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Substance use…not abuse

I must note that I stand corrected. Apparently the correct term to describe an individual who uses a psychoactive substance incorrectly (or at all in some cases) is not that he or she is abuses the drugs, but that she or he only uses the stuff.
Well that makes it all right then, doesn’t it.
Come on, doing anything to the point where you are unable to function let alone think straight is simply the definition of abuse.
And yet we wonder why people feel it is their right to ruin their lives at the expense of others. Of course i stand correct they are probably not ruining their lives, they are simply making choices.

Choices which mean an ever increasing share of our health care budget goes to treating these individuals.

Their choices mean that tax money tagged for healthcare ends up going for treating drug users. Not abusers. No we cannot call them abusers. They are users.

Honestly our culture needs to grow up. They are abusers. If they were simply users, they would be able to continue as contributing members of our society.

If they were only users, they would not be laid out in a stupor in door ways of business and homes in Vancouver or Surrey.

But since we insist on making them feel better, we lessen the reality of their situation. These poor folks are barely able to feed themselves because the amount of drug and alcohol ABUSE the inflict upon themselves.

Are we just making ourselves feel better by calling it USE?

We need to stop the merry go round of provincial and federal funding of this ABUSE. I truly feel that by allowing this attitude of correctness and feel good and cuddly we are hurting the people who need us the most.

I do recall something of a quote, and I paraphrase; Give a man, you feed him for day(unless it is smoked then maybe a couple of days) teach a man to fish you feed him for a life time.

By allowing ourselves to feel people are simply using drugs and alcohol, we allow ourselves to say, oh it is OK honey he is only using. Be real, call it abusing and you will feel different and maybe just maybe you will do something to make a real change in someones life.

Free Crack Pipes! come and get!

Yes folks, Vancouver BC is once again a leader in helping the down trodden drug abused unwashed masses.
Our fine city is proposing to give out free crack pipes to the crack addicts to make their lives all that simpler. Now when they break in to our cars, homes and places of business they can devote all theirs ill gotten gains towards the illegal drugs and not have to worry about crack pipe purchases.
Such a relief.
I know the theory is that by giving the druggies in the world free drugs and now free paraphernalia, we are supposed to be preventing worse health issues there by reducing their reliance on the medical system, hopefully saving us more and more in the long run.
Such an honourable thought. Just like the Insite shoot up parlors, which gives them a nice clean free place to do their illegal drugs. This way they will feel free to keep doing all the drugs that are ruining their lives, but lucky for us, they will live longer lives. But they wont be a drain on the system.   No… by giving the drugs and equipment we are saving money. Makes sense to all the “not for profit” organizations in the Lower mainland.

(I often wonder if there are not more employees in the “not for profits” than there actually are people needing their help!)

I am irked however.

If giving free drugs and devices to unemployable drug abusers is good for our economy, our health care system and basically an all around nice thing to do, why do we not give free drugs and devices to DIABETICS.
There are many older/retired folks who cannot afford to test themselves often enough. Each test runs roughly $1.25, not counting the meter which the manufacturer often provides for free. The typical diabetic tests between 2 and 8 times per day. If you are on a tight budget this translate to a meal or two.
Funny thing about meals. Eating properly is something you should do to help control our diabetes.
If a diabetic person can control their blood sugars, they reduce their chances or sight problems (blindness), kidney issues, high blood pressure, not to mention loss of circulation to extremities which also leads to amputation.  This will actually help keep the typical diabetic from becoming a drain on our medical system.

Now of course a lot of these diabetics have worked for the majority of their lives, paid taxes, raised families, helped to support the free drug programs. So why would we even consider helping them.
They deserve our help. They should be able to make the choice between a healthy meal and their drugs or test strips.

I really wonder what has happened to our priorities. Maybe if diabetics got up off their butts and started breaking into cars to pay for their drugs, lancets, testers, meds, special foods and insulin shots, we would open up a nice free clinic for them to go shoot up as well.
What has happened to our society when criminals and drug abusers get preferential treatment over law abiding citizens.
What has happened to us a people that makes us believe petty thieves and addicts should be cared for at the expense of those who work and contribute.
Why is it that in our culture if you sit on your rear end all day, beg, steal and then take what free hand outs you get to go and buy drugs.  This is done all by your own choice, and some how this means you deserve more consideration than those who through no choice of their own have been diabetics.

Those are very sad statements about US as a people.

By the way, when I say those Diabetics, I should be including myself and a few million other Canadians.

The odds are that those of you reading this know some who has diabetes, do you know an addict as well? I wonder why it is so easy to help a druggie, but so against our culture to help a diabetic.

Women in power or Oprah meets Sarah

To start it is true I am not a huge Oprah fan, I work during the day!  But I did watch the Sarah Palin interview on Monday November 16, 2009.

I am not about to try and discuss her interview style or choice of questions.  Palin went on the show to promote her book and must have expected the partisan slant.

I am going to talk about the question to Sarah Palin from Oprah regarding her fitness for public office.  I am paraphrasing, but I swear I heard her ask Palin, how could she possibly think she would be capable of holding public office while being a woman, wife and mother to 5 children.  Is Oprah serious with this type of question?  Is Oprah trying to relive the 1920′s or something?  Can you even imagine what would have happened if someone had, god forbid, ask Clinton how could she be  in public office since she is mother and wife?  Oprah said that men can be parents and hold office because they have wives.  seriously?

“have wives”.  ??? is she kidding with this???

That is the attitude we disposed off when modern woman were given the right to divorce, voting and land ownership.  When I got married my wife and I became a team, I don’t own her nor does she own me, Oprah’s remark sets the suffragette movement back 100 years.

For years I was a single dad of two daughters.  I made certain they knew that they are people who can do what ever they care to and aspire to whatever the hearts and minds can dream.  But now according to Oprah, they have to sit back and take care of the children, wash the dishes and hand their husbands a martini when they get home from work. Oh and girls don’t bother your man with your insignificant daily drudgery.

Ridiculous.  To think I used to use Oprah as an example of what a woman can do in our world.

The second thing that amazed me about that question was that no one in the media seemed to bat an eye about it.  Are they afraid to question Oprah?  Is the media so blinded by partisan politics that they will not question a democratic supporter?  Or do Americans as a whole believe that women can not hold power?

Lastly, I think Oprah should look up a few names.

Indira Ghandi,Prime Minister of India for 4 terms, mother of 2 boys and wife.  I know amazing.

Margret Thatcher, Prime Minister of England 2 children and a husband, how did she manage?

Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel

Mary McAleese, Prime Minister Ireland

Benazir Bhutto, Prime Minister of Pakistan

Maria Aquino, President of the Philippines

Helen Clarke, Prime Minister of New Zealand

Further debunking her women cannot possibly hold the strings of power theory there are many major corporations that have CEO’s, CFO’s and presidents who are female.  Namely:

Hewlett-Packard, Lucent Technologies, Martha Stewart, Harpo (ok  am guessing in this one, but the President or CEO may be a woman, though I have no back up), Boeing and even Ebay.

Basically what I want to say is that if you are going to be partisan, don’t dress it up as a real interview.  Apologizes to the young women in the world who wrongly or rightly looked up to your and Mrs. Palin.  Let the women in your audience know that CAN do what they want and the CAN succeed even if they are just wives and mothers.

That is my two bits worth.  I hope I don’t offend to many, but I do hope I wake up a few!

TV shows that are promoting green… and not

We were watching the dreaded renovation channel. Filling our heads with ideas of remodeling and making sure I get off my butt and get that master bath redone! But as we were viewing the shows I noticed that more and more are promoting “green”. Nice folks ripping out kitchens and walls. Pulverizing tiles floors and back splashes. Smashing arborite (trademarkered?). All with the goal of replacing them with the green alternative.

I watched as a “flipper” ripped out an oak floor to put in the sustainable bamboo. I watched another home owner add 1500 sq ft to the home, all with enviromentally friendly wall covering and paints. Such good people…

One show even bulldozed an entire home. Destroy bathroom fixtures, windows cabinets with fervor and joy! Ok these guys don’t claim to be green. They are just do gooders.

What struck me was the waste. If they must redo a cmplete home, why not remove the cabinets and windows. Reuse, sell to a used building materials company, donate to charity… do anything but smash perfectly good toilets and windows! come on people!

How can you claim to be enviromentaly frinedly but increasing th esize of your home. Increasing the heating demand, increasing the energy used to heat and cool. The materials that are consumed. the green space removed.

These shows should be made to rethink and reuse.

Not only is it bad for the environment, but it is a waste of money!

Or am I just off target.

My thoughts.. your thoughts?

Masdar City

Ok those crazy guys in Abu Dhabi have done it again.   A carbon neutral city!

But wait a second just what is a carbon neutral city?
Is it just buying up credits, moving cash around so we can all feel better?

Or are they truly trying to develop a sustainable city?

Let’s all keep an eye or three on these guys.   Let’s use their good ideas at home and locally, and call them when they stretch the meaning of green and sustainable living.

http://www.masdar.ae/home/index.aspx

Tea towel’s vs Paper towels

OK, lets start by saying i know most people use tea towels (dish towels) for drying dishes etc. But as i was being lectured by my fiance over the weekend for using the “teat towel” to wipe up some tea from the counter, I started to think.

Are papers towels really what we should using? They are used once and thrown out. A tea towel is used again and again, washed and used again and again. Now i know there are health and sanity concerns… but can we not be reasonable?

argument for tea towels: they are used multiple time from a renewable resource (cotton).
They will allow men to use a cloth towel to wipe up messes with out being nagged.
They take up less counter space.
they fill up laundry loads when you are washing jeans and work shirts.
against? is cotton really sustainable?
the fertilizer and water contamination created during cotton farming is beyond belief.
The cotton must be bleached and dyed.
We need to run a washer and dryer to clean them.
Arguments for Paper Towels:
The are clean.
Trees grow back.
My paper towels are recycled (seriously I heard a neighbour’s wife say that at a dinner party)
against:
They depleted forests and wood products.
They use bleach and other chemicals to make them all pretty.
They get flushed in to the sewer system and add to the waste problems in landfills!

I am at a loss.

Plus my GF likes paper towels…

!

Renovations… are the all the green we want them to be?

I was looking at a friends new home renovation and comparing it to our recent kitchen family room refit.

1.  They knocked down a dividing wall, so did we

2.  They gutted the kitchen layout so did we.

3.  They added new cabinets with a special low VOC paint coating made from recycled wood products.  We used the existing cabinets and resurfaced in our garage.  Totally changed the layout, but only added two new cases.

4.  They added a garbage disposal.  We added an extra cupboard under our sink to store compost raw material.

5.  They added cfl pots as we did.

6.  They put in cork flooring and we did ceramic tile.  Apparently the cork is sustainable.  We left our old vinyl down and used it as a membrane for the tile, they tossed their old flooring in the dumpster.

7. DUMPSTERS!  they made 3 trips with a 8foot by 20 foot dumpster, we did it all in the Buick.  ok it was 3 or four trips, but it fit in the Rendezvous.

I only mention this because they stated they were green.  Seems like a lot of waste,  a lot of brand new materials used when old could be reused.  A lot of dumpster stuff when less impactful ideas would have sufficed.

What is GREEN, and what is being frugal?  That is the answer I am looking for…

Just a thought or two on developing a sustainable home

The truly weird thing about sustainable living, at least to me, is all the cool stuff you can buy!

The CFL, or any light bulbs for that matter, are packaged up the ying yang.  A water flow reducer I was looking at the other day was plastic wrapped cardboard with hard plastic case.  Talk about over kill!

We get 8 page full colour flyers telling us about all the ECO items we can buy at the local markets.

What ever happened to reduce!

Take shorter showers…before you go and buy an over priced water restrictor so you can feel good taking a 15 minute shower.  It really seems counter productive.

More to come on a more friendly note I promise!