Trashy's World

Darin over at the Squid Zone and I don’t always agree on things. He’s a bit to the right politically and I veer to the left. He’s more supportive of armies and wars and stuff and I’m a confirmed peacenik.  But hey, we always have a good yuk at tearing up each other’s positions or giving kudos when due.

And this post exemplifies one of the latter.  The Squid Dude has pushed a few dollars over to the Conservative table once in a while it seems. In the past he has felt this to be a worthy contribution to a party that has shared some of his political orientations.

Not now it seems.

Like the Squid, I’m more than a little freaked out about Bills C-46 and 47… the Bills that I affectionately refer to as the Orwellian bitchin’ legislation.

The gist of the words is this:  any police force in the country will have the legal means to ask for and receive any communications – electronic or paper – from anyone to anyone. Without prior consent or cause.

Without cause.

Kinda like the arbitrary breathalyzer legislation being proposed…

As the cephalopod puts it:

Your postal mail has about the same general level of privacy as your internet traffic.  So imagine the government proposes legislation that permits them, without warrant, to require Canada Post, Federal Express, UPS, DHL, and so forth to provide customer information whenever someone claiming to be a peace officer asks for it.  Furthermore, they require those companies to install the equipment and procedures to allow them to intercept your mail and packages at a moments notice when requested, without a warrant.  Further still, they retain the right to OPEN and READ all the packages and mail, without warrant, just because they want to.  Unacceptable?  I should think so.  There’s a reason we have a process that involves warrants and the police explaining themselves to a judge.

Sorry. Don`t trust the cops as it is and giving them even more arbitrary power sends shivers up my spine.

Write someone, folks.

Or, if you are a CPC member who is being asked for more money, do the following:

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My love of all things political has been a part of me as long as I remember. It matured while a Grade 13 student under the tutelage of an awesome Canadian history teacher – and further developed through involvement in university political groups, municipal level committees and finally as a municipal councillor and as a federal candidate.

One of the things I liked most about my political life was that I was able to meet and speak with a wide variety of people with a wide variety of views on things… many of which I did not share but nonetheless respected.  The best singular time in my life in this respect was while I was the proud owner and operator of a french fry truck.

Yes, I was the “Fry Guy”!

It was the perfect occupation for a guy like me. I cooked a food that I love for a living (well, it was a meagre living and only lasted a year… but hey, I like to remember the good times) and, due to the nature of the biz, I yacked and yacked and yacked with my customers about everything from weaknesses in the theory that human beings behave rationally from an economic perspective to what was the perfect window cleaner (vinegar). Loved that short period in my life. And I still make a damn mean fry!

So, when I see articles about french fries, I have a professional interest. While trolling Fox News in search of some comic relief, I came across this article on the seacrh for the perfect french fry potato. “Perfect” meaning “willingness to be used by Scrawny Ronnie’s.

Here are some facts that I found of interest:

• In 2007 total world production of potatoes was more than 320 million tonnes, and about 2/3 were consumed by people as food. The other 1/3 is used as animal feed, and as potato starch in pharmaceuticals, textiles, adhesives, and in the wood & paper industries, etc.
• MacDonald’s buys more than 3.4 billion pounds of U.S. potatoes annually
• The company still relies on the Russet Burbank for many of its fries, even though this 130-year-old variety takes an eternity to mature, gulps water and falls victim to rots and other diseases, meaning farmers must douse it in chemicals.
• Coming up with a reliable new variety takes years. The Premier Russet emerged from the breeder’s greenhouse in the early 1990s, but wasn’t released for commercial growers until 2006. Along the way, it underwent storage trials at facilities near the tiny farming town of Kimberly.
• At the McDonald’s campus in Oak Brook, Illinois, perfume-wearing intruders are shooed from tasting rooms, to prevent contamination of french fries samples randomly pulled from restaurants around America for monthly scrutiny by representatives of the company’s three main suppliers: J.R. Simplot Co. of Boise, Canada’s McCain Foods Ltd., and Omaha-based Con-Agra Foods Inc.

As well, one of the earliest references we have to British ‘chips’ (French Fries in the U.S.) is in Charles Dicken’s ‘Tale of Two Cities’ (1859): “husky chips of potatoes, fried with some reluctant drops of oil.”

Reluctant?

My idea of the perfect fry? Par-fired twice at a temperature no lower than 475 F – in good quality canola oil. Finish with 4-5 minutes more in the frier. Top with salt and malt.

Yummy!

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I  need everyone who reads this to check out this blog entry by XUP.

I saw an article about this in the Globe the other day and the first thought to cross my mind was “why”?

Why is this technology needed?

I can see the YouTube vids now! EVERYTHING eventually ends up on YouTube! These pics, at the very least, will provide some jollies to more than a few security agents!

“Hey, Ralph, check out the kaboo-boos on this one, ain’t she a treat to the eyes?”
“Sure thing Herman, but ya should seen the bod on this chick that flew to Paris last week!”

Seriously, we have to question this hare-brained idea, and now. What is the impetus for this? Has there been a recent incident where a would-be terrorist has tried to sneak verboten items in his or her body cavities? Where is the “thing” that the CBSA (Can. Border Services Agency) can point to and say: “see – THIS is why we have to do this!”

I’d start a fb group decrying this but as I am a frequent flier, I fear I would be put on someone’s “list”.

Can you tell that I’m really pissed off about this?

Write your MP. Your MPP. Your Mom. Your psychic healer.

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