"Stephan Goldstein" <sg0ldo1867@yahoo.com> wrote
"Ken Nadvornick" <register.nadvor@verizon.net> wrote:

The mystery: Is Kentmere rebranded Luminos or is Luminos rebranded Kentmere?

It's been a while, but all the Luminos I ever bought was made in Spain,
Hungary, Chekoslovakia etc.  The origin would change now and then with
no notice on the box that it is really a different paper unless
you read the fine print on the bottom.

Luminos is/was the only brand still available in all the old funky
surfaces: burlap, silk, crystal matte, really-really matte ...
They were high-kitsch when they were available but I miss them
now: cream base, brown image, burlap surface.

Steve,

Luminos had been marketing some of the Kentmere papers in the U.S.  Now
Luminos is not handling the Kentmere papers.  Freestyle Photo is the
exclusive Kentmere distributor in the U.S.  The first of the product
should be available in the next couple of weeks.

John Richardson

Ken,

The Kentmere paper is going through customs as we speak.  When we have
it in stock depends on the government.  Thanks for the great
compliments!

John Richardson

Bashing Ilford? Freestyle? I haven't noticed this.

I predict the radical right in congress tries to
repeal the 22nd Amendment so Bush can steal
another election and continue his world crusade.

After all, God has appointed him...

...

[sorry, I'm OT and I can't help myself. History is
repeating itself and we're all going to pay ...]

jan2504 from Lloyd Erlick,

Four more years of what? Deficit financing? I see the
projections are for the US federal budget to be about a
half trillion dollars in deficit annually for the
foreseeable future. If there are deficits like that for
the next four years, it's not very likely year five
will be less! We've seen this in Canada (and didn't the
US go through the very same over the seventies and
eighties?). If you want a strong dollar, better not put
your economy that deeply into debt. And by the way, is
money being printed to stretch over that debt? We've
all had a pretty good look at what happens when the US
economy prints a lot of money...

I'm confused by American peoples' reactions to a half
trillion dollar debt every year. Is it considered a
large amount of money or not?

If the half trillion every year had to be raised by
taxation, would there not be a howl? Why is the same
half trillion raised as debt not a concern? It turns
into taxation later, when it's time to repay, except it
gets carrying costs added. Anyone suggesting this on
behalf of buying a health care system would be called a
commie.

Is the economy really so large it can borrow that much
every year and not be affected? Last time it happened
the worldwide money markets were powerfully affected,
and every householder was in competition with the USA
for borrowed money. Under Reagan, who set a few
record-breaking deficits in a row, interest rates went
through the roof. In those days (mid-eighties) I
remember being very relieved that the rates had come
*down* a tad before our mortgage needed renewal and we
were able to get one at 15%. That was a good rate!
Mortgages peaked at 22% in Canada.

Now another Republican comes along and starts setting
new federal deficit-financing records in the US. Pardon
me for saying, but this looks very bad from the
outside. Does it look good to anyone on the inside of
the US economy? Who would it be that thinks it's a good
thing? Who is benefiting?

And what evidence is there to suggest that it will last
only four years? Judging by the last time it happened,
for every year of deficit, several years of struggle to
slowly reduce deficits were required. Trillions (and
*how many* trillions will it end up being??) of dollars
debt means years and years of repayment later.

Fiscal conservatives always used to say it was wrong to
saddle our descendants with such a large debt. When did
the Republicans stop being fiscal conservatives?

In both our countries (Canada and USA) we see the
spectacle of so-called conservatives applying words
like reform and revolution to their activities. I
believe Bush used the word reform just the other day.

In Ontario, we just recently disposed of a decade-long
conservative administration that billed itself as a
'revolution'. The common sense revolution, they called
it. Once they were out it became known that the overall
deficit left behind (debt, that is) is over ten billion
dollars. So it's very hard for the new administration
to carry on any kind of activity, except repayment.
Sound familiar? (Interestingly, the new administration
here introduced legislation to prevent any government
from hiding debt before an election. Supposedly, it's
full disclosure and transparency now. Pretty late in
the game for this little improvement, isn't it? The
same trick has been pulled frequently.)

Not many people even ask where the money went. Who
holds that debt? Who is getting rich?

Compared to all this, a Canadian-style health care
system for all Americans would be cheap. (Believe me,
you'd like it.) And the money spent on it would mostly
remain circulating within the US. War is just a money
pit.

An American friend of mine remarked the other day that
we all should pray for the continued good health of
President Bush, because Vice President Cheney looks
even scarier! I remember exactly the same thing being
said about Spiro Agnew in Nixon times.

I'm afraid I've lost the thread -- exactly what was
wrong with Al Gore again?

sigh,
--le

Meaning?

Hi John,

Many thanks for the relevant reply.  Although I'm most anxious to try the
graded bromide papers, over time I expect to explore all of the other
Kentmere offerings as well.  A consistent, dependable supply of quality
graded bromide, however, would be a dream come true for me.

You sound directly connected to either Kentmere USA or Freestyle?

Thanks again,
Ken