Here is my stamp collection. I am in the process of archiving and posting on this site all interesting and dated stamps. So far my stamps centre around Canada, with significant collections from South Africa, and other former British Colonies. The vast majority of stamps, and especially the older ones are all from my grandfather's collection (thanks PAPA!) that I now curate.
For all the philately inclined, enjoy. And to those who aren't interested, stamps often tell some pretty interesting stories. Enjoy!
Canada Individuals
Canada Mint Sheets
Note: all Canadian stamps are numbered to Scott's numbering system
New Foundland
New Brunswick
Nova Scotia
Prince Edward Island
Monday, August 22, 2011
Monday, August 1, 2011
In the hope of progress
When we talk about progress and the advancement of the human condition what do you think of? Maybe you're waiting for the Iphone 5. Or maybe you're a peasant in the mountains of Chile waiting for a more reliable internet connection. Or maybe your waiting at a refugee station in Somalia for a UN aid package to show up after being one of the lucky ones who actually made it.
To talk about progress means we can talk about what progress means and how to get there. I actually think the far more controversial part of this question is how to get there.
Of course there might be one billion Muslims in the world, and 800 million Catholics in the world who have a completely different idea of progress than myself. If the Catholic Church's influence in the lives of 21st century westerners had been as big as it's complicity in organized crime, and the efficient hiding of German Nazi's after World War II then maybe I'd be less arrogant in my belief that the Papacy is a legacy in decline. Maybe I should then be concerned with Islam? Isn't their ideal of progress even more opposed to my simple ideas' of healthy living, and acceptance of the human being as natural, not sinful. Certainly I am no more concerned with Islam than I would have been had my name been Angus, and I spotted the red coats in the distance. We've seen this all before.
The clash of civilizations is nothing new in human history and there is much to be expected and anticipated in such a conflict. War, violence, anger, misunderstanding, and civil war are all very real and inevitable consequences. However the end always plays out the same. In the mean time I'll spend my days in the most amazing country in the world where I can live free, explore the wonders of nature, and raise my children knowing that as far as my country goes, we take care of each other no matter what our creed.
To talk about progress means we can talk about what progress means and how to get there. I actually think the far more controversial part of this question is how to get there.
Of course there might be one billion Muslims in the world, and 800 million Catholics in the world who have a completely different idea of progress than myself. If the Catholic Church's influence in the lives of 21st century westerners had been as big as it's complicity in organized crime, and the efficient hiding of German Nazi's after World War II then maybe I'd be less arrogant in my belief that the Papacy is a legacy in decline. Maybe I should then be concerned with Islam? Isn't their ideal of progress even more opposed to my simple ideas' of healthy living, and acceptance of the human being as natural, not sinful. Certainly I am no more concerned with Islam than I would have been had my name been Angus, and I spotted the red coats in the distance. We've seen this all before.
The clash of civilizations is nothing new in human history and there is much to be expected and anticipated in such a conflict. War, violence, anger, misunderstanding, and civil war are all very real and inevitable consequences. However the end always plays out the same. In the mean time I'll spend my days in the most amazing country in the world where I can live free, explore the wonders of nature, and raise my children knowing that as far as my country goes, we take care of each other no matter what our creed.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Fear what's done in the name of Us!
Where there is an us, there is a them. This is the greatest problem of both human family, and as it stands in the 21st century, nationalism. Nationalism can be simplistically defined as the self identified boundaries of identification a person takes on. I say, I am Cananadian. If you tell me I am American I"ll tell you to go fuck yourself. I am Canadian nothing more nothing less. Of course for me being Canadian includes the ideal of bilingualism, multi-culturalism, and the right to play hockey on the road and the cars have to wait for us, not the other way around.
But where there is nationalism, ie. where there is an us, there is a them. I am not American, latin, african, spanish, muslim, buddhist, Catholic....etc. The problem is not that there is a them as many commentators might say, it's actually how one defines us! The Liberal Us, is far more friendly and constructive than the conservative Them. Politicians know this and exploit it. Marketers know this and exploit it. If your going to sell, it's far easier to sell snake oil at an evangelical rally than at the NAACP convention. Conservative movements and people often go with the flow of the stream. Of course what marks modern western society apart from all other societies in the history of the world is the value of the individual, but this is muted in religious, and culturally conservative movements.
Conservative cultures tip toe towards progress because they don't want it. Evangelicals want the whole world to be evangelical, but since jesus told them to love people we'll give women the vote. Wahhabi Muslims want the whole world to be Muslim, but wait, i can't find a single example of how conservative Islam has in any way positively changed the world...sorry.
Fear not them. Fear what's done in the name of Us!
But where there is nationalism, ie. where there is an us, there is a them. I am not American, latin, african, spanish, muslim, buddhist, Catholic....etc. The problem is not that there is a them as many commentators might say, it's actually how one defines us! The Liberal Us, is far more friendly and constructive than the conservative Them. Politicians know this and exploit it. Marketers know this and exploit it. If your going to sell, it's far easier to sell snake oil at an evangelical rally than at the NAACP convention. Conservative movements and people often go with the flow of the stream. Of course what marks modern western society apart from all other societies in the history of the world is the value of the individual, but this is muted in religious, and culturally conservative movements.
Conservative cultures tip toe towards progress because they don't want it. Evangelicals want the whole world to be evangelical, but since jesus told them to love people we'll give women the vote. Wahhabi Muslims want the whole world to be Muslim, but wait, i can't find a single example of how conservative Islam has in any way positively changed the world...sorry.
Fear not them. Fear what's done in the name of Us!
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Wiki Leaks
Is the truth bad...no. Is the truth bad when you live in a world where we blow smoke up each others asses in order to get what we want.....yes.
Is knowing what ambassadors and statesmen actually think about foreign states bad....no.
Is knowing what ambassadors and statesmen actually think about foreign states when they believe one thing and say another bad.....no, it's called transparent international relations.
Everybody knows Iran is a threat, North Korea is a threat, the USA is still having a penis measuring contest with Russia, and since the USA gets oil from the Saudis they have to ignore the fact that Saudis treat their women and foreigners like the USA did 100 years ago.
Is knowing what ambassadors and statesmen actually think about foreign states bad....no.
Is knowing what ambassadors and statesmen actually think about foreign states when they believe one thing and say another bad.....no, it's called transparent international relations.
Everybody knows Iran is a threat, North Korea is a threat, the USA is still having a penis measuring contest with Russia, and since the USA gets oil from the Saudis they have to ignore the fact that Saudis treat their women and foreigners like the USA did 100 years ago.
Queens hand grenade
Avoid this drink at all costs. I starts with a pint of beer, and shot of tequila and a shot of Jack Daniels. The two shots are wedged in the top of the mug. First you pull the pin, shoot the Tequila, then chug the beer with the shot of Jack in it. Far too much booze in this drink, and far too rowdy to be of any good use at all. I recommend that all women should in no way attempt this drink, and only the bravest of men who are single actually consider it.....
Sunday, September 12, 2010
The Aftermath
After I gave up my spirituality I certainly felt adrift and more than a little lost. I no longer could think things through the same way I used too. I was quickly reorganizing my thoughts and beliefs. It was a time of great freedom, knowing I didn't have to feel guilty for just being born, and knowing that this life was all I had. It was also a time of great stress, both for the relationships around me, and for my understanding of myself. I was changing from a patriarchal theocrat, to a feminist social democrat. From trying to sacrifice everyday for eternity to living every day like it was my last for eternity.
I quickly found some baggage following me around even after my new decision. I had a very zealot like belief in god, and when I lost it, I had a very zealot like belief in no god. This has been something which has certainly diminished and smoothed out. I am no longer threatened by opposing viewpoints, nor do I seek to change other peoples minds. Perhaps what is left and what will always stay is a deep suspicion of those who claim to know the truth, and press it on other people. If there is one thing that bothers me most about people of faith, as it bothered me when I was one, was an inability to confront the facts of human authorship of scripture, and the spirituality of daily life. I realize that for many the spirituality of their daily lives usually is non threatening, and even helpful for the human race and the planet. Ideas like stewardship of the earth and helping those in need are critical to the success of our species and planet in the long term. But seeing god in dreams, and believing god can heal illness and disorders creates havoc and only turns bad situations worse. A schizophrenic will only get worse if they spiritualize their disorder, rather than take seriously the medical nature of their hallucinations and delusions. And for the everyday joe, praying won't make you thinner, smarter, or more financially successful. These can only be achieved through knowledge and application of that knowledge in a real world setting.
I guess when it all comes down to it, the tribal affiliation religion offers to many people is the greatest attraction. The love, community, and sense of common purpose and destiny is almost impossible to resist. It's just too bad that we as human beings still haven't risen to a one tribe mentality. If there is an us...there is always a them. The history of warfare teaches us that we as human beings will always be capable of extreme prejudice against the 'them', no matter what creed you belong to. If we are to survive a million years on this planet, we need unity, and religion certainly does not offer that. Never has, never will.
I quickly found some baggage following me around even after my new decision. I had a very zealot like belief in god, and when I lost it, I had a very zealot like belief in no god. This has been something which has certainly diminished and smoothed out. I am no longer threatened by opposing viewpoints, nor do I seek to change other peoples minds. Perhaps what is left and what will always stay is a deep suspicion of those who claim to know the truth, and press it on other people. If there is one thing that bothers me most about people of faith, as it bothered me when I was one, was an inability to confront the facts of human authorship of scripture, and the spirituality of daily life. I realize that for many the spirituality of their daily lives usually is non threatening, and even helpful for the human race and the planet. Ideas like stewardship of the earth and helping those in need are critical to the success of our species and planet in the long term. But seeing god in dreams, and believing god can heal illness and disorders creates havoc and only turns bad situations worse. A schizophrenic will only get worse if they spiritualize their disorder, rather than take seriously the medical nature of their hallucinations and delusions. And for the everyday joe, praying won't make you thinner, smarter, or more financially successful. These can only be achieved through knowledge and application of that knowledge in a real world setting.
I guess when it all comes down to it, the tribal affiliation religion offers to many people is the greatest attraction. The love, community, and sense of common purpose and destiny is almost impossible to resist. It's just too bad that we as human beings still haven't risen to a one tribe mentality. If there is an us...there is always a them. The history of warfare teaches us that we as human beings will always be capable of extreme prejudice against the 'them', no matter what creed you belong to. If we are to survive a million years on this planet, we need unity, and religion certainly does not offer that. Never has, never will.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Part I - How I felt when I left Christianity
DISCLAIMER - The views expressed are those of me, I do not pretend to tell people what they should believe, so please do not be offended. My purpose is to promote dialogue and understanding, so as to facilitate a more peaceful existance on planet earth.
I confess I was once compelled to carry the weight of my own sin around with me everyday. When recently asked how different I felt after giving up Christianity I first thought of the tremendous weight which lifted from my shoulders...it is this moment and exactly how I changed after giving up my faith that I wanted to discuss. But to put it into context I need to talk about how I became a firm believer in the first place.
For some, the movement between faith and non faith, or even non faith to faith is a gradual, flowing process where someone may take months or years to gradually move into their new life phase. I would argue that this depends on two things, personality, and the nature of the views they are moving into and out of. Personally, I have a very pragmatic, logical mind, and I've always tried to make sense of the world around me looking for the ultimate theories to explain things. This is how I became religious in the first place. I used to spend many nights on the farm starring up at the stars, charting nebula's and double stars, and watching out for the ever exciting meteor shower. Of course the only answer I knew to how all those starts got there was someone had to put them there. Surely order cannot arise without intelligence I thought. Here was the obvious influence of my culture shaping my thoughts even before I had a chance to question it. Culture can not only shape your questions, but it often starts you off with assumptions that you don't even question yourself. The assumption I made as an early teen was that what I was looking at was order that could only be created, not evolved and highly coincidental.
This questioning of the order of nature and the cosmos led to a gradual foundation for which religion was to be laid upon in my life. If I had grappled with the chaos of the universe and even our own world I probably would have been secularized right from start. After all the suffering of the world, and the randomness of cosmological events eliminates any idea that a god cares and is actively working in the universe, unless you've already been taught not to question how god does things and what this might say about his/her it's character.
With the foundation of religious modernism set in my psyche i was now free to be evangelized, and evangelized I was. As an avid tv watcher day after day I saw people on their knees, crying for their sins. Bored with my Anglican liturgy I went with a friend to a Pentecostal church in London Ontario and found the energy and hype that any teenager loves. If it had been a Sufi Mosque I would have been praising allah, but it was a church, and so I very quickly started to take on a very charismatic, evangelical approach to my spiritual life. I just remember giving myself to god along with all the other people at the service. And more and more identifying myself as a Christian. I must have been born again a dozen times, and a dozen times wondering why when I returned from the group high of church, that pretty much nothing changed in the world.....and then the self deception began.
I started to see god in things, because i needed to, and because I honestly thought I could find god there. I used the bible as a reference and spiritualized my dreams, my decisions, coin tosses (lots are a legitimately biblical way of deciding), my moods, and the random events of every day. When I met someone I thought god brought our paths together. When I had a sexual dream I thought I was being over run by demons. When I liked a girl who I found out was not a Christian, I thought it was a test to see how loyal I was to god, and 9 times out of 10 ended up distancing myself from them so as not to be tempted. Essentially I brainwashed myself into being a self isolating guilt laden young man seemingly constantly pulled in several different directions as my university and seminary years carried on. Quickly however there were cracks emerging in my Christian foundations. At first I wrestled with Hebrew. Studying Hebrew in university was one of the most devastating things that could ever happen to my faith. Suddenly I was not only exposed to the flaws of translation, but upon discovery that there are no original texts for the word of God, and different christian traditions use different parchments to interpret from, I also started to doubt the legitimacy of Christianity's claim to Jewish lineage....It was this strain of intellectual discourse that sealed my spiritual fate. Once I had discovered that Christianity in no way is the true er of Abrahamic religion and Judaism, my faith fell apart. It was only a matter of days, some 3 years after completing seminary that as my cousin put it, "I watched the once authoritative pages of the scripture turn to dust in my hands".
People lose faith all the time by studying, and I mean studying not self indoctrination. Learn the difference. People of all religions and world views are changing what they believe and how they live just by the small step of asking questions and getting answers. Religion often cloaks itself in a disguise of intellectual mystery. Well there is no mystery to new testament concoctions of old testament passages. There is no mystery to signs of the spirit, not once in the last 100 years of audio recording innovation has someone ever actually spoken in tongues. And one doesn't really have to dig deep, if your a Christian just ask yourself the question why you go to church on Sunday's when your scripture says your supposed to honour the Sabbath. Or why do the poorest most uneducated people tend to be the most religious in North America, and the world? No matter what your angle, sociology, psychology, textual criticism, history, if you ask you can find. Just be prepared to deal with what you find, even if you don't like it.
I confess I was once compelled to carry the weight of my own sin around with me everyday. When recently asked how different I felt after giving up Christianity I first thought of the tremendous weight which lifted from my shoulders...it is this moment and exactly how I changed after giving up my faith that I wanted to discuss. But to put it into context I need to talk about how I became a firm believer in the first place.
For some, the movement between faith and non faith, or even non faith to faith is a gradual, flowing process where someone may take months or years to gradually move into their new life phase. I would argue that this depends on two things, personality, and the nature of the views they are moving into and out of. Personally, I have a very pragmatic, logical mind, and I've always tried to make sense of the world around me looking for the ultimate theories to explain things. This is how I became religious in the first place. I used to spend many nights on the farm starring up at the stars, charting nebula's and double stars, and watching out for the ever exciting meteor shower. Of course the only answer I knew to how all those starts got there was someone had to put them there. Surely order cannot arise without intelligence I thought. Here was the obvious influence of my culture shaping my thoughts even before I had a chance to question it. Culture can not only shape your questions, but it often starts you off with assumptions that you don't even question yourself. The assumption I made as an early teen was that what I was looking at was order that could only be created, not evolved and highly coincidental.
This questioning of the order of nature and the cosmos led to a gradual foundation for which religion was to be laid upon in my life. If I had grappled with the chaos of the universe and even our own world I probably would have been secularized right from start. After all the suffering of the world, and the randomness of cosmological events eliminates any idea that a god cares and is actively working in the universe, unless you've already been taught not to question how god does things and what this might say about his/her it's character.
With the foundation of religious modernism set in my psyche i was now free to be evangelized, and evangelized I was. As an avid tv watcher day after day I saw people on their knees, crying for their sins. Bored with my Anglican liturgy I went with a friend to a Pentecostal church in London Ontario and found the energy and hype that any teenager loves. If it had been a Sufi Mosque I would have been praising allah, but it was a church, and so I very quickly started to take on a very charismatic, evangelical approach to my spiritual life. I just remember giving myself to god along with all the other people at the service. And more and more identifying myself as a Christian. I must have been born again a dozen times, and a dozen times wondering why when I returned from the group high of church, that pretty much nothing changed in the world.....and then the self deception began.
I started to see god in things, because i needed to, and because I honestly thought I could find god there. I used the bible as a reference and spiritualized my dreams, my decisions, coin tosses (lots are a legitimately biblical way of deciding), my moods, and the random events of every day. When I met someone I thought god brought our paths together. When I had a sexual dream I thought I was being over run by demons. When I liked a girl who I found out was not a Christian, I thought it was a test to see how loyal I was to god, and 9 times out of 10 ended up distancing myself from them so as not to be tempted. Essentially I brainwashed myself into being a self isolating guilt laden young man seemingly constantly pulled in several different directions as my university and seminary years carried on. Quickly however there were cracks emerging in my Christian foundations. At first I wrestled with Hebrew. Studying Hebrew in university was one of the most devastating things that could ever happen to my faith. Suddenly I was not only exposed to the flaws of translation, but upon discovery that there are no original texts for the word of God, and different christian traditions use different parchments to interpret from, I also started to doubt the legitimacy of Christianity's claim to Jewish lineage....It was this strain of intellectual discourse that sealed my spiritual fate. Once I had discovered that Christianity in no way is the true er of Abrahamic religion and Judaism, my faith fell apart. It was only a matter of days, some 3 years after completing seminary that as my cousin put it, "I watched the once authoritative pages of the scripture turn to dust in my hands".
People lose faith all the time by studying, and I mean studying not self indoctrination. Learn the difference. People of all religions and world views are changing what they believe and how they live just by the small step of asking questions and getting answers. Religion often cloaks itself in a disguise of intellectual mystery. Well there is no mystery to new testament concoctions of old testament passages. There is no mystery to signs of the spirit, not once in the last 100 years of audio recording innovation has someone ever actually spoken in tongues. And one doesn't really have to dig deep, if your a Christian just ask yourself the question why you go to church on Sunday's when your scripture says your supposed to honour the Sabbath. Or why do the poorest most uneducated people tend to be the most religious in North America, and the world? No matter what your angle, sociology, psychology, textual criticism, history, if you ask you can find. Just be prepared to deal with what you find, even if you don't like it.
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