I won't !!
Rather let's deal with my experience in regard to recent purchases of fruits and vegetables.
And just for the record, Governments' claim that inflation hovers around just 2%...it is to laugh.
The other day, my wife and I were shopping at the local Loblaw's Super Store and one of the items our her list was celery. The cost was pushing $8.00 for the sorriest celery you could ever imagine. I said to Anne, you can not be serious in buying such a miserable imitation of the real thing. She was.
It gets worse. Yesterday I went into the local Farm Boy grocery store ostensibly to purchase a bread stick to go with the Boston Clam Chawda I had prepared earlier in the day. Didn't know I had some hidden talents. I found the bread okay at a cost I viewed as expensive but as I say, it got worse.
I thought I would purchase some fruit while there and came across some nectarines. The puniest things you ever did see but I thought what the heck they were sure not to cost too much.
But when I got to the cash with my 4 'silver dollar' sized takings I was literally floored to find out the price for same was 4 1/2 dollars - over a buck ten for each of these miniatures.
It reminded me of a joke I heard years ago where this chap went into a store where he too bought something extravagant like I did ...he paid the clerk the over-sized price and threw in an extra quarter. The clerk ask him what the extra 25 cents was for and he explained, that upon entering their store, he had inadvertently stepped on a grape.
I really do not know how the average consumer can cope these days with the truly outrageous cost of food. Couple this with the high cost of gasoline and you can see why it must be virtually impossible for the average Jill and Joe to make ends meet.
As I See It...
'K.D. Bell'
Thursday, May 23, 2019
Sunday, May 19, 2019
LORD BLACK OF CROSSHARBOUR.
As a rule, I am not impressed with others who continually name-drop ...I view it as showing their insecurity. I will though make an exception in my Blog today, and the exception pertains to my wife Anne and me.
A week and a half ago, we both had dinner with Lord Black ...a most enjoyable affair but also one of the most expensive dinners we ever had the privilege of attending.
The cost though was immaterial since I have always liked Conrad Black and in my opinion and in the opinion of many, many others, Lord Black has a command of the English language that rivals the great Winston Spencer Churchill himself.
I am writing today about Lord Black, not because of the dinner but because mere days later, President Donald Trump called him to offer a Pardon for the inexcusable way in which Black was railroaded into spend 3 years in an American Prison. America by the way has more prisoners per square inch than any other country on earth. Just ask Martha Stewart who too was locked up for ....lying to the cops. Does it get any more serious than that.
Our criminal system has a well deserved reputation for being to lenient...America for being too ruthless. Here in Canada, the prosecution is bound by law to see justice done even if that means letting a defendant off or giving a slap on the wrist where it is truly warranted. Let me go off topic to give you a good example. A farmer appeared in this weekend's papers for having killed his young son who fell off a piece of equipment the father was driving. He has been charged with the very serious offence of criminal negligence causing death. How I ask you can he be charged with anything given that he accepted from the get go that he is responsible for the death of his son and he will have to live with that each and every day of the remainder of his life. Is that not punishment enough? Of course it is.
The US views the judicial system as a challenge - how many convictions can they get and the prosecutors ride to power on the backs of conviction rates well into the 90 percentile. The more the charges are Trumped up...pardon my pun, the happier they are.
That said, I am not going to get into the merits of what took place leading up to the charges against Black since in his own words, 'if you believe he was falsely charged, you need no further proof and if you believe he got his just desserts, no proof to the contrary will convince you otherwise'.
What all of us should though agree upon is that Lord Black took his unjust punishment...like a Man. When in jail and when others in his position would wail and moan about the injustice of it all, or write books telling what a raw deal he got, Black went to work teaching and helping his fellow inmates to enable them to attain their high-school diplomas. What class.
At the time of his sentencing my wife and I wrote to the little guy then in the White House requesting a pardon for Lord Black. We did not even receive the courtesy of a reply. Conversely on the few occasions I have written to President Trump I have always received his reply...one of which can be found in one of my earlier Blogs.
In closing I am simply delighted that the President saw fit to pardon a class act like Lord Black. He most certainly deserved it.
As I See It...
K.D. Bell
A week and a half ago, we both had dinner with Lord Black ...a most enjoyable affair but also one of the most expensive dinners we ever had the privilege of attending.
The cost though was immaterial since I have always liked Conrad Black and in my opinion and in the opinion of many, many others, Lord Black has a command of the English language that rivals the great Winston Spencer Churchill himself.
I am writing today about Lord Black, not because of the dinner but because mere days later, President Donald Trump called him to offer a Pardon for the inexcusable way in which Black was railroaded into spend 3 years in an American Prison. America by the way has more prisoners per square inch than any other country on earth. Just ask Martha Stewart who too was locked up for ....lying to the cops. Does it get any more serious than that.
Our criminal system has a well deserved reputation for being to lenient...America for being too ruthless. Here in Canada, the prosecution is bound by law to see justice done even if that means letting a defendant off or giving a slap on the wrist where it is truly warranted. Let me go off topic to give you a good example. A farmer appeared in this weekend's papers for having killed his young son who fell off a piece of equipment the father was driving. He has been charged with the very serious offence of criminal negligence causing death. How I ask you can he be charged with anything given that he accepted from the get go that he is responsible for the death of his son and he will have to live with that each and every day of the remainder of his life. Is that not punishment enough? Of course it is.
The US views the judicial system as a challenge - how many convictions can they get and the prosecutors ride to power on the backs of conviction rates well into the 90 percentile. The more the charges are Trumped up...pardon my pun, the happier they are.
That said, I am not going to get into the merits of what took place leading up to the charges against Black since in his own words, 'if you believe he was falsely charged, you need no further proof and if you believe he got his just desserts, no proof to the contrary will convince you otherwise'.
What all of us should though agree upon is that Lord Black took his unjust punishment...like a Man. When in jail and when others in his position would wail and moan about the injustice of it all, or write books telling what a raw deal he got, Black went to work teaching and helping his fellow inmates to enable them to attain their high-school diplomas. What class.
At the time of his sentencing my wife and I wrote to the little guy then in the White House requesting a pardon for Lord Black. We did not even receive the courtesy of a reply. Conversely on the few occasions I have written to President Trump I have always received his reply...one of which can be found in one of my earlier Blogs.
In closing I am simply delighted that the President saw fit to pardon a class act like Lord Black. He most certainly deserved it.
As I See It...
K.D. Bell
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)