Patra's Other Place

I started out with Patra's Place, primarily dedicated to my linen collection and stitching projects. But I kept getting side-tracked, so I decided to create Patra's Other Place for anything not related to embroidery topics. So you now have a choice. If you are interested in me, read this. If you only want to see my linen and stitching, visit Patra's (original) Place! (Please note that by clicking on any of the photos, they will be enlarged to fill your computer screen.)

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Location: Melbourne, Vic., Australia

I was married to Ken for 43 years, but he died in October 2022. So I am now alone with two cats, eight hens, and a few finches and parrots in one aviary.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Made in the USA, NOT!

Last week I was browsing the Amazon.com site (American version) and clicked on a link to a discussion. I didn't realise that Amazon have forums/discussion groups, and I spent about two hours going from one topic to another as various items caught my attention. Tonight I found one that was titled "Would you buy somebody a gift if it wasn't made in the USA?" (or words to that effect). WELL! It has blown out to a huge debate, and as the issues are very similar to topics I've been posting on here lately, I read the whole forum from start to finish. One of the writers had this to say, and I thought it was so relevant, I asked permission to reproduced it here. (I haven't had a reply, but I put my blog name on their discussion, so if he or she objects, I will remove this).
As to the idea that no one wants their kids to grow up into a factory worker, why the hell not? Machinists are great skilled factory workers. As are people who build circuit boards, alternators, windshields, TV's etc. I'll be proud of my kids as long as they find a job that they enjoy doing, take pride in, and do it well. Here is the reality, the world only needs so many doctors and engineers. To have quality products it needs good machines, good skilled workers to run them. People to write code for those machines, supervisors to run the crews, People to check quality, skilled assemblers, etc. On one hand people say that Americans do not want factory jobs, but I have to ask on the other hand, what jobs do You want? Without the factory here there is no electrician to service it. No engineer to build the factory production lines, no machinists to run machines or code for them. No manager to oversee, no supervisor, no human resources manager, no safety coordinator, no one building the parts that go into said factory or even the trucks that ship to and from it.
I say it's complete bull with that "service" type economy. ALL JOBS that are profitable rely on manufacturing. You ship all manufacturing to somewhere else, and You slowly shift all profit to that location. When manufacturing ships out of the US, You weaken the country at every level, even it's ability to defend it's self. Get rid of all the skilled workers and factories, who will build the tanks to defend here if china decides to invade due to our corrupt government taking loans they have no intention of paying back. What are we going to ask china and india to build our weapons of war to defend against them invading.


I think there are still a few people reading my blog, and I'm hoping this post will motivate them to post comments here, as I would very much like to know what others think.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Good news for Native Australians.

(This news item has made me a lot happier than the one I found last night, about gay google.) The Australian government has signed over a huge tract of land in Central Australia to the care of the Aboriginal people who were the original guardians of the land. Note that I said 'guardians', not 'owners'. The Aboriginal people have always rejected the concept of owning land; they look after it for future generations. How right that is. What a pity European settlers didn't feel the same way, not to mention 'white' Australians around today, who still plunder our country in so many ways. Look, I'm not against mining and forestry per se, but I think those industries could have been, and still could be - managed with much more consideration given to the long term effects. Anyway, I'll get off my soap box. Here is the link to the relevant news item.

Monday, July 09, 2012

Gay Google????????????

I just found this online - the following is only a bit of the whole news item:
Longtime gay rights campaigner Google has kicked off a new effort to "legalise love" in countries that criminalise homosexuality. At a Global LGBT Workplace Summit in London late last week, the web giant's European head of diversity and inclusion, Mark Palmer-Edgecumbe, reportedly outlined the initiative. According to Gay Star News, the Google wonk mentioned Singapore and Poland as the starting points for the rainbow flag-waving search engine's campaign. "Singapore wants to be a global financial centre and world leader, and we can push them on the fact that being a global centre and a world leader means you have to treat all people the same, irrespective of their sexual orientation," he was quoted as saying. The company plans to eventually tackle issues of homophobia and anti-gay legislation wherever its offices are based.

Have you ever heard such rubbish in all your life? What is the matter with these homosexuals anyway? I really don't care what people do behind closed doors, but I just wish they would keep the door closed! As one commenter observes: There are two problems with Google's "Legislate love" position. First, the corporation is firmly asserting, by implication, that the majority of Muslims, Chritians, and Jews in the world are wrong on a theological matter. It is claiming that a sin is not a sin, and in doing so Google is deliberately subvert parents' instruction to their children on matters of morality and of right relationship to God. You might be okay with that, but let's certainly not pretend that it's not one genuine aspect of what's going on.

Wednesday, July 04, 2012

Independence Day over there!

Happy July 4 to my American cyberspace friends! It's been all bad news on the media here, about the terrible fires and freak weather, so I guess many people won't have much to celebrate. I hope that whoever is reading my blog over there is safe and well, and will have a wonderful day.

adopt your own virtual pet!