a small RANT, if you will

On Fri, 10 Feb 2006 16:19:42 GMT, "The Jonathan Lady" spewed forth :

Today we have almost winterish weather, for this part of the world. Our low tonight is forecast to be in the mid-30s, it started raining yesterday, and it is generally glum and nasty out. The neighborhood kids are of course running around in inadequate clothing, my own excepted: as a Yankee transplanted to this area I know how to dress a kid :)

I'm putting the second sleeve on a sweater, then I have wool back from the processor that I hope to start spinning on Monday.

Reply to the list as I do not publish an email address to USENET. This practice has cut my spam by more than 95%. Of course, I did have to abandon a perfectly good email account...

Um.... you mean it isn't???? Do they cut off the testicles at the same time they are shearing? One would hope the sheep are anaesthetised before the deed is done!!!

I came in late on this thread, and didn't see the comment above, nor many others after that, but I have two points.

First, Haitians don't dedicate (nor does the island itself) themselves to "the devil". Do a bit of research on Santeria. And there are many other faiths, and lack of faiths besides Christians in the world. Good grief.... all this started over knitting teddy bears for children in need? What on earth does religion have to do with it in the first place?! Secondly, when I flew around the world 30 years ago (on a year and a half trip with my former husband for his studies), and looked down.... that earth was just blue, green, brown, white and SOOOO SMALLLL !!! There were no shapes deliniated by outlines filled with pink, yellow, blue, etc. We are all of the human species and live on this planet... the only one we've got! One land blends into the next. I am definitely a Liberal, too (That's the post I came into this thread on), but I guess that can be interpreted different ways. Seems like we have a LOT of evolving to do to get rid of hatred, xenophobia, fear of what we don't understand, or our vastly evolving weapons technology is going to wipe ALL of us out. Sheesh. Kira

Being American from the USA is a difficult situation. As pointed out, we really don't have a name for our country. It is like the founders thought North, Central and South America were going to all be one big country, the United States of America. That is unfortunate and now sounds very arrogant, since there are many other independent countries this side of the Atlantic Ocean. I don't know which claimed the name first.... the three part land mass, or that section of it forming the country calling itself the United States of America. I met a Mexican guy long ago who was really angry that we called ourselves Americans, saying "WE are Americans, too". He seemed to realize that we really have no other choice, when I pointed out our unfortunate lack of an individual name. Hmmmm. I really do wonder how that came about. Does anyone know if the USA was the very first official country established in the New World? Kira (human being, first) P.S. In no way do I mean to ignore the fact that there already WERE individual peopled territories here thousands of years before Columbus ever sailed the ocean blue.

good post Kira

Ha ha. You think he actually doesn't have a trainer that could teach him how to say NUCLEAR? Nu clee ar. He is just sticking it to us by continuing to say nuu cue ler. Some friends and I were laughing the other day about how we now have to think first on how to pronounce it, it has become such an issure of extreme annoyance (just like he wants it to be with us libruls). Kira

Good reply Kira.. No wonder there is so much hate and prejudice in the AMERICAS.. Where I live if there is prejudice and hate we dont see it much..at least keep it to ourselves. Are we supposed to ask what religion, culture, country, we are from before we give them a toy that they will appreciate and enjoy?

Kira,

Thank you for better expressing my mindset than I did :)

I found this snippet from wikipedia - here's the page

^ America may describe the United States or the Americas-North and South America (including Central America). The latter usage is more common in Latin American countries, where the Spanish and Portuguese word Am=E9rica refers to the pair of continents. United States is a less ambiguous term and less likely to cause offense. American as a noun to describe an inhabitant of America or a citizen or national of the United States, and as an adjective meaning "of the United States," has no straightforward unambiguous synonym in English. Many other words for American have been proposed, but none has been widely accepted.

On a humorous note, I found this page, which isn't really related but turned up while I was searching.

It is an Englishman (John Cleese) poking fun at US citizens. I found it very funny :)

I am the least prejudiced person I know, I have friends of all colours and faiths, as well as nudist friends too! I just have a personal problem with Haiti, and should've just kept my mouth shut. BTW, I AM still sick, and thanks, Eve for pointing that out. Noreen

Thank you Kira this was Very interesting , mature and to the point. You reminded me that when we flew to England with our 18 months old and 3.5 year old [than] children , the eldest looked down from the airplane and asked where the black lines Between the countries were ?that she saw in the atlas ???? During My Solo exhibtion "Mapressions Loci " . i had many discuyssions with people about the meaning of Maps and what the Say ? Did you notice that many 18-19 and even beginning 20th century maps had many places where the words "No man`s land " were printed,,, made me thoink , waht on earth [ no pun menat] did those map makers mean ,, came to the conclusion , that this was a way to tell Adventorous Europeans ,,"Go get It",,,, Dealing with maps and their meaning taught me a lot about Us humans. mirjam

Well Aaron, I think that you can still see some of it, if you just go a bit out of your way for it. Some of the sheep to shawl events demands that you do your own shearing.

I did it in the end of the seventies, and the sheep owner, who taught me, constandly told me ....."Do not cut the teats off Els" Watch what you are doing, etc etc etc. It certainly was a very slow process, beeing very aware about those tiny teats hidden among the fibers. I used hand shears. It was a one time thing for me. I trained for a summer, a friend would drive me up many Sunday to the sheep farm, past Listowel, in Ontaroi, just so we could be in the sheep to shawl event at the Ontario Sheep Fair. Lots of fun though, and no I did not maime any sheep. LOL

Els

OMG Els.... :D

cheers......Cher

ROTFLMAO Els, just before I read this (by you), I had noticed that Cher had a message in this same thread. So while I was reading your message I was thinking that I was reading Cher's.... and when I saw the above part "Do not cut the teats off Els", I thought Cher had been shearing a sheep called Els.

Good thing I am totally alone in the house or Matthew would be thinking I had lost my mind, I was laughing SO loudly over that.

Gemini

It was not the shearing that was unpleasant. Those thrifty Basques did not maim their ewes. That would cause too much work at lambing time. It was the other activites carried out with cruel economy that produced the blood. It was the blood that drew the flies. Add to that the dust from 10,000 sheep, and the limited water (water was brought by horse in canvas bags from the stream above where the sheep were watered). No! we do not even treat sheep like this any more, much less the men that work the sheep!

Now, a sheep fair with its vets-on-call, fly-free food, and piped water is a rather civilized venue.

Aaron

I love John Cleese! That is a good one. The gun references are especially "funny" given the latest idiocy.... mistaking a grown man for a quail and shooting him. Arrghh. What next! Kira

Nothing like getting yourself into a mucking fuddle is there Gems....lol

Cheers.....Cher

I had sympathy for this poster about 5 days ago. Now I'm wishing she'd just shut up!

Catherine