Lead into Gold
Twilight and I'm on a ladder high above the jungle canopy, rope ladder with missing rungs, clambering down towards the trees...
I'm with a physicist, she's going to show me what she's built, this device that converts, atom by atom, lead into gold...
this ladder, precariously swinging so high above the earth, connected somewhere above to a branch, and a large silver ball bearing, hexagon of other bearings around it, she's explaining that the device fires electrons towards it at high speeds, completing them, transmuting them as it were...
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- Category: Dreams
Mercury filled tables
The dining room is strangely quiet, despite the large number of patrons. We've placed in the center of the tables, beneath the tablecloths, basins filled with mercury, the vapors calm the customers, we can hardly hear them...
And if we heat the basins they will all be poisoned....
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I've eaten cat, you know...
"I've eaten cat, you know....In the Philippines...." The dishwasher's telling me, he's Filipino, I'm getting him to collect scraps of chicken and veal from the tables to feed my cats. He's asked about them, and I'm getting an idea of where the conversation is going....
I don't know what started, it, my collecting of scraps for my cat, of my various insensitive accusations of the things they would find edible. I'm not very culturally sensitive.
"It's good. Very good. Not so good in Canada....they feed them different, better food, more sweet...."
"Where did you get cat n Canada?" I ask, I have my suspicions...
He thinks for a second, he's nice, but not so bright...."I didn't, I meant, they feed them different here, not so good...."
"Are you out trapping cats?" I ask him. Every ethnic stereotype coming true....
"No, no, I don't eat cat in Canada..." he denies it. I don't believe him. Maybe not regularly, but I'll bet he's tried it, otherwise how would he know?
I think of my cats, the one, a Thanksgiving Turkey, the other, a fine muff for the hands and a plump chicken....I really shouldn't, my daughter would never forgive me, and I might have some moral qualms myself...Still, I'll need to have them looked after before Alaska....
"You should see my cats..."....I begin..."1 as fat as a Turkey....so fat....maybe Thanksgiving I bring him in for you...". He laughs. I won't, but for a moment the thought amuses me.
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Education First
Now this is an idea I've had for a while, probably I'm not the only one but to read the media - well, my point of view is seriously underrepresented.
That is - given the climate of economic cutbacks, budgets, politics, etc - the priority for government funding should be education.
Education first, as it were.
Now this is not a popular choice, especially in Alberta, where the Conservative Party has had sway for some 40 odd years.
It makes sense that the Conservatives would underfund education - if only in the fact that educated - by this I mean properly educated - well rounded educated - people - generally don't vote Conservative. I say generally, there are always a few...
To quote John Stuart Mill:
"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative."
So the legacy of the Conservatives is explained.
But I'll explain it in an even clearer way, that should make it obvious to all but the most stubborn and conservative.
Invest in Education, and you can reduce your expenditure in any number of other areas - some examples: Welfare, Social Services, Healthcare, EI...
I could go on.
The fact is, any investment in education - be it elementary through to University - always pays off, if only in increased taxes. But it has spinoff benefits as well - The bulk of healthcare spending is on people of lower education. Educated people take an interest in their own health and maintain it at their own expense.
Welfare, Social Services, EI - all these claims can be directly and inversely correlated with the amount of education people have received.
Invest in education, and over time you'll be able to reduce funding to the other sectors.
Now there are other reasons too, far too esoteric to go into here, things such as quality of life, community, etc, but - it all begins with education. So - on any government's list of priorities - it should always be "Education First". Any talk of cutbacks to education should be considered a flag that the government needs to be replaced.
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