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the watcher

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  3. US Politics

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    13 hours ago, bustamente said:

    I said this all along Trump with his AG will round up everyone who has ever crossed him have them jailed and if he really fancies it after a Kangaroo Court execute them like all the dictators do. He is a dangerous unread egotistical man who has conned America and has mused about shooting people and nothing coming of it. As a side note the WSJ has him and Biden neck and neck on a recent poll , election is a long way away but even with all his baggage if the election happened tomorrow it would be a toss up.

    The similarities between Trump /US and mid 1930s Germany continue to build.

  4. The RIP 2023 Thread

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by the watcher

    3 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

    There are always consequences to a lifestyle of excess with alcohol &/or drugs. Most die young or years before they should. Unfortunately, my father was an alcoholic & he drank himself to death. He may have lived a long life otherwise but his liver & brain were pickled. That may sound callous as I loved my father & watching someone slowly kill themselves while being helpless to do anything about it is the worst thing a loved one can experience. So, that is how I handle things when I think or talk about him by being a bit aloof. It sounds a little cruel but it's how I still handle the grief of his life & death. 

    Even though my Dad has been gone for 21 years, there are days I still get angry for being cheated out of spending more time with him as well as the negative experiences I had as a kid when he drank. Our place a lot of the time was like a nuthouse. Just utter chaos that I won't get into. My Mother did her best to hold things together & to her everlasting credit she did.

    The one saving grace of my Dad's alcoholism was that he was a happy drunk. He never once struck her, myself or my siblings. I'm thankful for that one small bit of God's mercy as that would have been the end of us as a family. As a result of being a constant party guy & not being violent, she hung in with him right to the end. No doubt to keep us all together.

    My Mother was a Saint. Dad  would disappear for days & we didn't know if he was alive or dead. A lot of times, we didn't have food in the house as when he disappeared into his alcoholic abyss, he'd always drink away the money that was supposed to be used for groceries. He'd come home three or 4 days late totally broke. Or with just enough money left over for emergency groceries like bread, milk or eggs. Sometimes, our one or two of my Mom's friends who were our neighbours or aunts & uncles would help us out with food iof things were desperate. When I was old enough to stay home alone in grade 3 or 4 as I was the youngest, my Mom got a job as a maid just to be able to feed the family. 

    Dad was just happier drunk than sober. No idea why my father had so much pain & felt the need to be medicated constantly by alcohol. I wish I was able to have found out just so I could try to understand. When he was alive, I never felt the need to ask. Now, I wish that I did  but it's too late.

    The final 10 years of his life my father had stopped drinking because he had forgotten he drank. He spent his final decade of his life at the Riverview Health Centre on the Alzheimers Ward. The 60 plus years of abuse did their damage as he developed senility & ultimately the final deed was done. He once told me he started smoking & was already getting drunk on a regular basis by the age of 9. His older brother by 2 years also was an alcoholic & died the same way. They were partners in crime, I guess. 

    How do kids get liquor & smokes at that age?? Who is evil enough to give it to them? Well. somehow they both did. Just so sad. My condolences to the family of Steve Hartwell.

    There are many reasons and causes that people become addicted or over consume alcohol. Indeed it is often to self medicate to hide or mute pain,hurt or other mental issues. Some people's brains are hard wired differently and experience a stronger rush of pleasure causing endorphins.  This can overwhelm the  brain and it will shut down the reception of those endorphins. This often causes people to respond by drinking even more.

    Alcoholism or Alcohol Use Disorder  is vastly under diagnosed. It takes many different forms but one thing that is the same is the damage, hurt  and pain that it causes to those around them.  I'm very sorry that you had to go through  a childhood like that.  I wish you all the best in dealing with it.

  8. US Politics

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    13 hours ago, Tracker said:

    A report on MSNBC today said that one in five election workers in the US have been threatened already and the campaign to elect a president has not really started. The thinking is that the right-wing wingnuts want to scare off all the principled elections workers so that they can get their people into positions to sway the results, even by illegal means.

    Just another example of a failing, collapsing state. How far they fall and what comes out the other end, who knows. Scary s**t.

  9. US Politics

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    38 minutes ago, Mark F said:

    Trump supreme court:

     

    “The Biden administration on Tuesday lifted protections from pollution for millions of acres of wetlands, three months after the Supreme Court found that it lacked the authority to regulate them.

    In May, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government can no longer control discharges into wetlands near bodies of water unless they have “a continuous surface connection” to those waters.

    That effectively made thousands of wetlands and waterways off limits to any government pollution controls because they do not connect directly to larger bodies of water.”

     

    nyt.

     

    So it's  now controlled by each State ?

  10. Books, Books, Books

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by the watcher

    4 hours ago, Noeller said:

    You have my attention, sir...... edit.... unfortunately appears to not exist online anywhere. Is this an old book that you got pre-owned somewhere? 

    I picked it up in Gimli while I was at the film festival. I can't remember the name of the store. They called it a " General Store " but it was more of a touristy thing. A good selection of local / prairie books though.

     

     

  11. Books, Books, Books

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Speaking about traveling the Assiniboine I recently picked up"  Boats and Life on Manitoba Waterways " by Ben W. Holyk.

    There are some fascinating pictures of the various watercraft that have worked our lakes and rivers. Including a couple with Fort Garry in the background. It's hard to imagine steamboats on the Red and Assiniboine rivers loaded with hundreds of people and cargo. 

     

     

  13. Books, Books, Books

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    On 2023-08-16 at 2:03 PM, Mark F said:

    (other than the money) Manitobans should be thankful for the fact that it is lowly regarded as a tourist destination.

    other places, that are endlessly promoted, like Vancouver island, are crawling with people. if you cant climb a mountain, tough to find some peace and quiet.

    Manitoba is a gem. 

    100% on that. When my wife and I turned 50 we decided to canoe from Brandon to the Forks. We took our time and did it in 12 days. From Brandon to Portage ( especially Brandon to 34 hwy) is amazing. You would  ever guess you were paddling in Southern MB farming country. On the entire  trip we only met one other group. Brandon to 34 is an absolute gem hidden under everyone's nose. Portage to the perimeter - meh. Perimeter to the forks  - entertaining. 

  25. Canadian Politics

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    4 hours ago, MOBomberFan said:

    I have a family member that went full transition female to male. They are way happier now as a straight male than a gay woman. It took me a long time to look at them and not see who they used to be, but I get it now, this is actually who they were all along and are way better off now than they were before. It may have even saved their life. They were born in the late 70s, this isn't some kid raised by the internet, its someone that had the same 80s/90s analog upbringing as many of us here. They didn't have to be taught to think or feel this way, it's just how it was and I believe them

     

    That being said, nobody actually identifies as a cat, outside of Maureen Ponderosa or a few pronoun-bedazzled Tik-Tokers that crave to be unique and different from all the other unique and different Tik-Tokers. Transitioning isn't going away but Xim/Xer's and the pronoun laden cat people are a fad that will be pretty cringey in retrospect. It's like people who used to say they 1000 year old were vampires on my space. Where are they now? 2 kids and a white collar job. They grew up and got on with their lives.

    The whole world needs a heavy dose of mind your own F###ing business. Who am I to tell someone else who they should love or be are attracted to. Or how they feel about who they really are .( gender wise ) .It's got nothing to do with me. Neither does what someone's choice about carrying a fetus to term. Or for that matter what books are in a library. If I find them offensive, I won't read them or let my children read them. Like I said, the whole world would be better off if we took a pill ( figuratively) and minded our own business. 

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