Deamalgamate Winnipeg!

The craziness that is the newly created 311 service illustrates that Winnipeg is not working out very well. It's time to CANCEL 311, and go back to the previous system we had where the receptionists at the various city departments, like the Clerk's Office at City Hall, can take people's calls, such as registering to speak at a Council meeting.

There was a time until December 1971 that the central city of Winnipeg was a completely separate from the City of St. Vital, the City of East Kildonan, the Rural Municipality of Fort Garry, the Rural Municipality of Charleswood, etc...

The past 37 years have proved that Unicity government has been a total, unmitigated FAILURE, and that the way back is to amalgamate and restore as many of these former municipalities as possible

In the past 37 years the identity of the suburban areas have melded with the city — one suburb is almost identical to another.

However, I feel that we had it right when Winnipeg created the Metropolitan Corporation of Greater Winnipeg, which was loosely modeled on the Metropolitan Corporation of Toronto.

Smaller is ALWAYS better. Smaller entities are always more EFFICIENT than monolithic, especially in government.

Until 1998 when Toronto amalgamated several nearby suburbs, the Metro Toronto area was known as one of the best organized governments in the western world. Under Metro government, and separate municipalities, the area was able to grow steadily since its creation in 1954. It was able to extend the TTC subway over 35 years, and through its construction, keep Metro development relatively compact.

The way back is to deamalgamate, and to return the emergency services back to the autonomous municipalities.

On April 6, 2009 the Frontier Centre for Public Policy will be hosting a discussion featuring Nick Ternette on the Failure of Unicity government here.

See also:

http://www.mts.net/~jjaworsk/Metro/

A Step Closer To The Mark?

If people just stopped using debit cards and went back to going to the bank teller in person, and paid for items with coins and dollars (cash) then none of this would be allowed to go forward.

Before debit cards were introduced in the early 1990s, customers used to fill out paper slips, wait in line, and hand them to the bank teller. The slips would indicate what the customer would want to do -- deposit some cash, transfer cash from one account to another, cash a cheque, or withdrawal some cash. These slips were not done away with immediately, but only when the banks said that most people don't use them anymore.



So to go back to that system we must stop using debit cards altogether, and demand that our banks return to the cash and deposit slip system! Sure it's a bit inconvenient, but it may HALT, STOP, OR CANCEL OR DELAY these chipped card systems that are a step closer to Revelations 13.

Revelations 13 says:

And [the Antichrist] causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

And that no man might buy or sell, save [except] he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. Rev 13:16-18 KJV

We Are Watching The Watchmen

I saw the new movie The Watchmen this past weekend. It has several references to the New World Order and such.

The story goes back to a comic book released in September 1986, during the same time when "Iran-Contra" was going on in the mainstream media.

I noticed too during this time period a major shift in pop culture FROM one that is promoting "family values", for example the NBC Sunday night program Our House and ABC's The Disney Sunday Movie, TO one that questions trust of one another. Then in 1987 there were a lot of breakups in relationships and in families. The music changed a bit, from being fun, party-like, to being much more dark, and "garange"-like. If you don't know what "garange" is, just listen to the dark theme of Genesis' Tonight, Tonight, Tonight. It can best be thought of as a "biting anger".

That time period, between October 1986 and around 1992, were a transition period. Sure there was bad, but there was also good. We had the great set design and great catchy theme of CNN HeadlineNews, and we had a sort of revival of 1950s culture, where people were reminded of rural culture and those people who were migrating to the cities. So we had this ying yang of Town and Country.

But there was also the bad, in the form of increased tabloid journalism and the creation of FOX Television, Maury Povitch, Inside Edition, and wall to wall coverage of Iran Contra.

ABC's Disney Sunday Movie intro:


NBC promo for Our House:


Genesis' Tonight, Tonight, Tonight:

Discernment Folk Group has a drummer again.

Tonight I went to St. Ignatius Church (Corydon & Stafford) and saw that the group Discernment, who has been playing since 1970, has a new drummer.

It's been many years that they did have one, and the previous guy died of cancer or something like that.

It makes a HUGE difference in the music ministry in that the band memeber who are singing along are able to keep better time when so they sing together.

It brings back the Rock sound that the group used to have, and it makes it easier for the congregation to sing along if they can sing together with the beat of the drum.

Misdirected Parcel

In late January of this year I had ordered three items from eBay. One from one seller and two from another.

They should have arrived by mid-February, and the one from one seller did.

But the other two items were still MIA.

So I contacted the seller and he says, OK, the US Postal Service says they're "lost in the mail", and nothing can be done except to refund what I originally paid.

Today my sister phones me and says that our Dad was talking to their neighbour on the block and they had recently gone on vacation for two months and they had someone take care of the place during that time.

The neighbour gave the two items to my Dad, and then I paid the eBay seller again and wrote him the story that we have received the items.

The mixup occurred because the Canada Post parcel delivery (man) used the UPC barcode address range instead of the handwritten address that the sender had on the original envelope. Guess they weren't trained very well, and were just pushed into the job.

Oi vey.

Our Commie Councillors

Couns. Mike Pagtakhan (Point Douglas) and Gord Steeves (St. Vital) and are proposing to rename Garbage Day to Recycling Day, using a straight from the Communist doublespeak playbook.

It was reported earlier last month that Winnipegers are recycling less than other provinces because it is less convenient for them.

The real story why people are not recycling anymore is because we are being told that aside from aluminum cans, the rest of our trash goes into the Brady Landfill anyways.

Once you watch Penn & Teller explain how stupid most of recycling is, then you'll become more reasonable when throwing out the trash.

"Now, this is the one I've been waiting for"

My 18-year old cat passed away on his birthday, March 2, 2009.

Around 12 hours later in the afternoon, I had the voice of my deceased Uncle come into my mind and say:

"Now, this is the one I've been waiting for."

I truely believe that Uncle Rudy, who passed away in 1995 after a heart attack related to type 2 Diabetes, is taking care of my cat Smiles until it's my time to be with my cat again in Heaven.

When I checked with my Mom if Uncle Rudy did in fact like cats, she confirmed this.

Maple Syrup Price Beyond Reasonable

My earliest ancestors from the 1300s lived among the maple trees, that is what the surname stands for. A 'Jawor' tree is a sycamore maple, and 'ski' means 'place of'.

So maybe that is why I love pancakes and of course the only real thing to put on them is maple syrup.

When I was a kid we had the Old Colony brand of maple syrup that you could buy at the Safeway supermarket. I can't recall what they charged for a bottle. Perhaps $2.50 or so back in the 1970s.

Then the prices went up in the 1980s and our family started buying the Old Tyme brand which is marketed as "artificial pancake syrup". It's just not the same thing.

The artificial stuff is thinner, and is surely cheaper. But there are some preservatives and other things in there that I'd rather not be eating.

In the 1990s when I moved out on my own I started to buy real maple syrup again, and the cost was around $3.00. Then in 1994 and again in 1998 the price jumped from $4.30 to $6. The justification for the price increase was that the maple syrup farmers in the province of Quecec had that ice storm and also it seems that the maple syrup farmers had, in their greed, wanted more of the dollars as income that came from selling it to the Federation des producteurs acericoles du Quebec (the marketing board).

Now, according to this news report from UPI, the farmers and/or the marketing board is at it again, claiming that there is some kind of "shortage" of maple syrup...And now they want $10 bucks for one bottle.

Oh, and by the way, Old Colony was purchased by Old Tyme, which is an American company, and the Old Colony brand was shut down.

Shades of Orwell's 1984 to come?