our new grill and preparing a home cooked meal. (always a challenge). We had bought an 'infra-red' grill and I had positioned it under a roof on our deck. The house had two doors off of the kitchen to access the grill which was out on the deck. Greg was busy, I was busy, and living with the stress of the tracer bracelet, and fearful that the boogey man would come out and murder us at any given moment, we were on edge about unlocked doors. I don't want to blame anyone, but somehow.....
One of those doors ended up being locked. Then, the second door somehow, also ended up locked. Here we were, locked out of our house, new in the neighbourhood, (of course every one must know about the criminals next door) and we had no hidden key, no cell phone, no back up plan. I was in my pyjamas, Greg was wearing shorts and a Ralph Lauren undershirt, ankle jewels in full view - certainly not our 'Sunday best' outfits! The only person who had a key to the place was our contractor - but we had no phone and no cell phone, and alas, no keys to the car to use On Star! (or use the car, for that matter).
We were in a panic, and obviously we had to think up a plan. We looked around the back yard to see if any of our neighbours' lights were on. I spotted some movement directly next door. Our only option was for Greg to go next door. In bare feet, he walked up the street and around the corner and knocked on the neighbour's door. "Hey, I am your neighbour, I just locked myself out of my house, I don't know anyone, but I saw your light on, can I borrow your car to drive to my contactor's house, since he has a key?"
Can you believe it - Greg immediately got a key to his truck!!! Greg taxed his memory, barefoot pressed his foot on the gas pedal, and guessed in the dark of night where the contractor drove that one time! Now that's a plan. I stood outside peering over the fence. About a half hour later, the neighbours wandered over to see who I was and how I was.
About an hour later the contractor arrived with a key, thanks to our neighbours who had called his number and left him a message. Then we all waited to see if Greg would make it back. He was driving with an electronic monitor on his leg, no ID and barefoot in a borrowed truck, with that indictment out there. Can you imagine???? Holy SHitters, what could have happened if he had been pulled over by a cop?
Greg did come back, he returned the neighbour's truck, and he asked him, "Why on earth did you give a complete stranger keys to your car?"
"Well", he replied " I don't really know, but I thought your story was too crazy not to believe you".
"Twenty minutes later, after I gave you the keys to the truck, I started to wonder if I would see my truck again, and then I though I should go and meet your wife."
We all laughed.
And that is why I think there are a lot of good people out there, and that is how I learned it is important to believe in the good.
I just have to write something on Friday the thirteenth mindful of the "Ides of March" just around the corner, especially since the 15 of March will fall on a Sunday which of course lines up with my day of rest, and I know I have had many days of rest that were not Sundays, but I have indulged myself!
(Please read my blog - which started on January 1 2015, so that you understand where I am coming from).
After telling my 'Tale' I lost interest in regurgitating the horror of being falsely accused of a crime, while trapped for a full year in the legal system that exists in the United States, but today, it is odd that the most amazing stories in the news continue to come out of Alabama. Is it possible that others are not hearing what I am paying attention to? Today, the Alabama Supreme Court struck down Federal law regarding same sex legislation. Juxtaposed is the Apple CEO who outed himself, in Alabama. Apple introduced the Apple time piece this week. Huntsville, Alabama: a Judge decreed same sex divorce, legally.
In all sincerity I want my blog to be a source of comedy and humour, but since I am living first world problems, as is everyone in the 'first world' - I want to put to rest this stupid viewpoint, summarized in three words. "First World Problems"
In my opinion, and I speak for no one else, and I do not reflect the opinions of any business or any institution or any person connected to either, what the hell does that mean? "First World Problems".
It is tough to be in a society where we 'think' about how to make life better. It is tough to run an economy that is based on 'profit' which easily transforms into greed. Just try and get union folks to back off from their piece of the pie, and try to get shareholders of public companies to back off from their return on investment, and try to get the bosses to back off from their perks and salaries. Those are first world problems. Gay rights and equality for women and visible minorities, those are first world problems. I am so sick of conversations of real substance that are dismissed with this phrase "First World problems".
What should we be talking about? First world problems are not third world problems. Third world problems continue, but please don't dismiss the validity and serious aspects of "First WORLD". Is it really that horrid to stress over equal pay? Is it horrible to debate education standards and the value of a University degree? Is it bad to talk about who can afford an education? Is that silly? Have the accomplishments of the inventions and progress in the first world not worthy or continual debate? Is democracy not worth talking about?
So, while I was in Florence Alabama, one night, Greg and I were in our new home, getting to enjoy our new nest, and we were cooking on our new grill and preparing a home cooked meal. (always a challenge). We had bought an 'infra-red' grill and I had positioned it under a roof on our deck. The house had two doors off of the kitchen to access the grill which was out on the deck. Greg was busy, I was busy, and living with the stress of the tracer bracelet, and fearful that the boogey man would come out and murder us at any given moment, we were on edge about unlocked doors. I don't want to blame anyone, but somehow.....
One of those doors ended up being locked. Then, the second door somehow, also ended up locked. Here we were, locked out of our house, new in the neighbourhood, (of course every one must know about the criminals next door) and we had no hidden key, no cell phone, no back up plan. I was in my pyjamas, Greg was wearing shorts and a Ralph Lauren undershirt, ankle jewels in full view - certainly not our 'Sunday best' outfits! The only person who had a key to the place was our contractor - but we had no phone and no cell phone, and alas, no keys to the car to use On Star! (or use the car, for that matter).
We were in a panic, and obviously we had to think up a plan. We looked around the back yard to see if any of our neighbours' lights were on. I spotted some movement directly next door. Our only option was for Greg to go next door. In bare feet, he walked up the street and around the corner and knocked on the neighbour's door. "Hey, I am your neighbour, I just locked myself out of my house, I don't know anyone, but I saw your light on, can I borrow your car to drive to my contactor's house, since he has a key?"
Can you believe it - Greg immediately got a key to his truck!!! Greg taxed his memory, barefoot pressed his foot on the gas pedal, and guessed in the dark of night where the contractor drove that one time! Now that's a plan. I stood outside peering over the fence. About a half hour later, the neighbours wandered over to see who I was and how I was.
About an hour later the contractor arrived with a key, thanks to our neighbours who had called his number and left him a message. Then we all waited to see if Greg would make it back. He was driving with an electronic monitor on his leg, no ID and barefoot in a borrowed truck, with that indictment out there. Can you imagine???? Holy SHitters, what could have happened if he had been pulled over by a cop?
Greg did come back, he returned the neighbour's truck, and he asked him, "Why on earth did you give a complete stranger keys to your car?"
"Well", he replied " I don't really know, but I thought your story was too crazy not to believe you".
"Twenty minutes later, after I gave you the keys to the truck, I started to wonder if I would see my truck again, and then I though I should go and meet your wife."
We all laughed.
And that is why I think there are a lot of good people out there, and that is how I learned it is important to believe in the good.
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Selma is a Battleship
March 12, 2015.
Too many important anniversaries and news stories have just happened for me to ignore! Although I sit comfortably in Florida while escaping the cruel winter affecting most of North America, I feel uncomforable to pontificate, and weigh in on these various topics, however, living through last year actually left me with my PHD and the perspective to voice an opinion.
I am referring to Selma, terrorism, and Ferguson, the Department of Justice, and lastly board games!
Selma - made me Google the name of the Bridge where 'Bloody Sunday' took place, and I have to admit I was troubled by what I learned about Edmund Winston Pettus. I had to think back to how in Ontario we renamed towns because of WWII and how we have this strategy to erase and pretend that the past wasn't really what it was. Amelian Boynton Robinson, the lady beaten unconscious on the Pettus Bridge, on a Sunday, in the Bible Belt (unbelievable irony) attended the funeral of the Sherrif who refused to call in an ambulance, who even suggested, on tape, a disgusting option on how to clean up the problem at the time. Some think that it is best to erace facts and rewrite textbooks. Today I happened to catch an interview with John Ridley (the screenplay author "Twelve Years a Slave") he was very clear in objecting to this trend. We as a society are missing a teaching moment he said, and it seemed clear to me that he was right - the non-violence movement of the Civil Rights Movements of Dr. Martin Luther King has been missed by a whole generation. Amelia B. Robinson who is 103 years old just said " Get off my shoulders and do something". Without a civilized discussion, society cannot progress. Violence will only lead to a victory for the most violent, it is naive to think that 'right and might' always go hand in hand. How can young people identify an old problem and continue to press for change if they haven't learned from the past simply because they have not been taught the past and learned from history, how to make change happen?
The religious sanctioning of slavery, as was the reality of Christians in the South, should be a very important topic in every classroom today. How can religion sanction atrocities? This is the crisis we face with international terrorist who are defending Religious beliefs, hoping to receive 72 virgins in heaven. These are important philosophical concepts that must be, in my opinion, out there, discussed in classrooms and institutions, so that the strongest voice does not hijack the topic and end up sanctioning slavery, or the oppression of women, or severing heads, all in the name of religion. Again - the same concept "I am better than you. My religion is better than yours. My skin colour is better than yours." You may add your 'betters' but this human frailt, the belief that "I am Right" is to be taught and fought in schools. How else could the Fraternity scandal have happened? These were twenty something year old kids. How did they not know that times have changes and that it is no longer acceptable to lynch and hang people and use the n word and think this is funny? Natalie told me that she heard that that some fraternities had parties where they sprinkled cotton balls from the drug store and hired black kids to pick them up, and this was considered funny? HUH? Those kids missed something. Society missed something. How can you change the homes that these kids grew up in? John Ridley said - its not what happens behind the glass of a bus - its what is happening right out in the open of daylight, that troubles him. He is a success, he says because he is a product of change and took advantage of the opportuity to change.
Ferguson? Would the prejudices continue if Martin Luther King's non violence Civil Rights Movement be taught in every classroom over the past 20 years? 30 years? forty years? Selma is 50 years old!!! Would the white kids, learning about the movement, who choose police work as a career, behave like the people resigning now? Are we really not wanting the same thing?
Department of Justice. In my opinion, too little too late, they did not do enough to help black kids in jail. Obama. He did not do enough to help black kids in jail. You know how I know? Cuz Greg, a 65 year old white business man was processed as a black man and was in jail with kids 18 to 30 years old for 10 days, in Cook county Chicago and Tuscumbia Alabama, and he told me about the injustice he saw first hand.
And my last story is that Board games have become popular again. Sales are up, and cafes are opening up to play games with people. And that bring me to Battleship. Did I mention I was Latvian? My Dad and I would play battle ship. He would pull out two sheets of graph paper. He made two 10 x 10 squares on his sheet and taught me to make my squares on my peice of paper, and we drew in out our ships, and away we went, playing Battleship! Fifty years ago, the game probably cost us 2 cents if that! Hahaha, I just learned that my apple laptop doesn't even have the cent symbol anymore. And that is how I learned that you don't need a board game to have fun, you just need graph paper! ( and you have to be taught to make a 10x10 square).
Too many important anniversaries and news stories have just happened for me to ignore! Although I sit comfortably in Florida while escaping the cruel winter affecting most of North America, I feel uncomforable to pontificate, and weigh in on these various topics, however, living through last year actually left me with my PHD and the perspective to voice an opinion.
I am referring to Selma, terrorism, and Ferguson, the Department of Justice, and lastly board games!
Selma - made me Google the name of the Bridge where 'Bloody Sunday' took place, and I have to admit I was troubled by what I learned about Edmund Winston Pettus. I had to think back to how in Ontario we renamed towns because of WWII and how we have this strategy to erase and pretend that the past wasn't really what it was. Amelian Boynton Robinson, the lady beaten unconscious on the Pettus Bridge, on a Sunday, in the Bible Belt (unbelievable irony) attended the funeral of the Sherrif who refused to call in an ambulance, who even suggested, on tape, a disgusting option on how to clean up the problem at the time. Some think that it is best to erace facts and rewrite textbooks. Today I happened to catch an interview with John Ridley (the screenplay author "Twelve Years a Slave") he was very clear in objecting to this trend. We as a society are missing a teaching moment he said, and it seemed clear to me that he was right - the non-violence movement of the Civil Rights Movements of Dr. Martin Luther King has been missed by a whole generation. Amelia B. Robinson who is 103 years old just said " Get off my shoulders and do something". Without a civilized discussion, society cannot progress. Violence will only lead to a victory for the most violent, it is naive to think that 'right and might' always go hand in hand. How can young people identify an old problem and continue to press for change if they haven't learned from the past simply because they have not been taught the past and learned from history, how to make change happen?
The religious sanctioning of slavery, as was the reality of Christians in the South, should be a very important topic in every classroom today. How can religion sanction atrocities? This is the crisis we face with international terrorist who are defending Religious beliefs, hoping to receive 72 virgins in heaven. These are important philosophical concepts that must be, in my opinion, out there, discussed in classrooms and institutions, so that the strongest voice does not hijack the topic and end up sanctioning slavery, or the oppression of women, or severing heads, all in the name of religion. Again - the same concept "I am better than you. My religion is better than yours. My skin colour is better than yours." You may add your 'betters' but this human frailt, the belief that "I am Right" is to be taught and fought in schools. How else could the Fraternity scandal have happened? These were twenty something year old kids. How did they not know that times have changes and that it is no longer acceptable to lynch and hang people and use the n word and think this is funny? Natalie told me that she heard that that some fraternities had parties where they sprinkled cotton balls from the drug store and hired black kids to pick them up, and this was considered funny? HUH? Those kids missed something. Society missed something. How can you change the homes that these kids grew up in? John Ridley said - its not what happens behind the glass of a bus - its what is happening right out in the open of daylight, that troubles him. He is a success, he says because he is a product of change and took advantage of the opportuity to change.
Ferguson? Would the prejudices continue if Martin Luther King's non violence Civil Rights Movement be taught in every classroom over the past 20 years? 30 years? forty years? Selma is 50 years old!!! Would the white kids, learning about the movement, who choose police work as a career, behave like the people resigning now? Are we really not wanting the same thing?
Department of Justice. In my opinion, too little too late, they did not do enough to help black kids in jail. Obama. He did not do enough to help black kids in jail. You know how I know? Cuz Greg, a 65 year old white business man was processed as a black man and was in jail with kids 18 to 30 years old for 10 days, in Cook county Chicago and Tuscumbia Alabama, and he told me about the injustice he saw first hand.
And my last story is that Board games have become popular again. Sales are up, and cafes are opening up to play games with people. And that bring me to Battleship. Did I mention I was Latvian? My Dad and I would play battle ship. He would pull out two sheets of graph paper. He made two 10 x 10 squares on his sheet and taught me to make my squares on my peice of paper, and we drew in out our ships, and away we went, playing Battleship! Fifty years ago, the game probably cost us 2 cents if that! Hahaha, I just learned that my apple laptop doesn't even have the cent symbol anymore. And that is how I learned that you don't need a board game to have fun, you just need graph paper! ( and you have to be taught to make a 10x10 square).
Thursday, February 26, 2015
Jim Carrey and 'THE TRUMAN SHOW' and The Peach
February 26, 2015.
Did you ever see Jim Carrey's movie "The Truman Show" where everything is fake except for the life of Carrey's character? Have you ever wondered about other similar stories where some folks know the truth, where some folks know what is going on while others don't? I had this passing thought today, because I was thinking, while relaxing in 'the Salt Suite', (a place to breathe Dead Sea salt air which may have curative properties) I was thinking, about "Scourge", the book I mentioned about the smallpox virus. I Googled the name of the author, Jonathan B.Tucker, just wanting to see what he is doing now, but alas, he passed away just before he was going to say something to defend the scientist who was accused of sending the anthrax letters around.
I wonder what he knew, and why he died 'mysteriously'. I wonder who knows the truth about all of that smallpox and anthrax stuff, and I wonder what the universe thinks about remaining silent when you know the truth? Somebody must know.
Then there is Snowden. What happened to him?
I wonder.
Obviously it was better to just let the Snowden story die. People lose interest in stuff like that when they have to go to work.
Who even read "Scourge"? Who even knows that 30,000 plus Russian scientists were working on biological warfare? Who knew that you could keep that many people from talking - for decades?
And then there is everything that happened to Greg.
(Confused? Please read "The Tale" posted in my blog from Jan 1 2015).
When I think that we were billed for 3,000 hours of forensic accounting while preparing for trial, which verified that no fraud was commited since every penny could be accounted for, it makes me think that ACS would not have been the only one involved in setting up the false allegations. When you have a large number of 'money managers', counting and adding and subtracting and counting, surely more than one of them would have known what truly was going on, and so they too are guilty in breaking one of God's TEN COMMANDMENTS.( #9 Thou shalt no bear false witness against thy neighbour). You would think that this would be important in the Bible Belt. But alas, others who know the truth, remain silent. They are as just as silent today as they were all of last year and for the several years leading up to the Alabama Securities Commission filing the charges against Greg after presenting the secret 'facts' to the secret Grand Jury.
It is amazing that there still isn't one courageous soul out there from that pool of insiders willing to expose the truth to the poor suckers in Alabama. What's up with that? But that is only my opinion, and I speak for no person other than myself.
I guess you just want to go home and eat your dinner after a day at work.
Did you ever see Jim Carrey's movie "The Truman Show" where everything is fake except for the life of Carrey's character? Have you ever wondered about other similar stories where some folks know the truth, where some folks know what is going on while others don't? I had this passing thought today, because I was thinking, while relaxing in 'the Salt Suite', (a place to breathe Dead Sea salt air which may have curative properties) I was thinking, about "Scourge", the book I mentioned about the smallpox virus. I Googled the name of the author, Jonathan B.Tucker, just wanting to see what he is doing now, but alas, he passed away just before he was going to say something to defend the scientist who was accused of sending the anthrax letters around.
I wonder what he knew, and why he died 'mysteriously'. I wonder who knows the truth about all of that smallpox and anthrax stuff, and I wonder what the universe thinks about remaining silent when you know the truth? Somebody must know.
Then there is Snowden. What happened to him?
I wonder.
Obviously it was better to just let the Snowden story die. People lose interest in stuff like that when they have to go to work.
Who even read "Scourge"? Who even knows that 30,000 plus Russian scientists were working on biological warfare? Who knew that you could keep that many people from talking - for decades?
And then there is everything that happened to Greg.
(Confused? Please read "The Tale" posted in my blog from Jan 1 2015).
When I think that we were billed for 3,000 hours of forensic accounting while preparing for trial, which verified that no fraud was commited since every penny could be accounted for, it makes me think that ACS would not have been the only one involved in setting up the false allegations. When you have a large number of 'money managers', counting and adding and subtracting and counting, surely more than one of them would have known what truly was going on, and so they too are guilty in breaking one of God's TEN COMMANDMENTS.( #9 Thou shalt no bear false witness against thy neighbour). You would think that this would be important in the Bible Belt. But alas, others who know the truth, remain silent. They are as just as silent today as they were all of last year and for the several years leading up to the Alabama Securities Commission filing the charges against Greg after presenting the secret 'facts' to the secret Grand Jury.
It is amazing that there still isn't one courageous soul out there from that pool of insiders willing to expose the truth to the poor suckers in Alabama. What's up with that? But that is only my opinion, and I speak for no person other than myself.
I guess you just want to go home and eat your dinner after a day at work.
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
February 24, 2015.
My advisor told me I should post frequently - add links - and then he gave me a bunch of other tips, in order to generate viewership to stimulate interest to explore more of the real story, which is not the story about Greg, but rather the web that was woven by bigger fish. The only piece of advice I followed was to post regularly and I was very dutiful, up until I finished telling my tale.
I kinda grew tired of spinning about in the deep dirty waters that we were in, the pool of negativity.
Meanwhile incredible news stories occupied us - Brian Williams was suspended, Bob Simon passed suddenly, the movie "50 shades" was released, a minor mention was mad that the other two journalists in Egypt are going to be retried, and little concern has been expressed by Governments around the world over the beheading of Christians by masked men. Oscar viewership was down 16%.
Another minor news story was the report that 60% of people in prison - are people who couldn't make bail, with some fines as little as $250 and who are waiting for a court appearance that make take up to a year. And they wonder why people become radicalized. Naturally, I would not have processed that bit of information, were it not for Greg's experience, where he saw first hand the appalling conditions facing poor, most Black kids and Latino's sitting in Cook County.
I sure hope things change.
My advisor told me I should post frequently - add links - and then he gave me a bunch of other tips, in order to generate viewership to stimulate interest to explore more of the real story, which is not the story about Greg, but rather the web that was woven by bigger fish. The only piece of advice I followed was to post regularly and I was very dutiful, up until I finished telling my tale.
I kinda grew tired of spinning about in the deep dirty waters that we were in, the pool of negativity.
Meanwhile incredible news stories occupied us - Brian Williams was suspended, Bob Simon passed suddenly, the movie "50 shades" was released, a minor mention was mad that the other two journalists in Egypt are going to be retried, and little concern has been expressed by Governments around the world over the beheading of Christians by masked men. Oscar viewership was down 16%.
Another minor news story was the report that 60% of people in prison - are people who couldn't make bail, with some fines as little as $250 and who are waiting for a court appearance that make take up to a year. And they wonder why people become radicalized. Naturally, I would not have processed that bit of information, were it not for Greg's experience, where he saw first hand the appalling conditions facing poor, most Black kids and Latino's sitting in Cook County.
I sure hope things change.
Monday, February 9, 2015
Martha Bakes and Gaugin
February 9, 2015.
I was watching 'Martha Bakes' on PBS and the thought occurred to me that Martha went to jail
after a trial, and then I thought how Greg went to jail, and was held 'prisoner' for a year with no trial, and then I had to think about all those kids, who are still in jail, waiting for their trial and how ridiculous it is to call the whole system 'justice'. And yet some people called judges still have their own take on the law, just like in the 60's, and defy the Supreme Court.
My next thought was about the real incidences that I read about in the Bragg books, when the nurse 'looked down her nose' and thought about that kind of unpleasant experience, looking 'down' on others because of the perceived lack of education or wealth or social rank or colour or religion - and I then thought about that 'thing' I have mentioned earlier : " I am better than you". Is that perception a Darwinian instinct or is it something unpleasant in humans and a 'thing' that has been taught?
I do not know the answer, but I do know that when Greg was accused of fraud, and a pretty big fraud at that, there was a lot of 'looking down' on him from the long noses of inheritance, wealthy people who have created nothing other than being born into wealth, suddenly believed the false accusations and felt the urge to announce that they had always been suspicious and just knew that it had to be fraud. Jumping on the guilty bandwagon was easy since the accusation did come from the 'justice' system, and was part of the character assassination plan after all. And yet it still boils down to that same old problem, "I am better than you", and I really don't like that problem at all since I haven't a clue how to tackle it.
Gaugin painting sells for $300 million - and goes to Quatar? Another thing to worry about, I thought that it was against religious beliefs to depict the human form.
I was watching 'Martha Bakes' on PBS and the thought occurred to me that Martha went to jail
after a trial, and then I thought how Greg went to jail, and was held 'prisoner' for a year with no trial, and then I had to think about all those kids, who are still in jail, waiting for their trial and how ridiculous it is to call the whole system 'justice'. And yet some people called judges still have their own take on the law, just like in the 60's, and defy the Supreme Court.
My next thought was about the real incidences that I read about in the Bragg books, when the nurse 'looked down her nose' and thought about that kind of unpleasant experience, looking 'down' on others because of the perceived lack of education or wealth or social rank or colour or religion - and I then thought about that 'thing' I have mentioned earlier : " I am better than you". Is that perception a Darwinian instinct or is it something unpleasant in humans and a 'thing' that has been taught?
I do not know the answer, but I do know that when Greg was accused of fraud, and a pretty big fraud at that, there was a lot of 'looking down' on him from the long noses of inheritance, wealthy people who have created nothing other than being born into wealth, suddenly believed the false accusations and felt the urge to announce that they had always been suspicious and just knew that it had to be fraud. Jumping on the guilty bandwagon was easy since the accusation did come from the 'justice' system, and was part of the character assassination plan after all. And yet it still boils down to that same old problem, "I am better than you", and I really don't like that problem at all since I haven't a clue how to tackle it.
Gaugin painting sells for $300 million - and goes to Quatar? Another thing to worry about, I thought that it was against religious beliefs to depict the human form.
Hansel and Gretel and GAO
February 6, 2015.
Today I was going to write a parallel story with the Grimm tale "Hansel and Gretel" and ask my readers why no one picks up the crumbs that I have scattered and looked into the GOA documents that hold facts right there out in the open. There is big news about Obama wanting to add 74 Billion to the budget - but no watch dog even looks at what happened to the $14 Billion of the Gulf rebuild programme. The dropping of the crumbs was the only part of the story that I remembered off the top of my head so I did refresh my memory by reading it again only to see the story in a new light.
The family of four were hungry - so the parents, father and step mother agreed to bring the children to the woods and leave them there. Nice! The father actually tricks the children with the log swinging in the wind to mimic the sound of wood chopping, so he is not without guilt either.
eventually, Hansel and Gretel end up at the tasty cottage of the witch, who eats children no less.
More nice. Hansel outsmarts the witch by sticking out a bone for her to feel instead of his finger as she tests if he is getting fatter and ready for her recipe. Pretty creative survival skills I would say, and then Gretel, outsmarts the witch with the oven door trick. And then they live happily ever after because they find their way home and the step mother has died.
So I can't really make too many parallels with the Grimm tale and my tale, no one has nibbled at any of the crumbs that I dropped, obviously my tale is not that crumby! Today's post is only to drop another hint into the universe That my post on JANUARY 19, 2015 is the important story to investigate. The tale is not so much about Greg, even less about me - but the story is following the money trail.
Today I was going to write a parallel story with the Grimm tale "Hansel and Gretel" and ask my readers why no one picks up the crumbs that I have scattered and looked into the GOA documents that hold facts right there out in the open. There is big news about Obama wanting to add 74 Billion to the budget - but no watch dog even looks at what happened to the $14 Billion of the Gulf rebuild programme. The dropping of the crumbs was the only part of the story that I remembered off the top of my head so I did refresh my memory by reading it again only to see the story in a new light.
The family of four were hungry - so the parents, father and step mother agreed to bring the children to the woods and leave them there. Nice! The father actually tricks the children with the log swinging in the wind to mimic the sound of wood chopping, so he is not without guilt either.
eventually, Hansel and Gretel end up at the tasty cottage of the witch, who eats children no less.
More nice. Hansel outsmarts the witch by sticking out a bone for her to feel instead of his finger as she tests if he is getting fatter and ready for her recipe. Pretty creative survival skills I would say, and then Gretel, outsmarts the witch with the oven door trick. And then they live happily ever after because they find their way home and the step mother has died.
So I can't really make too many parallels with the Grimm tale and my tale, no one has nibbled at any of the crumbs that I dropped, obviously my tale is not that crumby! Today's post is only to drop another hint into the universe That my post on JANUARY 19, 2015 is the important story to investigate. The tale is not so much about Greg, even less about me - but the story is following the money trail.
Saturday, February 7, 2015
AS ALWAYS, the truth.
February 7, 2015.
Oh dear, why did I have to explain to a twenty-something why the NBC fallout is relevant and important? It is worrisome that young people and apparently important people, have forgotten that with privelge comes a set of values for honesty and an obligation to serve the people.
I think that is why my whole tale (started January 1, 2015) is important to tell. The story is not about me or my family - the story is about high profile people who mislead the public.
It is most unfortunate that we live in a society where a simple 'oops, sorry' is enough to wipe away a pretty serious transgression.
Truth is truth, and once you have the privilege of a microphone and a captive audience, the truth is even more important. We count on elected officials to serve, and we hope that journalist will be reliable watchdogs, as always. Yikes!
Please 'try my product' as I am a peddler of truth.
The opinions expressed are solely my own, and not anyone those of anyone else.
Oh dear, why did I have to explain to a twenty-something why the NBC fallout is relevant and important? It is worrisome that young people and apparently important people, have forgotten that with privelge comes a set of values for honesty and an obligation to serve the people.
I think that is why my whole tale (started January 1, 2015) is important to tell. The story is not about me or my family - the story is about high profile people who mislead the public.
It is most unfortunate that we live in a society where a simple 'oops, sorry' is enough to wipe away a pretty serious transgression.
Truth is truth, and once you have the privilege of a microphone and a captive audience, the truth is even more important. We count on elected officials to serve, and we hope that journalist will be reliable watchdogs, as always. Yikes!
Please 'try my product' as I am a peddler of truth.
The opinions expressed are solely my own, and not anyone those of anyone else.
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Homer Simpson Knows Best
February 5, 2015.
Homer Simpson Quote "Alcohol, the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems".
Or is it beer? Not sure, but I do applaud the wisdom. Yesterday while tooling around, I listened to more NPR radio, and the topic was 'vaccines' and not being good with names I cannot exactly say who the expert was who discussed the dilemma facing the press over the past 10 years - to appear to be neutral the media engages in conversations that explore both sides of issues, and the expert said, interestingly, that gives rise to the following problem: a false legitimacy is given to opinions that have no merit at all. The opposing view then continues to be quoted 'some experts say' which then ends up believed by some in the general public. The measles outbreak is a direct result of repeating of misinformation that has been given credibility just by repeating misleading information.
I was reading "Scourge, The Once and Future Threat of Smallpox" by Jonathan B. Tucker, the story about "Smallpox, the only infectious disease to have been eradicated," a book that follows the history of the disease and the WHO strategies to control a horror of horrors. It is fascinating that our short term memories - collectively - are so impaired today that some high profile people make ridiculous statements and only prove the powerful effect of repeating erroneous information. I am 61 years old,
I was given the smallpox vaccine, my kids did not need protection from this horrid 'scourge' indeed.
Are all Republicans younger than me?
Repeating false information over and over again, gives rise to believing that what has been stated is true, something that I experienced last year after the misleading information led to false accusations, which resulted in a year long problem for my husband.
The same sort of misinformation also applies to the debate 'free public health care is great'. Everyone will benefit with universal care. And so the cycle continues and misinformation is repeated and some people hear it and then they repeat it and we end up with a problem, and both viewpoints are discussed and people get elected because free sounds good, and history repeats itself and a regression occurs.
Time for a martini. It is really hard to be jolly and happy when stupidity is all around. Babies in Chicago, too young to be vaccinated! Truly frustrating to see the states that are guilty in this fiasco - granting religious and personal exemptions. People are so wired, I might make a double martini!
Homer Simpson Quote "Alcohol, the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems".
Or is it beer? Not sure, but I do applaud the wisdom. Yesterday while tooling around, I listened to more NPR radio, and the topic was 'vaccines' and not being good with names I cannot exactly say who the expert was who discussed the dilemma facing the press over the past 10 years - to appear to be neutral the media engages in conversations that explore both sides of issues, and the expert said, interestingly, that gives rise to the following problem: a false legitimacy is given to opinions that have no merit at all. The opposing view then continues to be quoted 'some experts say' which then ends up believed by some in the general public. The measles outbreak is a direct result of repeating of misinformation that has been given credibility just by repeating misleading information.
I was reading "Scourge, The Once and Future Threat of Smallpox" by Jonathan B. Tucker, the story about "Smallpox, the only infectious disease to have been eradicated," a book that follows the history of the disease and the WHO strategies to control a horror of horrors. It is fascinating that our short term memories - collectively - are so impaired today that some high profile people make ridiculous statements and only prove the powerful effect of repeating erroneous information. I am 61 years old,
I was given the smallpox vaccine, my kids did not need protection from this horrid 'scourge' indeed.
Are all Republicans younger than me?
Repeating false information over and over again, gives rise to believing that what has been stated is true, something that I experienced last year after the misleading information led to false accusations, which resulted in a year long problem for my husband.
The same sort of misinformation also applies to the debate 'free public health care is great'. Everyone will benefit with universal care. And so the cycle continues and misinformation is repeated and some people hear it and then they repeat it and we end up with a problem, and both viewpoints are discussed and people get elected because free sounds good, and history repeats itself and a regression occurs.
Time for a martini. It is really hard to be jolly and happy when stupidity is all around. Babies in Chicago, too young to be vaccinated! Truly frustrating to see the states that are guilty in this fiasco - granting religious and personal exemptions. People are so wired, I might make a double martini!
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Poverty Versus Poverty
February 4, 2015.
I have to be mindful that no one likes to be criticize, and I also acknowledge that rarely do entire groups of people admit to wrong doing. Henry the VIII did not, and why should he - he was king, and I don't need to support my sweeping generalization with historical fact, it is I believe a valid statement. I have binged on reading Rick Bragg's memoirs and I did it to myself, I admit, it was too much reading about the troubling issues of inequality and poverty in one concentrated effort and I sort of needed to take a break from it all. While in recovery though, I happened to catch the movie 'As Good as it Gets'
and a very poignant line, in my opinion of course is:
"Carol Connelly: OK, we all have these terrible stories to get over, and you-...
On the measels vaccine controversy - last night one of the American networks had a medical expert on screen speaking about the outbreak. A correction - please read "SCOURGE" smallpox has been eradicated and no longer exists naturally because of vaccines.
Also the CAMELLIA is the state flower for Alabama, not the rose.
Just sayin'
I have to be mindful that no one likes to be criticize, and I also acknowledge that rarely do entire groups of people admit to wrong doing. Henry the VIII did not, and why should he - he was king, and I don't need to support my sweeping generalization with historical fact, it is I believe a valid statement. I have binged on reading Rick Bragg's memoirs and I did it to myself, I admit, it was too much reading about the troubling issues of inequality and poverty in one concentrated effort and I sort of needed to take a break from it all. While in recovery though, I happened to catch the movie 'As Good as it Gets'
and a very poignant line, in my opinion of course is:
"Carol Connelly: OK, we all have these terrible stories to get over, and you-...
Melvin Udall: It's not true. Some of us have great stories, pretty stories that take place at lakes with boats and friends and noodle salad. Just no one in this car. But, a lot of people, that's their story. Good times, noodle salad. What makes it so hard is not that you had it bad, but that you're that pissed that so many others had it good. "
That might be an important thing to reflect on this Sunday as certainly many of the 7billion humans on earth still live in abject poverty but how many paupers, who have become lean living under communism, horrid dictatorships or closed societies, still dream of a better tomorrow? I have come to a crossroad after this past year and I know that good intentions can be destroyed and motives can be distorted and then the poverty still remains not just in far off distant places.
On the measels vaccine controversy - last night one of the American networks had a medical expert on screen speaking about the outbreak. A correction - please read "SCOURGE" smallpox has been eradicated and no longer exists naturally because of vaccines.
Also the CAMELLIA is the state flower for Alabama, not the rose.
Just sayin'
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
The Latvian and the Lentil
Febraury 3 2015.
Passing thoughts
I finished reading "The Prince of Frogtown" and realized that in my own blog I need to come back full circle as I have not explained the meaning of: how the Latvian and the Lentil became Lady Peach.
The Latvian and the Lentil was to be a book about all of the hilarious incidents from my past. Being Latvian would of course mean that I was way more sensitive than the Princess and the Pea, and, as a Latvian I would not only be able to detect a lentil but I could also complain a lot more about something quite insignificant as well. When I faced my 60th birthday and that book still had not been started, I became distracted by the ominous decade that was approaching and I began searching for a new name to put on my tombstone, something that caused a great deal of stress to my daughter Natalie who takes all of my lunacy seriously. She is the one who came up with the idea of buying a title and so we began the search on several websites. The only title I liked was Lady Peach Priori - and I didn't really like the Priori past and it was available at the time for 15,000 English Pounds, but Karina soon clarified that it was a total waste of money I abandoned the idea, and instead we went to New York instead and had an entertaining and illuminating week.
Then of course November 12, 2013 happened and when I was asked for my name a while later in Alabama, out of fear and being the Latvian and the lentil after all, sensing the danger were I to say my name, I had no recourse other than to respond with "Lady Peach".
In June 2014 I looked into that title thing again and learned that the title I liked the year earlier was on sale - 50% off. It took very little to discard the temptation of sending good money away - and so, just like so many other celebrities who just invent themselves, I became Lady Peach, I was eight months into our tial by fire and as a Peach, I was round by then, God knows I was ripe and I bruised easily!! Natalie corrected my motto: Lady Peach, round, ripe and boozes easily! Ha Ha - we all survived.
Passing thoughts
I finished reading "The Prince of Frogtown" and realized that in my own blog I need to come back full circle as I have not explained the meaning of: how the Latvian and the Lentil became Lady Peach.
The Latvian and the Lentil was to be a book about all of the hilarious incidents from my past. Being Latvian would of course mean that I was way more sensitive than the Princess and the Pea, and, as a Latvian I would not only be able to detect a lentil but I could also complain a lot more about something quite insignificant as well. When I faced my 60th birthday and that book still had not been started, I became distracted by the ominous decade that was approaching and I began searching for a new name to put on my tombstone, something that caused a great deal of stress to my daughter Natalie who takes all of my lunacy seriously. She is the one who came up with the idea of buying a title and so we began the search on several websites. The only title I liked was Lady Peach Priori - and I didn't really like the Priori past and it was available at the time for 15,000 English Pounds, but Karina soon clarified that it was a total waste of money I abandoned the idea, and instead we went to New York instead and had an entertaining and illuminating week.
Then of course November 12, 2013 happened and when I was asked for my name a while later in Alabama, out of fear and being the Latvian and the lentil after all, sensing the danger were I to say my name, I had no recourse other than to respond with "Lady Peach".
In June 2014 I looked into that title thing again and learned that the title I liked the year earlier was on sale - 50% off. It took very little to discard the temptation of sending good money away - and so, just like so many other celebrities who just invent themselves, I became Lady Peach, I was eight months into our tial by fire and as a Peach, I was round by then, God knows I was ripe and I bruised easily!! Natalie corrected my motto: Lady Peach, round, ripe and boozes easily! Ha Ha - we all survived.
Monday, February 2, 2015
Latvian Journalist Released!!!
February 2, 2015.
Passing Though
AMAZING GOOD NEWS! The Latvian journalist held in Egypt for 400 days was released, and apparently the Canadian will be 'deported' back to Canada soon too!!
So that news of course was juxtaposed against the video of the unlucky Japanese journalist.
Obviously football eclipsed all that yesterday and was far more engaging than thinking about our mean world and the pain caused by meaness arising from people with black and evil hearts. I want to be in a happy place that celebrates excellence and achievement and discovery and research and conquering new frontiers in science and math and all the while sing and dance.
I am not a journalist, nor a person elected to any office, so I really don't feel compelled to keep working the grindstone but there are so few journalists left. It has become more lucrative to sell advertising and so pander to the audience and not really tell the stories right. I don't want to hear one horror story after another, but then again I don't like eating the candy floss, mind decaying celebrity gossip pumped out non stop on most network stations or listen to the gobbely-goop from political pundits either.
Today's focus on NPR radio was on Obama care and ransom for hostages and I wanted to offer my three cents worth on both those subjects, as I believe my Tale involved both those issues. Greg was a hostage, and we paid a ransom and then he was able to leave Alabama. I think that his story is relevant and should not be whitewashed into anything other than political corruption. It just is nasty that the terrorists were allies, and one thing I have learned is that it is very dangerous to criticize or make fun of people who have some peculiar ideas. Look what happened to the French cartoonists?
However, being Latvian, I want to say, there was a devastating hurricane, then a $14 billion plan to help the people affected, and no one, at least in Alabama, investigated how the money was spent and who benefited. Greg sure as anything didn't see a penny of that Federal money and perhaps should have had more of the whole scheme explained by the lawyers and consultants he had hired to advise him. Perhaps he placed too much trust into the politicians as well and when the economic collapse happened, powerful folks just resorted to old tricks and masked themselves under the cloak of the legal system for a titilating lynching, flogging, or in modern vernacular, hostage taking. After paying a fine, the charges were dismissed. I think this is very relevant discussion since American foreign policy does not support ransom for hostage takings and the debate continues for the big picture but what about if the camera turned back and took a selfie about what really takes place on American soil. Greg told me that no one cares about this, because he is not a celebrity and that is the only thing that is interesting for most people. I am hoping for one journalist, just one, to sniff out the real and the ugly!
And then there is the reality of public health care as we experienced last year 35 years into it!
Passing Though
AMAZING GOOD NEWS! The Latvian journalist held in Egypt for 400 days was released, and apparently the Canadian will be 'deported' back to Canada soon too!!
So that news of course was juxtaposed against the video of the unlucky Japanese journalist.
Obviously football eclipsed all that yesterday and was far more engaging than thinking about our mean world and the pain caused by meaness arising from people with black and evil hearts. I want to be in a happy place that celebrates excellence and achievement and discovery and research and conquering new frontiers in science and math and all the while sing and dance.
I am not a journalist, nor a person elected to any office, so I really don't feel compelled to keep working the grindstone but there are so few journalists left. It has become more lucrative to sell advertising and so pander to the audience and not really tell the stories right. I don't want to hear one horror story after another, but then again I don't like eating the candy floss, mind decaying celebrity gossip pumped out non stop on most network stations or listen to the gobbely-goop from political pundits either.
Today's focus on NPR radio was on Obama care and ransom for hostages and I wanted to offer my three cents worth on both those subjects, as I believe my Tale involved both those issues. Greg was a hostage, and we paid a ransom and then he was able to leave Alabama. I think that his story is relevant and should not be whitewashed into anything other than political corruption. It just is nasty that the terrorists were allies, and one thing I have learned is that it is very dangerous to criticize or make fun of people who have some peculiar ideas. Look what happened to the French cartoonists?
However, being Latvian, I want to say, there was a devastating hurricane, then a $14 billion plan to help the people affected, and no one, at least in Alabama, investigated how the money was spent and who benefited. Greg sure as anything didn't see a penny of that Federal money and perhaps should have had more of the whole scheme explained by the lawyers and consultants he had hired to advise him. Perhaps he placed too much trust into the politicians as well and when the economic collapse happened, powerful folks just resorted to old tricks and masked themselves under the cloak of the legal system for a titilating lynching, flogging, or in modern vernacular, hostage taking. After paying a fine, the charges were dismissed. I think this is very relevant discussion since American foreign policy does not support ransom for hostage takings and the debate continues for the big picture but what about if the camera turned back and took a selfie about what really takes place on American soil. Greg told me that no one cares about this, because he is not a celebrity and that is the only thing that is interesting for most people. I am hoping for one journalist, just one, to sniff out the real and the ugly!
And then there is the reality of public health care as we experienced last year 35 years into it!
Sunday, February 1, 2015
Readin' and Rightin'
February 1, 2015.
A Fresh Start, a new month equal to the promise of Spring to a neophyte blogger.
Jonny's wife introduced me to Rick Bragg. She sent me a Christmas ornament, and four of Bragg's books even a signed copy "the most they ever had". I will return it to her after I read it.
I started my blog stating that I am not a journalist - Rick Bragg is a journalist who then began to write memoirs and his poetic and lyrical voice is a fabulous read, if you like literature, and you love words and grew up reading words because you were lucky enough to be encouraged to read words, then go read his books.
Today is my day of reflection - I sure hope Bragg discovers my blog, he could really help the good people in Alabama if he wrote about Greg's experience through his perspective and understanding of how things got to be, maybe he could be the one left "to clear the sky". ( pg 259 "Ava's Man" Vintage Books 2001 A Division of Random House House, Inc.). Praise the Lord Jesus I hope I meet him!
A Fresh Start, a new month equal to the promise of Spring to a neophyte blogger.
Jonny's wife introduced me to Rick Bragg. She sent me a Christmas ornament, and four of Bragg's books even a signed copy "the most they ever had". I will return it to her after I read it.
I started my blog stating that I am not a journalist - Rick Bragg is a journalist who then began to write memoirs and his poetic and lyrical voice is a fabulous read, if you like literature, and you love words and grew up reading words because you were lucky enough to be encouraged to read words, then go read his books.
Today is my day of reflection - I sure hope Bragg discovers my blog, he could really help the good people in Alabama if he wrote about Greg's experience through his perspective and understanding of how things got to be, maybe he could be the one left "to clear the sky". ( pg 259 "Ava's Man" Vintage Books 2001 A Division of Random House House, Inc.). Praise the Lord Jesus I hope I meet him!
Saturday, January 31, 2015
Start the Advertising!!
January 31, 2015.
It is the last day of the month, and yesterday I spread the news of my blog and slept like a baby, waking up every two hours and crying. No that was a joke. I slept well, I just realized how dumb that expression is. Last night I went and googled my blog address and saw that I was sandwiched in between a Paula Dean peach cobbler recipe and a peach pie recipe and smiled and knew I was in good company. That is why I slept well, peaches everywhere.
I have asked Natalie, Karina and Greg to "try my product" and they have not, so now I have to reflect on how we truly are different individuals and that humans truly do have different ways of problem solving. During the peach growing season, I was advised by the 'profesionals' involved over and over again, not to talk, not to tell the press, not to say anything and I complied I gues out of habit, playing that female role of submission. I said nothing, and when Greg paid his $22 million to the state, a gag order came with that too. I didn't agree to that, no one made me sign anything, and how can the state of Alabama stop freedom of speech in another country let alone in America?
I have found great medicinal value from typing into the universe using the internet. Way better than licking an envelope and sticking a stamp on it! I got all of the toxic poison out of my head by just sitting with my laptop and typing. My other three relatives need to cope in a private way and do not like the idea of me revealing so many things to the universe. I knew that Greg preferred my silence going into this Blogging stuff, as he views business and life as a card game where you don't want to reveal your hand. Not me, nope not me. My dear Dad died when I was 15, so I got a taste of reality a long time ago. He would have been 98 yesterday, so for the past 48 years I have tried to live the lessons I had learned from him - laugh as much as you can, work hard if you have to but make sure you are nice and laugh. Because of WW II I guess, and the things he had seen in Latvia and Germany and beyond, he told me to be nice, you have nothing to gain from being mean and you never know when you need to reach for a life line, and who will be sitting in the life boat.
I can get back to laughing again. Thanks laptop! Thanks internet!
Last night I also finished reading Rick Bragg's book "All Over but the Shoutin'"so I went to bed thinking about his tale and his childhood in Alabama and my childhood in Canada, that Latvian with the large capacity brain, that Latvian and the lentil who turned into a peach. I am going to pick up "Ava's Man" today, I really love how Bragg writes.
It is the last day of the month, and yesterday I spread the news of my blog and slept like a baby, waking up every two hours and crying. No that was a joke. I slept well, I just realized how dumb that expression is. Last night I went and googled my blog address and saw that I was sandwiched in between a Paula Dean peach cobbler recipe and a peach pie recipe and smiled and knew I was in good company. That is why I slept well, peaches everywhere.
I have asked Natalie, Karina and Greg to "try my product" and they have not, so now I have to reflect on how we truly are different individuals and that humans truly do have different ways of problem solving. During the peach growing season, I was advised by the 'profesionals' involved over and over again, not to talk, not to tell the press, not to say anything and I complied I gues out of habit, playing that female role of submission. I said nothing, and when Greg paid his $22 million to the state, a gag order came with that too. I didn't agree to that, no one made me sign anything, and how can the state of Alabama stop freedom of speech in another country let alone in America?
I have found great medicinal value from typing into the universe using the internet. Way better than licking an envelope and sticking a stamp on it! I got all of the toxic poison out of my head by just sitting with my laptop and typing. My other three relatives need to cope in a private way and do not like the idea of me revealing so many things to the universe. I knew that Greg preferred my silence going into this Blogging stuff, as he views business and life as a card game where you don't want to reveal your hand. Not me, nope not me. My dear Dad died when I was 15, so I got a taste of reality a long time ago. He would have been 98 yesterday, so for the past 48 years I have tried to live the lessons I had learned from him - laugh as much as you can, work hard if you have to but make sure you are nice and laugh. Because of WW II I guess, and the things he had seen in Latvia and Germany and beyond, he told me to be nice, you have nothing to gain from being mean and you never know when you need to reach for a life line, and who will be sitting in the life boat.
I can get back to laughing again. Thanks laptop! Thanks internet!
Last night I also finished reading Rick Bragg's book "All Over but the Shoutin'"so I went to bed thinking about his tale and his childhood in Alabama and my childhood in Canada, that Latvian with the large capacity brain, that Latvian and the lentil who turned into a peach. I am going to pick up "Ava's Man" today, I really love how Bragg writes.
Friday, January 30, 2015
Ignore the Truth
January 30, 2015.
Passing Thoughts
So in a matter of thirty days the tale has been told to the Universe and in the same number of days the story of the three journalists held capive in Egypt for over a year has evaporated, as has the attack on freedom of speech in France eclipsed by things far more interesting. Our family routines have started to come back to pre November 12, 2013 and the experience continues to get smaller and smaller in our collective rear view mirror.
I cannot relax however, now that I was converted over the past year, knowing that there are so many people - mostly Black, in horrible jail conditions, waiting to have their first appearance in court. last year I re-read 'To Kill a Mockingbird" and I was reminded that fiction is not always fiction and this past year marked the anniversaries of so many monumental milestones in civil rights and many important people passed as well. Ultimately, in my opinion, it seems that very little has changed over the past fifty years in how we all live and get along with one another because nice folks don't know the truth. Nice folks wouldn't believe that Edward Snowden might have something to tell us. Nice folks wouldn't believe that a black kid might be cold one evening in Florida and wear a hoodie, and why would people be upset about Grand jury stuff. Nice people believe that all is good. We go to Church, we read the news that is selectively given to us because advertising dollars drive the stories that are covered and we live our lives in an ignorant glow that comes from full tummies.
I am tired of sounding bitter and cynical and now I am going to have to work hard in finding my way back into world that celebrates achievement and looks for the escalator to get to a higher level faster. A world that loves innovation and fashion and art and music and literature and culture and civilization.
I am sorry that so many people suffer in the hands of other greedy and creepy people, people who suffern because of some devils who hide behind the armour of religion and some who hide behind the kryptonite that money and power and a government for the people and by the people buys. I sure hope that there is a journalist still alive who will care to fix what a Peach, round and ripe and who boozes easily is no longer capable, or motivated and interested in fixing all by herself! My family survived and that was all that a Peach could do.
And that is how I learned that ignorance is bliss.
Passing Thoughts
So in a matter of thirty days the tale has been told to the Universe and in the same number of days the story of the three journalists held capive in Egypt for over a year has evaporated, as has the attack on freedom of speech in France eclipsed by things far more interesting. Our family routines have started to come back to pre November 12, 2013 and the experience continues to get smaller and smaller in our collective rear view mirror.
I cannot relax however, now that I was converted over the past year, knowing that there are so many people - mostly Black, in horrible jail conditions, waiting to have their first appearance in court. last year I re-read 'To Kill a Mockingbird" and I was reminded that fiction is not always fiction and this past year marked the anniversaries of so many monumental milestones in civil rights and many important people passed as well. Ultimately, in my opinion, it seems that very little has changed over the past fifty years in how we all live and get along with one another because nice folks don't know the truth. Nice folks wouldn't believe that Edward Snowden might have something to tell us. Nice folks wouldn't believe that a black kid might be cold one evening in Florida and wear a hoodie, and why would people be upset about Grand jury stuff. Nice people believe that all is good. We go to Church, we read the news that is selectively given to us because advertising dollars drive the stories that are covered and we live our lives in an ignorant glow that comes from full tummies.
I am tired of sounding bitter and cynical and now I am going to have to work hard in finding my way back into world that celebrates achievement and looks for the escalator to get to a higher level faster. A world that loves innovation and fashion and art and music and literature and culture and civilization.
I am sorry that so many people suffer in the hands of other greedy and creepy people, people who suffern because of some devils who hide behind the armour of religion and some who hide behind the kryptonite that money and power and a government for the people and by the people buys. I sure hope that there is a journalist still alive who will care to fix what a Peach, round and ripe and who boozes easily is no longer capable, or motivated and interested in fixing all by herself! My family survived and that was all that a Peach could do.
And that is how I learned that ignorance is bliss.
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Silence is a deadly force
January 29, 2015
As I stated on January 1 2015, I am not a journalist and that I have only expressed my personal opinions and not those of anyone else. I have not told Jonny or Robin that I told my story to the Universe, but were they to read it, I am sure they would have trouble following the story, simply because I left a lot of detail out and changed names to protect the identity of the people who were pulled into this nightmare. I came across a beautiful passage, written by Pulitzer Prize winner author Rick Bragg in his memoir, (Vintage books, a division of Random House Inc. 1997)
"All over but the Shoutin'"
"But if you sit and talk to old Black people, the people who recall the time of my childhood, that time in history, they will tell you that there are degrees of meanness in this world, degrees of hatred, degrees of ignorance, and calculating those degrees, over decades, was a means of survival. They will tell you that the depth of that meanness and hatred and ignorance varies from soul to soul, that white Southerners are not the same and symmetrical, like the boards in a white picket fence. They will tell you that the depth of that meanness often depends on what life has done to a person, on the impressions left by brushes with people different from you, on those rare times when the parallel universes came close enough to touch."
And that passage, more or less captures the hate that ACS must have felt towards Greg as their lives intersected at a time just before an economic collapse. ACS did well with his investments in the 90's, earnings must have been easier to attain, or perhaps he was less dependant on drink and younger and brighter, but he created a myth about his capabilities. The calamity that was caused by the 2008 collapse left his underbelly exposed to criticism,and he no longer was the genius he made himself out to be. His investment performance was public record and it did not look good. The Go Zone was supposed to be there, shortly, to take out his investment - but it did't materialize. I do not know the details, but I do know that his buddy from Tennessee did get $140 Million of Go Zone money. ASC had been caught in the crazy whirlind that caught so many in mortgages they could not afford, perhaps he just couldn't blame someone else for the disaster or risk exposing how the grease machine really worked in the South. ACS was never risking his own money he was risking the saving of others and acting like a big shot, Greg was the easiest person to blame, he was foreigner, he was an outsider and not one of 'them'.
After doing the math, getting $23 million as 'fine' money hardly seems like a good return on a $43 billion fund over a 6 year period, and of course it is not, but ASC took a year out of Greg's life, and the life of Greg's family. I think that is what he was going after. ASC did not destroy Greg, or even destroy MBI back in Hamilton where thousands of people go to work building seriously good grimmets. What is difficult to accept, is the fact that there were other people on the 'Board', appointed by ASC after he took over the Alabama project, who remained silent, knowing what really transpired, they complied with their silence, just like other terrorist plots, or plots of dictators in history, you need many agents or deputies to participate. Silence is as deadly a force as violence itself.
I will open my blog soon for discussion, but right now I want a little rest from thinking about why people are so mean, and why 'I am better than you' causes so much strife.
As I stated on January 1 2015, I am not a journalist and that I have only expressed my personal opinions and not those of anyone else. I have not told Jonny or Robin that I told my story to the Universe, but were they to read it, I am sure they would have trouble following the story, simply because I left a lot of detail out and changed names to protect the identity of the people who were pulled into this nightmare. I came across a beautiful passage, written by Pulitzer Prize winner author Rick Bragg in his memoir, (Vintage books, a division of Random House Inc. 1997)
"All over but the Shoutin'"
"But if you sit and talk to old Black people, the people who recall the time of my childhood, that time in history, they will tell you that there are degrees of meanness in this world, degrees of hatred, degrees of ignorance, and calculating those degrees, over decades, was a means of survival. They will tell you that the depth of that meanness and hatred and ignorance varies from soul to soul, that white Southerners are not the same and symmetrical, like the boards in a white picket fence. They will tell you that the depth of that meanness often depends on what life has done to a person, on the impressions left by brushes with people different from you, on those rare times when the parallel universes came close enough to touch."
And that passage, more or less captures the hate that ACS must have felt towards Greg as their lives intersected at a time just before an economic collapse. ACS did well with his investments in the 90's, earnings must have been easier to attain, or perhaps he was less dependant on drink and younger and brighter, but he created a myth about his capabilities. The calamity that was caused by the 2008 collapse left his underbelly exposed to criticism,and he no longer was the genius he made himself out to be. His investment performance was public record and it did not look good. The Go Zone was supposed to be there, shortly, to take out his investment - but it did't materialize. I do not know the details, but I do know that his buddy from Tennessee did get $140 Million of Go Zone money. ASC had been caught in the crazy whirlind that caught so many in mortgages they could not afford, perhaps he just couldn't blame someone else for the disaster or risk exposing how the grease machine really worked in the South. ACS was never risking his own money he was risking the saving of others and acting like a big shot, Greg was the easiest person to blame, he was foreigner, he was an outsider and not one of 'them'.
After doing the math, getting $23 million as 'fine' money hardly seems like a good return on a $43 billion fund over a 6 year period, and of course it is not, but ASC took a year out of Greg's life, and the life of Greg's family. I think that is what he was going after. ASC did not destroy Greg, or even destroy MBI back in Hamilton where thousands of people go to work building seriously good grimmets. What is difficult to accept, is the fact that there were other people on the 'Board', appointed by ASC after he took over the Alabama project, who remained silent, knowing what really transpired, they complied with their silence, just like other terrorist plots, or plots of dictators in history, you need many agents or deputies to participate. Silence is as deadly a force as violence itself.
I will open my blog soon for discussion, but right now I want a little rest from thinking about why people are so mean, and why 'I am better than you' causes so much strife.
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
"JAIL no BAIL" still in Alabama
January 28, 2015.
Passing Thoughts
And so now I can tell you that we had a feast of feast when Greg flew home back in November. He left Florence on November 14, 2014 and because of travel time and moving from CST to EST, finally walked into his home November 15, 2014. He had missed his traditional November 11 ceremony back at the Hamilton grimmet factory. The tradition he had started, carried on in spite of his absence. I had to think back to earlier days, at a Hamilton dinner party, where rumour had it that Greg had erected a monument for all of the people he had killed in the grimmet factory, even an educated physician got a war memorial confused - thinking it was a statue to remember industrial accidents at the plant. At the time, I was sorry to think that an educated person would even think it was possible that a capitalist would celebrate industrial accidents but that was the atmosphere in Hamilton 20 years earlier. In fact, the cenotaph was a result of Greg's conscience. Back in 1994 after he had purchased MBI, he renovated the reception/foyer area, and while the space was under construction, some framed 'pictures' were leaned against a wall in his office. While on the phone one day, he noticed that the pictures were lists of names and saw that some had black crosses beside them, the list was MBI employees who had served in WW II, and the names with the crosses, were the ones who never came home.
It was out of respect, and to honour our values of freedom, and the liberty to pursue happiness, that Greg built a war memorial, funded privately and placed within the MBI property, it was much criticized at the time, and certainly, misunderstood. Natalie, Karina and I, attended the first November 11th Rememberance Day ceremony, but then, after those death threats - we no longer attended.
So we have come full circle. Greg was arrested on November 12 2013, a day after Remeberance Day November 11, and he was finally free after paying a 'fine' on November 14, 2014. Today's big news story was the apology from the prosecution over the arrest of the lunch counter protestors in the South back in the 60's when 'jail no bail' was the policy, and based on Greg's experience in Alabama it was clear that old habits do die hard. By ignoring the bond and restricting him from traveling home to prepare for trial, the result was the same as being put in jail. The thought that power in the state was held in the hands of a small group of insiders who misled a Grand Jury, and to never even be able to see on what basis the charges were laid, underscores my suspicion that the people of Alabama are still being cheated out of knowing the truth. I just know that a full year had been stolen from our lives and that the actual facts would never come to light since the point was to extort money and inflict punishment before going to an open court. No one would know about 2,000,000 pages of documents. No one would hear that the $30 million bond was ignored. No one would hear about Greg having to hire ACS cronies. No one would learn about any of the incriminating evidence against ACS, because it would be so damaging. I also know that there could have been good jobs available to those people who want jobs, because the economy has recovered from the greed of Wall Street and the mortgage crisis that led to the collapse in 2008.
ACS knew there was no fraud and so could not accuse Greg in civil court but instead, needed to strike after the civil case was time barred. Only state securities charges would allow the sealed and secret Grand Jury, all done through the legal system of the state. Laws carved out through the sacrifices of young men maimed and dead men who run into battle to preserve liberty and freedom.
But then again, that is only my personal opinion, I am only bitter about one thing - that all joy was sucked out of my life for a full year, and once pushed into a hole, it takes a bit to crawl out of it.
I could have spent more time in giving the Universe the truth, but I quickly realized, at around day 8 of my blogging, that I would benfit more from getting back to joy and laughter rather that dwelling on the details of this tale. It was a helluva year, and I will spend my time now fighting for the rights of those poor kids stuffed into the Tuscumbia jail, that only jail Greg saw in Alabama, seven men and roaches in a 10 x 12 cell, and Cook County jail in Chicago, but I am sure that there are plenty more disgraceful prisons in every state. It is a shameful truth that the racial epithet is used by jailers, white and black non stop behind the walls of prison. The reality of those 10 days has stayed with our family. We were converted and now we understand. I wrote to the White House, and I did not get a reply, except I was put on the auto e-mail list to donate money. I wrote to John Boehner and I did not get a response. This was a story that would be of interest to both sides of the table. I contacted the ACLU and there was no interest, so after a while you 'pays your money and you gets going'.
And that is how I learned it will take a lot more to bring light to injustice.
Passing Thoughts
And so now I can tell you that we had a feast of feast when Greg flew home back in November. He left Florence on November 14, 2014 and because of travel time and moving from CST to EST, finally walked into his home November 15, 2014. He had missed his traditional November 11 ceremony back at the Hamilton grimmet factory. The tradition he had started, carried on in spite of his absence. I had to think back to earlier days, at a Hamilton dinner party, where rumour had it that Greg had erected a monument for all of the people he had killed in the grimmet factory, even an educated physician got a war memorial confused - thinking it was a statue to remember industrial accidents at the plant. At the time, I was sorry to think that an educated person would even think it was possible that a capitalist would celebrate industrial accidents but that was the atmosphere in Hamilton 20 years earlier. In fact, the cenotaph was a result of Greg's conscience. Back in 1994 after he had purchased MBI, he renovated the reception/foyer area, and while the space was under construction, some framed 'pictures' were leaned against a wall in his office. While on the phone one day, he noticed that the pictures were lists of names and saw that some had black crosses beside them, the list was MBI employees who had served in WW II, and the names with the crosses, were the ones who never came home.
It was out of respect, and to honour our values of freedom, and the liberty to pursue happiness, that Greg built a war memorial, funded privately and placed within the MBI property, it was much criticized at the time, and certainly, misunderstood. Natalie, Karina and I, attended the first November 11th Rememberance Day ceremony, but then, after those death threats - we no longer attended.
So we have come full circle. Greg was arrested on November 12 2013, a day after Remeberance Day November 11, and he was finally free after paying a 'fine' on November 14, 2014. Today's big news story was the apology from the prosecution over the arrest of the lunch counter protestors in the South back in the 60's when 'jail no bail' was the policy, and based on Greg's experience in Alabama it was clear that old habits do die hard. By ignoring the bond and restricting him from traveling home to prepare for trial, the result was the same as being put in jail. The thought that power in the state was held in the hands of a small group of insiders who misled a Grand Jury, and to never even be able to see on what basis the charges were laid, underscores my suspicion that the people of Alabama are still being cheated out of knowing the truth. I just know that a full year had been stolen from our lives and that the actual facts would never come to light since the point was to extort money and inflict punishment before going to an open court. No one would know about 2,000,000 pages of documents. No one would hear that the $30 million bond was ignored. No one would hear about Greg having to hire ACS cronies. No one would learn about any of the incriminating evidence against ACS, because it would be so damaging. I also know that there could have been good jobs available to those people who want jobs, because the economy has recovered from the greed of Wall Street and the mortgage crisis that led to the collapse in 2008.
ACS knew there was no fraud and so could not accuse Greg in civil court but instead, needed to strike after the civil case was time barred. Only state securities charges would allow the sealed and secret Grand Jury, all done through the legal system of the state. Laws carved out through the sacrifices of young men maimed and dead men who run into battle to preserve liberty and freedom.
But then again, that is only my personal opinion, I am only bitter about one thing - that all joy was sucked out of my life for a full year, and once pushed into a hole, it takes a bit to crawl out of it.
I could have spent more time in giving the Universe the truth, but I quickly realized, at around day 8 of my blogging, that I would benfit more from getting back to joy and laughter rather that dwelling on the details of this tale. It was a helluva year, and I will spend my time now fighting for the rights of those poor kids stuffed into the Tuscumbia jail, that only jail Greg saw in Alabama, seven men and roaches in a 10 x 12 cell, and Cook County jail in Chicago, but I am sure that there are plenty more disgraceful prisons in every state. It is a shameful truth that the racial epithet is used by jailers, white and black non stop behind the walls of prison. The reality of those 10 days has stayed with our family. We were converted and now we understand. I wrote to the White House, and I did not get a reply, except I was put on the auto e-mail list to donate money. I wrote to John Boehner and I did not get a response. This was a story that would be of interest to both sides of the table. I contacted the ACLU and there was no interest, so after a while you 'pays your money and you gets going'.
And that is how I learned it will take a lot more to bring light to injustice.
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
The Merchant of Venice Gets his Pound of Flesh
January 27, 2015.
Passing Thoughts
Today is the annual day to remember the holocaust and it also happens to be the 70'th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp in Auschwitz. Imagine - a million people slaughtered. When 3,000 people were slaughtered September 11in New York, there was an immediate response. Not three weeks ago people were slaughtered in Paris, and the conversation in three short weeks has changed from freedom and human rights and free speech, to freedom of religion. I do not understand Washington leaders. I have real issue with religion trumping human rights. The holocaust eliminated 6,000,000 people and since the second world war some linguists coined the term 'ethnic cleansing' to soften the vocabulary - but lets face it we are still stuck in defending religion based attacks. What has happened to just defending human rights and equality. What happened to the ideals of Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King raising awarenes of race equality? We know that there is a serious issue with gender equality, but female human rights are eclipsed by double talking politicians who give religion a free pass. I am very disappointed with President Obama's remarks in India. No religion should eclipse civil rights or human rights and ignore the real essence of the words of the Constitution.
The French magazine attracted outrage because of cartoons. I am wondering, is it OK to criticize fashion, and just keep to superficial matters? Is it insulting to say that a black sheet is not fashion, and so you look silly wearing a black sheet and a Chanel bag? I don't get it. I put a cover on my BBQ and patio furniture, not over my head and body. But I digress.
The Tale
Jonny thought that he could get everything resolved by Canadian Thanksgiving and we were so anxious to have this put behind us. Ten months had gone by, not one call from the brother. Greg had celebrated his 65 birthday in Alabama, Natalie and Karina had their birthdays, Karina had her surgery, Natalie had survived a plane crash, and escaped ovarian cancer. By that point, I had run out of words. Nothing could describe my utter disappointment in the brother.
The friends who had stood by however, were in a different category. They were as anxious as we were, and ten months into the unimaginable, most of our supporters were at a point of just holding their breath,
"Anything?"
"Nope".
Back in Hamilton, more people were being hired as a new grimmet had been designed and was now in demand. Orders were rolling in. It would be bad if the news got back to the regular people of Alabama. The grimmet business was booming, and just like the rest of the economy, both in Canada and the United States, jobs were coming back in the manufacturing sector. It was a full six years since the economic collapse of 2008, and Greg was being held captive with that electronic monitor having been accused of a securities fraud in criminal court. Greg's bridge loan had been arranged for him by the state and a NY lawyer to expedite construction while Greg was waiting for the federal GO ZONE money. Construction had to commence before December 31 2007 remember. The bridge loan lender asked to be a share holder. i.e. have a stake in the company, months after Greg had advised him of cost over runs. The bridge loan lender pressured Greg to use suppliers known to cost more. The bridge loan lender was given all of the financial information monthly since October 2007 and yet wanted to be a partner well after the reported 2008 banking crisis that cripled the global economy. The bridge loan lender, unlike regular banks that had to take the hit as a result of housing market collapse and the morgage crisis, this particular lender, had enough power in the State of Alabama to get a State Securities fraud indictment against Greg. Who actually commited a white collar crime here?
Weeks went by. Jonny was still tweeking that statement to satisfy the prosecution. The prosecution needed to look like they got a victory. Jonny knew that and Greg and I both understood that. Jonny truly believed that some of the opponents really were convinced that they were in the right. I don't really care to find out what they thought. I just know that by sealing the 'secret Grand Jury documents' for ever by court order, means that there is a reason to hide information. But somehow, the truth, like cream that floats to the top, will come out.
Jonny finally got the wording right, and then it was a matter of paying the 'fine' and do the money transfer. I was nervous that they would pull a fast one and possibly take the money and come up with another devious plot to torture Greg. I was so nervous that Jonny, who had lost many a night's sleep worrying about this case, also started to believe my crazy ideas. We had now lost 11 months of laughter, joy and happiness. We had spent 11 months having to think about the peculiar sort of people who want to get their pound of flesh. I just didn't understand that kind of evil. Greg never wanted to be a loser. Part of the accusation in the indictment was that Greg was a deviant who always knew that the construction of the grimmet factory would be a lost cause. Why is the grimmet business booming in Hamilton in an inferior factory today? It is very frustrating to know that a state of the art building, that cost $150 million less that the repairs to buildings now 100 years old - is under used. It is frustrating as well to have listened to urban legend in Muscle Shoals about the building. "That place is so big they had to take into account the curvature of the earth". Well, if you are into engineering, and you are building heavy equipment that will be travelling at high speed through towns, you better make sure that the bobbits that the grimmet travel on, are perfect inside the factory. It's about the safety of the equipment you are building. Duh! ACS had done an amazing job to discredit Greg, part of the character assasination plot. It is a wonderful thing to have been raised with literature, and culture. The great themes of conflict, money jealously and liars are told and retold. Our experience was nothing new, we were just wearing different costumes: we were in a modern day setting of 'The Merchant of Venice'.
November 14, 2015 Jonny, Mark and Greg, finally went into court, they got the releases and the judge said
"I hope that the people of North Alabama treated you well."
The monitor came off shortly after, Greg was going to keep it as a souvenir of his ordeal, but they wanted $3,000.00, so he said, 'nail that' so to speak, and that evening Greg left Florence. Jonny and his wife went out to the airport to make sure the jet had Greg on board, they hugged, Greg climbed up the stairs, the door closed and the plane took off. That is when Greg started to look at this ugly chapter through the rear view mirror.
"I had always known that ACS wasn't a grimmet man, but I didn't know that he wasn't much of a business man either".
As the plane was crossing Lake Erie, our good pilots turned around and announced,
"We have just entered Canadian air space." Relief at last.
Abe never called Greg to say bye, or to wish him good luck and I haven't asked Jonny if he got a call. Jonny and Mark came to visit a liberated Greg in his home back in Canada. We are slowly getting our lives back, ever so grateful to be here on God's beautiful planet, with a lot of good people. Ever so grateful to those who carried the banner into the flames, and brought Greg home to his family.
And that is how I learned that I could tell my story to the Universe and fufill my New Year's Resolution.
Passing Thoughts
Today is the annual day to remember the holocaust and it also happens to be the 70'th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp in Auschwitz. Imagine - a million people slaughtered. When 3,000 people were slaughtered September 11in New York, there was an immediate response. Not three weeks ago people were slaughtered in Paris, and the conversation in three short weeks has changed from freedom and human rights and free speech, to freedom of religion. I do not understand Washington leaders. I have real issue with religion trumping human rights. The holocaust eliminated 6,000,000 people and since the second world war some linguists coined the term 'ethnic cleansing' to soften the vocabulary - but lets face it we are still stuck in defending religion based attacks. What has happened to just defending human rights and equality. What happened to the ideals of Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King raising awarenes of race equality? We know that there is a serious issue with gender equality, but female human rights are eclipsed by double talking politicians who give religion a free pass. I am very disappointed with President Obama's remarks in India. No religion should eclipse civil rights or human rights and ignore the real essence of the words of the Constitution.
The French magazine attracted outrage because of cartoons. I am wondering, is it OK to criticize fashion, and just keep to superficial matters? Is it insulting to say that a black sheet is not fashion, and so you look silly wearing a black sheet and a Chanel bag? I don't get it. I put a cover on my BBQ and patio furniture, not over my head and body. But I digress.
The Tale
Jonny thought that he could get everything resolved by Canadian Thanksgiving and we were so anxious to have this put behind us. Ten months had gone by, not one call from the brother. Greg had celebrated his 65 birthday in Alabama, Natalie and Karina had their birthdays, Karina had her surgery, Natalie had survived a plane crash, and escaped ovarian cancer. By that point, I had run out of words. Nothing could describe my utter disappointment in the brother.
The friends who had stood by however, were in a different category. They were as anxious as we were, and ten months into the unimaginable, most of our supporters were at a point of just holding their breath,
"Anything?"
"Nope".
Back in Hamilton, more people were being hired as a new grimmet had been designed and was now in demand. Orders were rolling in. It would be bad if the news got back to the regular people of Alabama. The grimmet business was booming, and just like the rest of the economy, both in Canada and the United States, jobs were coming back in the manufacturing sector. It was a full six years since the economic collapse of 2008, and Greg was being held captive with that electronic monitor having been accused of a securities fraud in criminal court. Greg's bridge loan had been arranged for him by the state and a NY lawyer to expedite construction while Greg was waiting for the federal GO ZONE money. Construction had to commence before December 31 2007 remember. The bridge loan lender asked to be a share holder. i.e. have a stake in the company, months after Greg had advised him of cost over runs. The bridge loan lender pressured Greg to use suppliers known to cost more. The bridge loan lender was given all of the financial information monthly since October 2007 and yet wanted to be a partner well after the reported 2008 banking crisis that cripled the global economy. The bridge loan lender, unlike regular banks that had to take the hit as a result of housing market collapse and the morgage crisis, this particular lender, had enough power in the State of Alabama to get a State Securities fraud indictment against Greg. Who actually commited a white collar crime here?
Weeks went by. Jonny was still tweeking that statement to satisfy the prosecution. The prosecution needed to look like they got a victory. Jonny knew that and Greg and I both understood that. Jonny truly believed that some of the opponents really were convinced that they were in the right. I don't really care to find out what they thought. I just know that by sealing the 'secret Grand Jury documents' for ever by court order, means that there is a reason to hide information. But somehow, the truth, like cream that floats to the top, will come out.
Jonny finally got the wording right, and then it was a matter of paying the 'fine' and do the money transfer. I was nervous that they would pull a fast one and possibly take the money and come up with another devious plot to torture Greg. I was so nervous that Jonny, who had lost many a night's sleep worrying about this case, also started to believe my crazy ideas. We had now lost 11 months of laughter, joy and happiness. We had spent 11 months having to think about the peculiar sort of people who want to get their pound of flesh. I just didn't understand that kind of evil. Greg never wanted to be a loser. Part of the accusation in the indictment was that Greg was a deviant who always knew that the construction of the grimmet factory would be a lost cause. Why is the grimmet business booming in Hamilton in an inferior factory today? It is very frustrating to know that a state of the art building, that cost $150 million less that the repairs to buildings now 100 years old - is under used. It is frustrating as well to have listened to urban legend in Muscle Shoals about the building. "That place is so big they had to take into account the curvature of the earth". Well, if you are into engineering, and you are building heavy equipment that will be travelling at high speed through towns, you better make sure that the bobbits that the grimmet travel on, are perfect inside the factory. It's about the safety of the equipment you are building. Duh! ACS had done an amazing job to discredit Greg, part of the character assasination plot. It is a wonderful thing to have been raised with literature, and culture. The great themes of conflict, money jealously and liars are told and retold. Our experience was nothing new, we were just wearing different costumes: we were in a modern day setting of 'The Merchant of Venice'.
November 14, 2015 Jonny, Mark and Greg, finally went into court, they got the releases and the judge said
"I hope that the people of North Alabama treated you well."
The monitor came off shortly after, Greg was going to keep it as a souvenir of his ordeal, but they wanted $3,000.00, so he said, 'nail that' so to speak, and that evening Greg left Florence. Jonny and his wife went out to the airport to make sure the jet had Greg on board, they hugged, Greg climbed up the stairs, the door closed and the plane took off. That is when Greg started to look at this ugly chapter through the rear view mirror.
"I had always known that ACS wasn't a grimmet man, but I didn't know that he wasn't much of a business man either".
As the plane was crossing Lake Erie, our good pilots turned around and announced,
"We have just entered Canadian air space." Relief at last.
Abe never called Greg to say bye, or to wish him good luck and I haven't asked Jonny if he got a call. Jonny and Mark came to visit a liberated Greg in his home back in Canada. We are slowly getting our lives back, ever so grateful to be here on God's beautiful planet, with a lot of good people. Ever so grateful to those who carried the banner into the flames, and brought Greg home to his family.
And that is how I learned that I could tell my story to the Universe and fufill my New Year's Resolution.
Monday, January 26, 2015
Ovarian Cancer and Cyst removal and Jail
January 26, 2015.
The Tale
Natalie called me on Sunday from her car phone as she was heading back to Toronto.
That is when I heard about the crash. She called Karina and told her, and then she called Greg. We had decided that since the plane crash had a happy ending, it might kind of dull news that we might have to tell him soon about ovarian cancer. Everything was strictly on a 'need to know' basis, and since I was the one in charge of determining who needs to know what, when, I thought the plane crash story was way easier to digest than 'your daughter might be seriously ill'.
I told Natalie that I was waiting for the Cleveland Clinic appoinment call, so on Monday her task was to run around Toronto and get a copy of the MRI and test results from the various offices and get her medical file ready to take with us. Monday arrived, and I was fiendishly checking my e-mail looking for that appointment. At four o'clock a terrific thunderstorm rolled in and knocked out our satellite and power, and I was not in the habit at that time, to check my cell phone for e-mails, so I missed the message that came through, and on Tuesday morning when I checked my computer I was in another panic,
"You have an appointment today at 11:00," the message read.
There was no way we could make that. I wanted to cry, I missed my chance, and Natalie had that surgery booked for September 3rd! I no sooner put the phone down after calling to cancel the 11:00 AM appointment, when the phone rang. It was Karina's orthopaedic surgeon from the Cleveland Clinic. I had called his office on Friday when I was having my anxiety attack waiting to hear back from global patient services, thinking that maybe he could somehow be able to help. On the previous Friday, I ended up speaking to his secretary since the doctor was not available. She took down my name and number, and cautioned me that the doctor was not connected to womens' health but she would pass on my message. You gotta love the good people at the Cleveland Clinic, she passed the message on, and now the doc was calling me back!
I told the good doctor about my other daughter, and the appointment we just missed, and the good doctor said, "Leave it with me, I will se what I can do".
Natalie hurried home and now we both waited for that phone to ring. At four o'clock the good doctor called and asked if we could be in Cleveland that night. He had arranged for Dr. Eagle to see Natalie tomorrow, but the appointment would actually have to be made through global patient services. That meant that Natalie would have to call first thing on Wednesday, 7:30 AM and since we would be in Cleveland we would be ready to go anytime we were told.
Perfect. We flew to Cleveland. The pilots gave us a hug, they knew this was a secret mission and not to tell Greg, and it was agreed that they would wait to hear back from us. They returned to Canada. We drove into downtown and checked into the Ritz hotel. Wednesday morning, Natalie called Global Patients Services. At 9:00 AM we found out that Dr. Eagle would see Natalie at 1:45PM.
We did a test drive to the Clinic, as I did not want anything to mess this up, I had never been to the main campus and I had never driven in Cleveland.
We did the check in, then we went to the proper department and at 1:45 Natalie's name was called out. I saw a doctor go into go into the exam room and so I knew that must be Dr. Eagle Later, I saw him enter the area marked "Oncology".
A really horrible time.
Shortly later, Dr. Eagle beckoned me and I joined Natalie in the exam room. Dr. Eagel was calm and cool. After he gave me a brief explanation of the possible diagnosis, I told him that I was prepared to do the surgery in Cleveland. since he confirmed that he would be able to perform a laparoscopic procedure - take a look, and then immediately know if it was cancer, just as the Alabama GYN had told me. This was the last diagnostic tool I was hoping existed. Dr. Eagle said, "Let's see if we can do this tomorrow".
As it turned out, the surgery would be on Friday, Natalie checked in at 11:00 AM. She had a 4 1/2 hour surgery, all laparoscopic, all benign and she was able to walk out of the hospital that night at 10:30 PM. Way better than a four day stay in a hospital, six weeks of recovery and a permanent disfiguring scar.
At about 5:00 PM EST, when Dr. Eagle spoke to me after leaving the surgery room and giving me a quick briefing, when I knew that Natalie was fine, I called Greg and gave him the full Monty! Greg was stunned and ecstatic. I had to go over the story with him several times since he kept asking when exactly we knew what. Natalie and I stayed in Cleveland over the weekend, just incase of any complications ( Dr. Eagle's suggestion). There were no complications. They never happened, probably because Dr. Eagle was the physician who invented the laparoscopic removal of ovarian cysts years earlier and had performed over 10,000 similar operations.
As it turned out, Natalie's mass did not even involve her ovary. Praise the Lord for getting two key peices of advice - 'avoid the scar if you can', and 'go to a bigger centre'! On Monday we headed home.
I could dedicate many pages on this subject, but the purpose of the blog is to fucus on false accusations, jail and injustice, not health issues. Natalie called the Toronto hospital to cancel her September 3rd surgery and left a voice message. There was an immediate response, concern that she was cancelling a surgery,
"I am not cancelling because I don't want the surgery," Natalie explained " I am cancelling because I don't need the surgery. I had everything taken care of at Cleveland Clinic, and my surgery was all done laparoscopically". The Canadian surgeon was not interested, not was the head of the department interested in seeing the post-op report. Natalie was willing to share her records in the hope that someone else might benefit, but alas there was no interest.
And that is how I learned that Cleveland Clinic really is a great place.
The Tale
Natalie called me on Sunday from her car phone as she was heading back to Toronto.
That is when I heard about the crash. She called Karina and told her, and then she called Greg. We had decided that since the plane crash had a happy ending, it might kind of dull news that we might have to tell him soon about ovarian cancer. Everything was strictly on a 'need to know' basis, and since I was the one in charge of determining who needs to know what, when, I thought the plane crash story was way easier to digest than 'your daughter might be seriously ill'.
I told Natalie that I was waiting for the Cleveland Clinic appoinment call, so on Monday her task was to run around Toronto and get a copy of the MRI and test results from the various offices and get her medical file ready to take with us. Monday arrived, and I was fiendishly checking my e-mail looking for that appointment. At four o'clock a terrific thunderstorm rolled in and knocked out our satellite and power, and I was not in the habit at that time, to check my cell phone for e-mails, so I missed the message that came through, and on Tuesday morning when I checked my computer I was in another panic,
"You have an appointment today at 11:00," the message read.
There was no way we could make that. I wanted to cry, I missed my chance, and Natalie had that surgery booked for September 3rd! I no sooner put the phone down after calling to cancel the 11:00 AM appointment, when the phone rang. It was Karina's orthopaedic surgeon from the Cleveland Clinic. I had called his office on Friday when I was having my anxiety attack waiting to hear back from global patient services, thinking that maybe he could somehow be able to help. On the previous Friday, I ended up speaking to his secretary since the doctor was not available. She took down my name and number, and cautioned me that the doctor was not connected to womens' health but she would pass on my message. You gotta love the good people at the Cleveland Clinic, she passed the message on, and now the doc was calling me back!
I told the good doctor about my other daughter, and the appointment we just missed, and the good doctor said, "Leave it with me, I will se what I can do".
Natalie hurried home and now we both waited for that phone to ring. At four o'clock the good doctor called and asked if we could be in Cleveland that night. He had arranged for Dr. Eagle to see Natalie tomorrow, but the appointment would actually have to be made through global patient services. That meant that Natalie would have to call first thing on Wednesday, 7:30 AM and since we would be in Cleveland we would be ready to go anytime we were told.
Perfect. We flew to Cleveland. The pilots gave us a hug, they knew this was a secret mission and not to tell Greg, and it was agreed that they would wait to hear back from us. They returned to Canada. We drove into downtown and checked into the Ritz hotel. Wednesday morning, Natalie called Global Patients Services. At 9:00 AM we found out that Dr. Eagle would see Natalie at 1:45PM.
We did a test drive to the Clinic, as I did not want anything to mess this up, I had never been to the main campus and I had never driven in Cleveland.
We did the check in, then we went to the proper department and at 1:45 Natalie's name was called out. I saw a doctor go into go into the exam room and so I knew that must be Dr. Eagle Later, I saw him enter the area marked "Oncology".
A really horrible time.
Shortly later, Dr. Eagle beckoned me and I joined Natalie in the exam room. Dr. Eagel was calm and cool. After he gave me a brief explanation of the possible diagnosis, I told him that I was prepared to do the surgery in Cleveland. since he confirmed that he would be able to perform a laparoscopic procedure - take a look, and then immediately know if it was cancer, just as the Alabama GYN had told me. This was the last diagnostic tool I was hoping existed. Dr. Eagle said, "Let's see if we can do this tomorrow".
As it turned out, the surgery would be on Friday, Natalie checked in at 11:00 AM. She had a 4 1/2 hour surgery, all laparoscopic, all benign and she was able to walk out of the hospital that night at 10:30 PM. Way better than a four day stay in a hospital, six weeks of recovery and a permanent disfiguring scar.
At about 5:00 PM EST, when Dr. Eagle spoke to me after leaving the surgery room and giving me a quick briefing, when I knew that Natalie was fine, I called Greg and gave him the full Monty! Greg was stunned and ecstatic. I had to go over the story with him several times since he kept asking when exactly we knew what. Natalie and I stayed in Cleveland over the weekend, just incase of any complications ( Dr. Eagle's suggestion). There were no complications. They never happened, probably because Dr. Eagle was the physician who invented the laparoscopic removal of ovarian cysts years earlier and had performed over 10,000 similar operations.
As it turned out, Natalie's mass did not even involve her ovary. Praise the Lord for getting two key peices of advice - 'avoid the scar if you can', and 'go to a bigger centre'! On Monday we headed home.
I could dedicate many pages on this subject, but the purpose of the blog is to fucus on false accusations, jail and injustice, not health issues. Natalie called the Toronto hospital to cancel her September 3rd surgery and left a voice message. There was an immediate response, concern that she was cancelling a surgery,
"I am not cancelling because I don't want the surgery," Natalie explained " I am cancelling because I don't need the surgery. I had everything taken care of at Cleveland Clinic, and my surgery was all done laparoscopically". The Canadian surgeon was not interested, not was the head of the department interested in seeing the post-op report. Natalie was willing to share her records in the hope that someone else might benefit, but alas there was no interest.
And that is how I learned that Cleveland Clinic really is a great place.
Sunday, January 25, 2015
Float Planes
January 26, 2015.
The Tale
On Tuesday, Natalie went to meet her surgeon at the top ranked women's oncology hospital in Toronto.
She was told, even though she repeatedly asked if there were any other options available, there was only one procedure available was a vertical incision since there was a fifty/fifty chance that she had cancer and that she could possibly face a complete hysterectomy. On Wednesday, she came down to Florence to help me 'bring the dogs back'. I had told Greg that Natalie had a routine cyst that needed to come out and that I should go back to give her some attention. I already had been in Florence now for six weeks, and it was time to check back on the house in Canada. Greg bought into my story.
On the flight home, I got a full briefing about all of the tests. Her CA 125 Marker was elevated.
The lump was huge, and too big to remove laparoscopically. She also said that she had agreed months ago, to go to Muskoka to celebrate her friends big birthday, and that the upcoming weekend was the weekend of the birthday and Natalie asked if that would still be OK to go. Surgery was scheduled for September 6. I thought it would be a good distraction to go away and take her mind off of this big worry.
Natalie drove off on Thursday, and I began my phone calls and googling to find out more about her condition. I discoved that CA 125 over 35 was considered elevated, and Natalie's blood work came back as 132. I had a pit in my stomach. I called every connection I knew. I couldn't be in better hands, the hospital was highly regarded. I called Betty to tell her my latest, and she said to me,
"If there is one thing you should fight for, is to make sure that incision is horizontal. A vertical cut makes a huge ugly disfiguring scar, and Natalie should be given a chance not to have that on her body". Betty's words of advice made me even more concerned. I really needed to see if I could get another opinion and I only had three short weeks left. I could not delay, and it was so difficult to get referrals to begin with in Canada.
I remembered that one of Natalie's Law school friend's father was a GYN, the only one I knew. It was arranged that he would be expecting my call. I explained as much about Natalie as I could, and I answered his questions as best as I could. I was a bag of confused emotions. I didn't really know all of the answers and wished that Natalie had called him instead of me. He told me that laparoscopy was the last diagnotic tool available, and it would be easy to go in, and immediately see the mass, and to go from there. "It is time to go to a bigger centre" he advised. He also suggested that I contact Global Patient Services at Cleveland Clinic, and see if I could get an appointment with a GYN in Cleveland.
Encouraged, I made the phone call on Friday, and told the reluctant Natalie via text message, to be prepared to go to the states when she got back from the cottage break. I was a bag of nerves waiting for a call back from Cleveland. I swear the clock stopped moving. By 4:45 I still hadn't heard back, but then I saw an email, "Don't worry, I haven't forgotten you, I am still working on it".
It was the end of the work week. We were going to lose two days over the weekend.
Saturday, Natalie checked in through text message, and told me that she was going up to a famous diner in a float plane, for lunch.
"Oh, great!!!!! Another thing for me to worry about" I texted her back.
So you just can't make this up. Two float planes flew 6 people. Natalie had a fun lunch, and the same six people, got back into the two float planes to go back to Lake Joseph. It was a busy day on the lake lots of sea dos, jet skiers, boats and someone saw the float plane coming in for a landing, and filmed it because it is kinda cool. So there is video on you tube "small plane crashes lake Joe.
Luckily, Natalie did not hit her head on the dashboard and so she was not unconscious. The pilot's door was jammed - he shouted everyone OK???? Natalie remembers seeing all three hands on the door latch beside her. All three jumped out to safety, Natalie jumped, holding her cell phone in her arm raised, so that it would not get wet and so that she could text me. She was picked up by a jet skier as was the other passenger and taken to a dock. The pilot was not with them. Lots of panic, for lots of people.
The group managed to get back to the host's cottage and then texted me
"Back at Cottage".
I was happy to get that message. It would take another day to find out what really happened.
And that is how I learned that we had a guardian angel looking after us.
The Tale
On Tuesday, Natalie went to meet her surgeon at the top ranked women's oncology hospital in Toronto.
She was told, even though she repeatedly asked if there were any other options available, there was only one procedure available was a vertical incision since there was a fifty/fifty chance that she had cancer and that she could possibly face a complete hysterectomy. On Wednesday, she came down to Florence to help me 'bring the dogs back'. I had told Greg that Natalie had a routine cyst that needed to come out and that I should go back to give her some attention. I already had been in Florence now for six weeks, and it was time to check back on the house in Canada. Greg bought into my story.
On the flight home, I got a full briefing about all of the tests. Her CA 125 Marker was elevated.
The lump was huge, and too big to remove laparoscopically. She also said that she had agreed months ago, to go to Muskoka to celebrate her friends big birthday, and that the upcoming weekend was the weekend of the birthday and Natalie asked if that would still be OK to go. Surgery was scheduled for September 6. I thought it would be a good distraction to go away and take her mind off of this big worry.
Natalie drove off on Thursday, and I began my phone calls and googling to find out more about her condition. I discoved that CA 125 over 35 was considered elevated, and Natalie's blood work came back as 132. I had a pit in my stomach. I called every connection I knew. I couldn't be in better hands, the hospital was highly regarded. I called Betty to tell her my latest, and she said to me,
"If there is one thing you should fight for, is to make sure that incision is horizontal. A vertical cut makes a huge ugly disfiguring scar, and Natalie should be given a chance not to have that on her body". Betty's words of advice made me even more concerned. I really needed to see if I could get another opinion and I only had three short weeks left. I could not delay, and it was so difficult to get referrals to begin with in Canada.
I remembered that one of Natalie's Law school friend's father was a GYN, the only one I knew. It was arranged that he would be expecting my call. I explained as much about Natalie as I could, and I answered his questions as best as I could. I was a bag of confused emotions. I didn't really know all of the answers and wished that Natalie had called him instead of me. He told me that laparoscopy was the last diagnotic tool available, and it would be easy to go in, and immediately see the mass, and to go from there. "It is time to go to a bigger centre" he advised. He also suggested that I contact Global Patient Services at Cleveland Clinic, and see if I could get an appointment with a GYN in Cleveland.
Encouraged, I made the phone call on Friday, and told the reluctant Natalie via text message, to be prepared to go to the states when she got back from the cottage break. I was a bag of nerves waiting for a call back from Cleveland. I swear the clock stopped moving. By 4:45 I still hadn't heard back, but then I saw an email, "Don't worry, I haven't forgotten you, I am still working on it".
It was the end of the work week. We were going to lose two days over the weekend.
Saturday, Natalie checked in through text message, and told me that she was going up to a famous diner in a float plane, for lunch.
"Oh, great!!!!! Another thing for me to worry about" I texted her back.
So you just can't make this up. Two float planes flew 6 people. Natalie had a fun lunch, and the same six people, got back into the two float planes to go back to Lake Joseph. It was a busy day on the lake lots of sea dos, jet skiers, boats and someone saw the float plane coming in for a landing, and filmed it because it is kinda cool. So there is video on you tube "small plane crashes lake Joe.
Luckily, Natalie did not hit her head on the dashboard and so she was not unconscious. The pilot's door was jammed - he shouted everyone OK???? Natalie remembers seeing all three hands on the door latch beside her. All three jumped out to safety, Natalie jumped, holding her cell phone in her arm raised, so that it would not get wet and so that she could text me. She was picked up by a jet skier as was the other passenger and taken to a dock. The pilot was not with them. Lots of panic, for lots of people.
The group managed to get back to the host's cottage and then texted me
"Back at Cottage".
I was happy to get that message. It would take another day to find out what really happened.
And that is how I learned that we had a guardian angel looking after us.
Accusations and Verdicts
January 25, 2015.
Passing Thoughts
And so life speeds by, and we reflect once again. There is such a fascinating thread that weaves through my life and the lives of others. We know that "To Kill a Mockingbird" is regarded as the most influential book in America in the 20th Century, and I think the statistic is that about 68% of the population has read it.
We know that the story is set in Alabama, as is my tale. The fictional story has a shocking outcome: the jury, in spite of overwhelming evidence comes back with a guilty verdict. This is what Jonny and Mark were not prepared to risk for Greg. They understood what they should be afraid of.
I know that Loretto Academy gave me the courage to speak up. A silly female voice that grew from the legacy of a five hundred year old tradition of teaching girls to be accomplished. My Latvian heritage taught me that material things could be taken away at anytime, and so were not worth suffering over. Natalie's health issue made me realize that making Greg pay a 'fine' and draft a statement that would satisfy his accuser which would make the criminal charge go away, as inconceivable of that idea was to my values of civilization, suddenly that option was worth it. Suddenly the extortion money made sense, and I was willing to change my position. But does telling the Universe mean that I am like a journalist, and will have my head cut off? Jonny wanted me to be quiet until he could get Greg 'out' so to speak, and when I told him I was going to write a story about my experience, I pretty near killed him with a massive stress attack and his eyeballs popped out of his head. I will tell him about my blog on February 1, 2015.
Today's reflection makes me think that women might hold the key in solving world problems by opening a dialogue. Good and evil exists as sure as day and night and it is that problem that causes the great divide. Who is going to say "I am evil." The battle between right and wrong, good and evil is the concept that 'my side is better than your side' and the assumption that " I am right" clouds our actions, as no one is ever willing to accept even the slightest possibility, that they might be wrong, or perhaps even think that thay are actually doing something wrong. Women have been told for centuries that they are 'wrong'. They have been prevented from voting, receiving inheritences, attending school, driving cars, etc etc etc etc - a 2,000 year plus, long list of inequalities. So I guess it is dangerous to speak up, more dangerous for a journalist, and I guess really dangerous to be a female journalist. And to think, "To Kill a Mockingbird" was written by a women, and is the most influencial novel in 20th Century American Literature.
Interesting. I will now reflect on that passing thought.
Passing Thoughts
And so life speeds by, and we reflect once again. There is such a fascinating thread that weaves through my life and the lives of others. We know that "To Kill a Mockingbird" is regarded as the most influential book in America in the 20th Century, and I think the statistic is that about 68% of the population has read it.
We know that the story is set in Alabama, as is my tale. The fictional story has a shocking outcome: the jury, in spite of overwhelming evidence comes back with a guilty verdict. This is what Jonny and Mark were not prepared to risk for Greg. They understood what they should be afraid of.
I know that Loretto Academy gave me the courage to speak up. A silly female voice that grew from the legacy of a five hundred year old tradition of teaching girls to be accomplished. My Latvian heritage taught me that material things could be taken away at anytime, and so were not worth suffering over. Natalie's health issue made me realize that making Greg pay a 'fine' and draft a statement that would satisfy his accuser which would make the criminal charge go away, as inconceivable of that idea was to my values of civilization, suddenly that option was worth it. Suddenly the extortion money made sense, and I was willing to change my position. But does telling the Universe mean that I am like a journalist, and will have my head cut off? Jonny wanted me to be quiet until he could get Greg 'out' so to speak, and when I told him I was going to write a story about my experience, I pretty near killed him with a massive stress attack and his eyeballs popped out of his head. I will tell him about my blog on February 1, 2015.
Today's reflection makes me think that women might hold the key in solving world problems by opening a dialogue. Good and evil exists as sure as day and night and it is that problem that causes the great divide. Who is going to say "I am evil." The battle between right and wrong, good and evil is the concept that 'my side is better than your side' and the assumption that " I am right" clouds our actions, as no one is ever willing to accept even the slightest possibility, that they might be wrong, or perhaps even think that thay are actually doing something wrong. Women have been told for centuries that they are 'wrong'. They have been prevented from voting, receiving inheritences, attending school, driving cars, etc etc etc etc - a 2,000 year plus, long list of inequalities. So I guess it is dangerous to speak up, more dangerous for a journalist, and I guess really dangerous to be a female journalist. And to think, "To Kill a Mockingbird" was written by a women, and is the most influencial novel in 20th Century American Literature.
Interesting. I will now reflect on that passing thought.
Saturday, January 24, 2015
Ovarian Cancer and Extortion
January 24, 2015.
Passing Thoughts
In all honesty, Greg was right, the view from the rear view mirror was getting smaller and smaller, and that is the way I want it too - so hopefully the Universe will have this tale wrapped by the end of the month. Again, the statements made in my blog, are merely my personal opinions about real events that actually happened and about events that affected our family. As I stated earlier, I have no interest to dedicate any resources to dig deeper into the nefarious events that happened behind closed doors, but I know enough of the truth to think it is actually my obligation to tell part of it so that people who place trust in others and assume that people are working on their behalf and who yield an incredible amount of power should somehow be asked relevant questions. And besides, the State of Alabama has Sovreign rights, i.e. the state cannot be sued, so I actually have no recourse other than telling the Universe.
The Tale
Abe now had seven months of trial preparation under his belt. He had plowed through the 2,000,000
pages of documents a farcical amount of paper, and had as well had time to conduct interviews with many of the players. The information that was being uncovered did not look good for the prosecution, and the worst incriminating piece was that there was a real issue with the math. Three thousand hours of forensic accounting billed to Greg revealed that every dollar could be accounted for, and there was no fraud. Worse yet, the building costs came in at $305 Million, an acceptable margin for a project that estimated costs (as per the original contract/loan agreement) at $250 million for building, and and addition $100 million for equipment. The project cotract was signed by important people in the State, as well there were documents showing that a copy of the original contract had been delivered to a certain you know who. The prosecution download another 30,000 documents. Abe asked for a continuance, and surprise surprise, it was granted. The trial was moved from October to Spring 2015. Ridiculous.
(It's a wonderful thing when you own media. You can pump out any story you want, and the little lambs just read what you want them to read. There exists a gorgeous facility, designed by Albert Kahn Architects, a notable name in American architecture and history. The internet has articles
"Design Matters". A state of the art facility that cost a $150,000 million less than the fixer upper back in the Rust Belt in Hamilton. When the economy collapsed, and Greg could not take out the bridge loan arranged for him to get those shovels in the ground before December 31 2007, the date when that GO ZONE program would expire, when the banking crisis led by the housing collapse happened - anybody still remember that, that's when Greg could not find a bank to get rid of that certain someone.)
It certainly did not look good for the accusers and yet Greg was caught in the 'procedure' of American law. The legal team thought that a local jury would not understand the case, and I would argue with Greg that they were insulting the intelligence of good working class people living in Colbert county. Those are the people who sit at a kitchen table and figure out if they have extra money left over to go to the movies. Those are the people who get an additional part time job to pay bills. I was convinced that the trial would be fine, but the experts were aware of the forboding corruption, and were not prepared to take a risk. Jonny, Mark's partner had become involved in the case after spending weeks just casually chatting to Greg when they happened to be in the 'lunch room' at the law office. Conversing about football and life and whatnot, Jonny began to take an interest in the case. Jonny had a glimpse into Greg's character and began to instinctively understand that the accusations were false and was determined to be the Atticus we needed. Jonny was prepared to charge into the flames, bear the torch and fight for Greg. Greg finally, had an advocate. Jonny was the man.
Before the project started, Mr. Ruffles, a certain someone's right hand man, had told Greg to make sure that the Hotel room had at least 2 forty ounce bottles of liquor for the overnight stay in Hamilton. It was a lot of alcohol to consume for one person. The whispers within the inner circle in Alabama knew that there was, sadly, an issue with a certain someone, and that he could not make it on the witness stand for a week. A week was a long time to sit in a chair in a public courtroom and not let the secret come out. It was when Abe tipped his hand to the prosecution that the defence would be calling a certain someone to the stand, that eye balls popped on the prosecution side. Abe also new that Greg had told a certain someone that the building cost would be over budget, sometime in April of 2008 while they were sporting about in one of the facilities built by that same certain someone. The time line of when that certain someone was told of cost overruns, did not line up with a Securities fraud. How could it be a fraud when you were given information months earlier and then insisted on gettin equity? Abe still wanted to prepare for trial. Jonny was working on the solution offered by the prosecution.
There were two other very troubling facts. Greg had told Abe that the Ground breaking ceremony was not attended by ACS (A CERTAIN SOMEONE) , in September 2007 because at the time, ACS was furious when he found out that Greg had not awarded the big soil grading contract to the Tennessee company that had done all of the work for ACS facilities, presumably a friend of ACS, and he was displeased. The other troubling fact was that ACS also told Greg he had to use his insurance company 'Eyesight' again presumably because they were friends, but Eyesight would cost about $9 million dollars more that the lower bid. Greg kept the insurer that he was planning to use, on board to audit the insurance, and that audit was all documented and ready to be presented at trial. The mess that was swirling around with misleading dates and figures was confusing. The GO ZONE money had been available to the Gulf States since 2005, and by federal law had to be used by December 31 2007, when the rebuild program would expire. Federal documents (GAO) clearly identify the names of companies that received the money. I was only interested to follow the money trail in Alabama, so I do not know what happened in the other two States, but it was odd to see that the Tennessee company ended up getting GO ZONE money in May 2008 for the Garrows Bend project in Mobil, where the Thyssen Krupp plant was going in. Odd that both Greg, and Thyssen Krupp were offered GO ZONE in 2007 to the tune of $700 Million. Between the two companies being enticed to come to the state Thyssen Krupp and Greg somehow there was still $700 million available a half a year before the program was set to expire? How is it possible that two years into the program that much money was still available? $700 million is not 12% of 2.1 billion. I never had an opportunity to speak to Abe directly and this topic and Greg was not about to bring it up as Abe was not interested in investigating the subject. The mere mention of GO ZONE would just infuriate Greg, but it made no sense to me. It made no sense to me that the people involved could write a contract promising $350,000 million, signed in July 2007, so late in the game and especially odd that it would take an Act in Congress in Washington, to change the law to get Colbert County into the GO ZONE. Yikes, but of course just conjecture and my personal opinion.
Even though I thought the GO ZONE subject was relevant Jonny also thought it was out of the realm of the indictment, nor would it help his negotiations. With all of the other facts that I knew to be the truth in Greg's case, I still did not understand why Jonny was adamant to reach a settlement rather than go to trial. I became the thorn in his side. I thought we should risk going to trial and believed that the jury would 'get it'. But this was Alabama, fifty years later after 'To Kill a Mockingbird" was published, and Gregory Peck starred in his Oscar winning role as Atticus. I spolied several dinner parties arguing the moot point - pay money and Greg can get out. It sounded like ransom to me, just like the terrorists now are asking for $200,000 million for the two Japanese hostages. Same thing, except you expect horror from crazed lunatics in far off lands, not in the land of the Free and the Brave. It was extortion. After you scare someone, they are willing to pay anything just to be safe. The professionals involved all agreed it was extortion, but they liked Greg too much to risk a verdict and a financial settlement was the direction they were going.
Natalie called me near the end of July,
"Mom? Are you at home or in a public place?" She asked.
"In public."
"Good"
Than Natalie told me that during all of July she had been going from one doctor to another, one test to another. The doctors had found a mass. She had a 'growth' the size of a pomelo 10 x 10 x 11 centimetres arising from her ovary, and she needed surgery. She would be meeting with the doctor next week.
Ant that is how I learned Natalie might have ovarian cancer.
Passing Thoughts
In all honesty, Greg was right, the view from the rear view mirror was getting smaller and smaller, and that is the way I want it too - so hopefully the Universe will have this tale wrapped by the end of the month. Again, the statements made in my blog, are merely my personal opinions about real events that actually happened and about events that affected our family. As I stated earlier, I have no interest to dedicate any resources to dig deeper into the nefarious events that happened behind closed doors, but I know enough of the truth to think it is actually my obligation to tell part of it so that people who place trust in others and assume that people are working on their behalf and who yield an incredible amount of power should somehow be asked relevant questions. And besides, the State of Alabama has Sovreign rights, i.e. the state cannot be sued, so I actually have no recourse other than telling the Universe.
The Tale
Abe now had seven months of trial preparation under his belt. He had plowed through the 2,000,000
pages of documents a farcical amount of paper, and had as well had time to conduct interviews with many of the players. The information that was being uncovered did not look good for the prosecution, and the worst incriminating piece was that there was a real issue with the math. Three thousand hours of forensic accounting billed to Greg revealed that every dollar could be accounted for, and there was no fraud. Worse yet, the building costs came in at $305 Million, an acceptable margin for a project that estimated costs (as per the original contract/loan agreement) at $250 million for building, and and addition $100 million for equipment. The project cotract was signed by important people in the State, as well there were documents showing that a copy of the original contract had been delivered to a certain you know who. The prosecution download another 30,000 documents. Abe asked for a continuance, and surprise surprise, it was granted. The trial was moved from October to Spring 2015. Ridiculous.
(It's a wonderful thing when you own media. You can pump out any story you want, and the little lambs just read what you want them to read. There exists a gorgeous facility, designed by Albert Kahn Architects, a notable name in American architecture and history. The internet has articles
"Design Matters". A state of the art facility that cost a $150,000 million less than the fixer upper back in the Rust Belt in Hamilton. When the economy collapsed, and Greg could not take out the bridge loan arranged for him to get those shovels in the ground before December 31 2007, the date when that GO ZONE program would expire, when the banking crisis led by the housing collapse happened - anybody still remember that, that's when Greg could not find a bank to get rid of that certain someone.)
It certainly did not look good for the accusers and yet Greg was caught in the 'procedure' of American law. The legal team thought that a local jury would not understand the case, and I would argue with Greg that they were insulting the intelligence of good working class people living in Colbert county. Those are the people who sit at a kitchen table and figure out if they have extra money left over to go to the movies. Those are the people who get an additional part time job to pay bills. I was convinced that the trial would be fine, but the experts were aware of the forboding corruption, and were not prepared to take a risk. Jonny, Mark's partner had become involved in the case after spending weeks just casually chatting to Greg when they happened to be in the 'lunch room' at the law office. Conversing about football and life and whatnot, Jonny began to take an interest in the case. Jonny had a glimpse into Greg's character and began to instinctively understand that the accusations were false and was determined to be the Atticus we needed. Jonny was prepared to charge into the flames, bear the torch and fight for Greg. Greg finally, had an advocate. Jonny was the man.
Before the project started, Mr. Ruffles, a certain someone's right hand man, had told Greg to make sure that the Hotel room had at least 2 forty ounce bottles of liquor for the overnight stay in Hamilton. It was a lot of alcohol to consume for one person. The whispers within the inner circle in Alabama knew that there was, sadly, an issue with a certain someone, and that he could not make it on the witness stand for a week. A week was a long time to sit in a chair in a public courtroom and not let the secret come out. It was when Abe tipped his hand to the prosecution that the defence would be calling a certain someone to the stand, that eye balls popped on the prosecution side. Abe also new that Greg had told a certain someone that the building cost would be over budget, sometime in April of 2008 while they were sporting about in one of the facilities built by that same certain someone. The time line of when that certain someone was told of cost overruns, did not line up with a Securities fraud. How could it be a fraud when you were given information months earlier and then insisted on gettin equity? Abe still wanted to prepare for trial. Jonny was working on the solution offered by the prosecution.
There were two other very troubling facts. Greg had told Abe that the Ground breaking ceremony was not attended by ACS (A CERTAIN SOMEONE) , in September 2007 because at the time, ACS was furious when he found out that Greg had not awarded the big soil grading contract to the Tennessee company that had done all of the work for ACS facilities, presumably a friend of ACS, and he was displeased. The other troubling fact was that ACS also told Greg he had to use his insurance company 'Eyesight' again presumably because they were friends, but Eyesight would cost about $9 million dollars more that the lower bid. Greg kept the insurer that he was planning to use, on board to audit the insurance, and that audit was all documented and ready to be presented at trial. The mess that was swirling around with misleading dates and figures was confusing. The GO ZONE money had been available to the Gulf States since 2005, and by federal law had to be used by December 31 2007, when the rebuild program would expire. Federal documents (GAO) clearly identify the names of companies that received the money. I was only interested to follow the money trail in Alabama, so I do not know what happened in the other two States, but it was odd to see that the Tennessee company ended up getting GO ZONE money in May 2008 for the Garrows Bend project in Mobil, where the Thyssen Krupp plant was going in. Odd that both Greg, and Thyssen Krupp were offered GO ZONE in 2007 to the tune of $700 Million. Between the two companies being enticed to come to the state Thyssen Krupp and Greg somehow there was still $700 million available a half a year before the program was set to expire? How is it possible that two years into the program that much money was still available? $700 million is not 12% of 2.1 billion. I never had an opportunity to speak to Abe directly and this topic and Greg was not about to bring it up as Abe was not interested in investigating the subject. The mere mention of GO ZONE would just infuriate Greg, but it made no sense to me. It made no sense to me that the people involved could write a contract promising $350,000 million, signed in July 2007, so late in the game and especially odd that it would take an Act in Congress in Washington, to change the law to get Colbert County into the GO ZONE. Yikes, but of course just conjecture and my personal opinion.
Even though I thought the GO ZONE subject was relevant Jonny also thought it was out of the realm of the indictment, nor would it help his negotiations. With all of the other facts that I knew to be the truth in Greg's case, I still did not understand why Jonny was adamant to reach a settlement rather than go to trial. I became the thorn in his side. I thought we should risk going to trial and believed that the jury would 'get it'. But this was Alabama, fifty years later after 'To Kill a Mockingbird" was published, and Gregory Peck starred in his Oscar winning role as Atticus. I spolied several dinner parties arguing the moot point - pay money and Greg can get out. It sounded like ransom to me, just like the terrorists now are asking for $200,000 million for the two Japanese hostages. Same thing, except you expect horror from crazed lunatics in far off lands, not in the land of the Free and the Brave. It was extortion. After you scare someone, they are willing to pay anything just to be safe. The professionals involved all agreed it was extortion, but they liked Greg too much to risk a verdict and a financial settlement was the direction they were going.
Natalie called me near the end of July,
"Mom? Are you at home or in a public place?" She asked.
"In public."
"Good"
Than Natalie told me that during all of July she had been going from one doctor to another, one test to another. The doctors had found a mass. She had a 'growth' the size of a pomelo 10 x 10 x 11 centimetres arising from her ovary, and she needed surgery. She would be meeting with the doctor next week.
Ant that is how I learned Natalie might have ovarian cancer.
Friday, January 23, 2015
Federal Money and Following a Trail
January 23, 2015.
Passing Thoughts
Everyone is in denial mode - the flat football fallout and Prince Andrew. I am sure Greg's accusers also fall in the denial mode category of explanations. There are only several options: tell an outright lie, deny knowing anything, blame others and ultimately have immunity.
The Tale
And so, just like the format of a Seinfeld show, many story lines were moving along simultaneously and soon they would converge.
We had a nice Father's Day visit, and the three of us headed back to Canada, leaving poor Greg behind in Florence with his monitor. The plan was firm. I would shut down the house and come with the four dogs, and set up a new 'normal' in Florence now nine months into the nightmare.
It was Canada day and Natalie was not feeling well, yet again, complaining about the same symptoms I had heard for two years. Frazzled at this point, I told her that it was time to go to a new doctor and get some sort of diagnosis.
July 2, 2013 I left to be with Greg. Honestly it was fun to set up a new house. When it was time to look for furniture way back in April, when I had a three day window to drive around and find things quickly, it was near the end of a shopping escapade that I spotted a storefront that looked promising. I made a quick and sudden turn into the parking lot and came to a screeching stop in front of the store. As I pushed open the door of the shop, a voice called out:
" Welcome to the Fresh Basket, how are you?"
"Suddenly, much better", I replied.
Marcie was a tall elegant women, dressed in crumpled linen blouse and neatly pressed white trousers. She had an air of confidence as well as friendliness, and invited me to to look around, feel at home and to let her know if she could help. I told her I needed to furnish a house quickly. I was relieved to see so many fabulous pieces of furniture, lighting and home accessories, some brands that were familiar to me and I was certain that I would be able tp make our Florence house feel like home easily. Casual conversation led to a full reveal,
"Do you know who I am?", I asked. "Yes," replied Marcie. She was curious for sure to hear the inside scoop of the scandalous story and gently asked sensitive questions. The media in North Alabama had either not covered the story of the the global economy from 2008, or the story was not important to the locals. I had a lot to explain.
Marcie wanted to know who we really were and judge for herself, and her questions did not only focus on the indictment. Our conversation led to topics of hobbies and interests and values, and it took no time at all to find out that we had mutual friends - it truly was a small world. The owner of the Fresh Basket came out from the stock room and Marcie introduced me - Lady Peach.
I had to bring Calleen up to speed with what I had already told Marcie. Greg's arrest had been local news, but the coverage of his story ended in November, so as a result, no one in Florence knew that Greg was restricted from travelling home. They were both shocked to hear about the real estate/bond fiasco before Christmas, and were even more shocked to hear about the $30 million bond that had been ignored for three months. Calleen and Marcie were a captive audience, and I asked if they even understood what GO Zone money from 2005 was. Since they were not close to the Gulf coast, that story too was an enigma. Facts revealed in federal documents in the Government Accountablity Office in Washington, listed names of people and businesses who had received that federal money. I did not want to get caught up in a lengthy briefing about what I thought was relevant information, but I did tell them that if they were interested, it was all out there in the open on the internet. My mission was to furnish that house, and so I re-focused and I identified pieces that I knew would work for my new home. Calleen and Marcie followed my through the shop and we began the list. The one thing I did not see, was a suitable sofa.
"I would really like a white slip cover sofa."
Marcie and Calleen looked at one another with shock. I didn't know what I had said but I was frightened by the way they reacted, I definitely had said something wrong.
"I'm sorry, did I say something wrong?" I asked.
Calleen explained that just the day before, after much debate, they had ordered a white slip covered sofa, worrying that it would be difficult to sell. It was destiny that I had come in. The sofa was mine, and perfect timing, it would ship in three to four weeks.
And that is how I learned that like minded people are like minded people.
Passing Thoughts
Everyone is in denial mode - the flat football fallout and Prince Andrew. I am sure Greg's accusers also fall in the denial mode category of explanations. There are only several options: tell an outright lie, deny knowing anything, blame others and ultimately have immunity.
The Tale
And so, just like the format of a Seinfeld show, many story lines were moving along simultaneously and soon they would converge.
We had a nice Father's Day visit, and the three of us headed back to Canada, leaving poor Greg behind in Florence with his monitor. The plan was firm. I would shut down the house and come with the four dogs, and set up a new 'normal' in Florence now nine months into the nightmare.
It was Canada day and Natalie was not feeling well, yet again, complaining about the same symptoms I had heard for two years. Frazzled at this point, I told her that it was time to go to a new doctor and get some sort of diagnosis.
July 2, 2013 I left to be with Greg. Honestly it was fun to set up a new house. When it was time to look for furniture way back in April, when I had a three day window to drive around and find things quickly, it was near the end of a shopping escapade that I spotted a storefront that looked promising. I made a quick and sudden turn into the parking lot and came to a screeching stop in front of the store. As I pushed open the door of the shop, a voice called out:
" Welcome to the Fresh Basket, how are you?"
"Suddenly, much better", I replied.
Marcie was a tall elegant women, dressed in crumpled linen blouse and neatly pressed white trousers. She had an air of confidence as well as friendliness, and invited me to to look around, feel at home and to let her know if she could help. I told her I needed to furnish a house quickly. I was relieved to see so many fabulous pieces of furniture, lighting and home accessories, some brands that were familiar to me and I was certain that I would be able tp make our Florence house feel like home easily. Casual conversation led to a full reveal,
"Do you know who I am?", I asked. "Yes," replied Marcie. She was curious for sure to hear the inside scoop of the scandalous story and gently asked sensitive questions. The media in North Alabama had either not covered the story of the the global economy from 2008, or the story was not important to the locals. I had a lot to explain.
Marcie wanted to know who we really were and judge for herself, and her questions did not only focus on the indictment. Our conversation led to topics of hobbies and interests and values, and it took no time at all to find out that we had mutual friends - it truly was a small world. The owner of the Fresh Basket came out from the stock room and Marcie introduced me - Lady Peach.
I had to bring Calleen up to speed with what I had already told Marcie. Greg's arrest had been local news, but the coverage of his story ended in November, so as a result, no one in Florence knew that Greg was restricted from travelling home. They were both shocked to hear about the real estate/bond fiasco before Christmas, and were even more shocked to hear about the $30 million bond that had been ignored for three months. Calleen and Marcie were a captive audience, and I asked if they even understood what GO Zone money from 2005 was. Since they were not close to the Gulf coast, that story too was an enigma. Facts revealed in federal documents in the Government Accountablity Office in Washington, listed names of people and businesses who had received that federal money. I did not want to get caught up in a lengthy briefing about what I thought was relevant information, but I did tell them that if they were interested, it was all out there in the open on the internet. My mission was to furnish that house, and so I re-focused and I identified pieces that I knew would work for my new home. Calleen and Marcie followed my through the shop and we began the list. The one thing I did not see, was a suitable sofa.
"I would really like a white slip cover sofa."
Marcie and Calleen looked at one another with shock. I didn't know what I had said but I was frightened by the way they reacted, I definitely had said something wrong.
"I'm sorry, did I say something wrong?" I asked.
Calleen explained that just the day before, after much debate, they had ordered a white slip covered sofa, worrying that it would be difficult to sell. It was destiny that I had come in. The sofa was mine, and perfect timing, it would ship in three to four weeks.
And that is how I learned that like minded people are like minded people.
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