Some Interesting Stories Around

Let me be direct. I like to eat meat! I don't care what the diet people say!

To be honest about it, I don't eat as much meat as I used to do in the past. I can remember when I was much younger and lived with my parents. At one time, they were both working full time. Accordingly, it was very difficult for them, especially my mother, to prepare "well cooked home meals." They just did not have the hours available to do that. Accordingly, they used to buy lots of steaks which my Mom would cook for dinner quite often. I loved it!

As I got older, I started barbecuing the steaks. Oh, my parents did not own the fancy gas-powered barbecues. Rather, it was a barbecue that required charcoal for cooking the meat, and sometimes the chicken, for dinner. Of course, I had to start off barbecuing a hot dog first to give me the strength to cook the main course. It was fun to do.

Naturally, as I got older, and had a few dollars in my pocket, I was able to go out and buy a gas BBQ for my wife and kids after I got married. Oh, I always used natural gas to do my cooking and did not use a propane BBQ unit. I did not see the purpose of going out and buying propane gas periodically in order to do the cooking.

When I first moved to Windsor and lived in my own home, I purchased my meat a couple times at one of the so-called "big name" butcher shops. Yes, the meat was quite pricey. However, I just did not like it. The meat never tasted good the several times I barbecued it. Fortunately, one of the people who worked at the hotel where I stayed when I first came to Windsor took me to a meat wholesaler where her father who was a butcher used buy his meat. I have to admit that, the first time I went there, I figured that I had to buy at least half a cow every time I needed meat. Fortunately the butcher there explained the reality! I merely had to purchase what I wanted. What a relief that was.

The meat that I purchased for almost 30 years there now since I first moved to Windsor has always been superb.  I really cannot recall any meat that I purchased there not to be of excellent quality. Just as importantly, the pricing there is quite attractive compared with the cost at a retail butcher shop.

I have not mentioned the name of the place where I go shopping for meat. I really do not want to do it in this article but would be very happy to give you the name of this firm if you would like to try them out. Just contact me by addressing an email to me. Otherwise, it does not make sense to have a whole ton of people come there early on a Saturday morning just to buy a few pieces of meat. It is not a normal "butcher shop." However, if you are interested in buying 2 or 3 months worth of meat at a time, then it is a place I really believe you should consider as your purchasing location.

Oh my goodness! I better start writing the rest of my articles as quickly as possible. I just feel very hungry now and think I need some barbecued meat to make me feel better. So, dear reader, here is the first of several articles that I will be writing today.

A NEW WAY TO CROSS THE BORDER.

I find this very interesting. It is a different way that products can cross the border, in my opinion, in a much better manner. Here is what I mean:

"A renewed U.S.-Canadian effort to speed cross-border trade by pre-inspecting cargo at factories and other sites within the host country could boost productivity in the auto industry.

After testing the waters for more than a dozen years, authorities are gearing up to put U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers on Canadian soil to clear shipments there, rather than at U.S. ports of entry — and vice versa for Canadian officers." (Eric Kulisch, Automotive News, February 24, 2018) 

I must say that to wait a dozen years seems rather excessive but at least something is being looked at much more seriously now. The ideal solution would be to have Customs people approve product being sent over in advance at the manufacturing plant rather than at the border:

"Canadian officials are pushing to create secure corridors that would allow trucks to bypass normal inspection lanes at border checkpoints. Customs officers or authorized third parties would certify containers and truck trailers as secure before they leave a factory and would equip them with a tamper-proof electronic seal that could be tracked to ensure an unbroken chain of custody, and that they didn't deviate from designated routes."

Let us see what happens, especially considering the issues with respect to the NAFTA matters.

THE REALITY OF CANADA/US TRADE

I saw an interesting news article dealing with trade between Canada and United States in the Toronto Star: "Trump’s own economic advisers say he’s wrong: The U.S. has a trade surplus with Canada, not a deficit" (Daniel Dale, Toronto Star, February, 2018) 

The material quoted in the Star article came from a report of almost 600 pages in the Annual Report of the Council of Economic Advisers. Canada was not mentioned all that often in that report. Here are the relevant sections that I found that interested me in relation to our trade with the US.  First, I saw these remarks on calculation on trade between Canada and United States:

"The United States has free trade agreements (FTAs) with a number of countries— some of which represent net trade surpluses for the United States (Canada and Singapore), and some of which represent deficits (Mexico and South Korea).

This becomes immediately evident when comparing other countries’ trade balances with their volume of total trade with the United States. In 2016, the United States ran a trade surplus of $2.6 billion with Canada on a balance-of-payments basis."

This would appear to me to set aside any comments made by the US President that Canada runs a surplus.

In addition, here is some information about the US export market on agricultural products:

"The top three export markets for U.S. agricultural products in 2016 were China, Canada, and Mexico; together, these three countries accounted for 44 percent of all agricultural exports."

It must be that we buy a lot of products from the US for eating in Canada.

Of course, you may think that this material will help Canada in any arguments with United States. If that is what you think, consider this remark in the article:

"There is no indication, of course, that a president unenthusiastic about policy details and numerical accuracy will be swayed by a sentence or two buried in a lengthy official report he is unlikely to have read."

FRASER INSTITUTE'S ANNUAL RANKINGS OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

As I am sure you know, dear reader, when a child does something wrong, he/she tries to make up a good excuse to prevent any punishments from the parents. That makes sense to do, don't you think? Who wants to get into trouble!

Consider this… How bad is the situation in our area:

"Nine of 12 public school board high schools recorded an increase in the percentage of tests not meeting expected provincial standards in the 2016-17 rankings of Ontario secondary schools released this week by the Fraser Institute.

Every public high school except Tecumseh Vista Academy, Kingsville and Sandwich recorded an increase in the percentage of tests not achieving Level 3 or 4 in EQAO testing for Grade 9 applied and academic math and the literacy test in Grade 10." (Dave Waddell, Windsor Star, February 22, 2018) 

Will the School Board in the area take responsibility for this negative situation that has happened here? Seriously, now what do you think their position will be. How about this as the first interesting comment in the story:

"The Greater Essex County District School Board does not believe that the ranking of schools based on limited data is constructive or fair,” said board spokesperson Scott Scantlebury.

“We feel that all our schools are excellent places to learn and each one has unique attributes that make it great.”

Sure, sure, sure. I guess that someone must be just delusional in thinking that there are any problems. Unfortunately, that someone does not seem to understand that merely because they are great places to learn does not seem to mean that anyone is doing well.

Pshaw...Compare yourself with others? How foolish can that be:

"Whether the trends are up or down, we oppose the concept of ranking schools,” said Stephen Fields, communications coordinator for the Catholic board.

“The stuff that matters for us is looking at each school and comparing it year to year to its own performance. We only look at ourselves.”

Sure, why be compared with others to see how good you are and how well you're doing educating the children who come to your schools. Just because others are doing so much better than you are means absolutely nothing.

Why do you want to do better? Who wants an "A" as the mark for the work that is done:

"We are working hard to do better, not for the sake of higher test scores or a subjective ranking, but to provide for every student the greatest opportunity to succeed.”

Sure, nevermind if the student does better or not, let us just continue providing "opportunities."

There, that should set out how one does the marking for the tests for our Education Boards! Accordingly, our board members will always pass well based on this method of marking results.