Pointless Announcements

I'm gonna stop telling people I'm from Toronto if you all don't do something about that clown. Kidding. It saddens me though just how sucky some of your politicos are. They aren't particularly "American-like," just plain bad. From what I read* Ford was elected in a rather crowded field of contenders on a platform of ridding Toronto of "the elites" that had a stranglehold on it. Three years in, he has kept taxes "down" (whatever that means), but what else has he done? I guess the Rest Of The World (TM) isn't thinking of Toronto as so elitist anymore--there's one promise fulfilled. Some of Ford's supporters says he is just "Joe Average" and we should stop picking on him. This has been an eye-opener for me because though I know Canadians drink more than Americans and are in better health overall, I did not know that the average Canadian smokes crack. That's hardcore, man.

*which could be bullshite

 

It's an issue bringing anything into Mexico.I brought back two Bose Wave systems my father left me (he'd bought one from each room of his house.) I was concerned because I knew they weren't gong to buy any "oh, these? I took them with me" BS. So I put down a value and grit my teeth while waiting to hear some crazy tax amount at customs. The officer asked if I was bringing two back because I wanted to sell them, no my father passed away and I'm returning from his services. I showed him the tag my dad wrote on the bottom of each one and pulled out the memorial service announcement. He quickly said "oh, I'm so sorry for your loss. Just proceed Sir." I have since had numerous family members pass away, happens every time I travel north. I've lost aunts, uncles, sisters I never knew I had and they've all left me some rather nice and very new looking items.

I recently wanted to import an SUV I found in Florida. Was actually the vehicle I rented while in the state. Budget Rental Car Sales sent me an email offering to sell me that exact same vehicle, 2012 Escape XLT, at a decent price, roughly 19K. I called customs who told me I'd have to go through an importer. Called them and was told total import fee would 9K. When I asked how much of that is shipping they said "shipping? No, no you ship it here we just import it." Wow your understanding of "importer" and mine are very different. I ended up buying a '09 Escape Limited for about 15k. I got it for a pretty good discount because it had an alarm problem they couldn't seem to fix. I went to a Ford Forum and found it's common and easily resolved. I spent an hour or so cleaning and wrapping elec. tape around five sensors, done. Why Ford couldn't do that, no idea. Here they don't issue titles, just sign the back of the original sale invoice and the ownership is transferred. The original sale price of this SUV included almost 10K in taxes and import fees. And most of the freaking parts I've come across are stamped "hecho in Mexico." It's always crazy here and they make being honest unbelievably expensive. I brought back a $399 Acer laptop once and they wanted (and got) $500 in tax.
--- merged: Nov 5, 2013 at 4:00 PM ---

Now there's one eagle eyed sum'bitch.

 

Meet Kristen Stewart & Robert Pattinson's baby that was too creepy for #Twilight: http://eonli.ne/19zFVG7.

 

For an interesting Doc check out "My Mother, the Nazi Mid-wife and Me." I'd like to find it with Spanish subtitles to show at "M's" school. They teach world history but not so much about WWI or WWII. Many students here have never heard of the Holocaust or at a min. they're not really sure what it was or why it happened. We stopped by the Holocaust Museum in Tampa while in Florida and one person in our group asked me if I knew the Nazi's sent people to the camps with the sole intent of killing them. Yes, I knew that. She was stunned, thought they sent people there, worked them hard and fed them poorly so many died. And this lady is a well educated attorney. Off the top of her head she roughly calculated MPG onto kilometers per liter and was really close.

 

Nobody likes you @borla. They love me though.

 

But I just said it.

 

I AM A WINNER!!!!

BG declared it, so it is true.

 

Actually...
You sort of grow on people @Borla.
Sidenote: Will the "@" tags work someday?

 

His next step, if he's following the disgraced politician's playbook should be taking a leave--then going into rehab (a/ka/ buying himself sympathy and time).

 

Don't be jelly that you can't find any nuts!

 

There's winners and there's weiners.

 

OK. I had to look up amalgamation as my dad was a metallurgist.

So amalgamation is similar to what we do here in the States--redistricting. Politicos redraw the boundaries of voting areas to benefit special interests--starting with their own/the ones they are beholden to?

Geez, Toronto has gone to crap.