Stephen Harper, his caucus and, more broadly, the Conservative Party of Canada must think that Canadians are complete idiots.
I live in a funny old country. Well, actually, compared to most countries in Europe and Asia it’s a rather new country. But it is a funny country and “funny new country” doesn’t roll as comfortably off the tongue as “funny old country.”
My server statistics tell me that my reader is American, so I feel I need to explain a few things about Canada.
How new is the country? In practice we gained our independence on July 1, 1867. On paper, however, we’re not completely independent. Our head of state doesn’t actually live in Canada. It’s the Queen of England. And when Good Queen Elizabeth journeys forth to that great throne in the sky, he son Charles, or possibly on of Charles’ sons, will take over the Canadian Monarch—and, therefore, head of state job.
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Here’s an frightening headline that accompanied a news story on the Toronto Star’s website: “Titanic replica to re-enact namesake’s ill-fated voyage in 2016, says Australian owner.” The thought of cruising has never appealed to me—I don’t want to go on any vacation that I can’t easily abandon if I’m not enjoying it—but that’s one cruise I definitely want to avoid.
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Toronto’s chief medical officer recently recommended that the city reduce speed limits on Toronto’s streets. I haven’t read the report containing that proposal, but my understanding is that it suggested that lower speed limits would reduce the number and severity of car-versus-pedestrian accidents. And, in turn, that would reduce the number of deaths from such accidents.
I read about this in a newspaper article that cited lower accident and death rates in cities where speed limits are lower than in Toronto. It also mentioned a study that showed a correlation between lower speed limits and a reduced severity of injuries when car-versus-pedestrian accidents occur.
I have not read any rigorous studies that show, not just a correlation, but also causation between lower speed limits and improved pedestrian safety. Nor have I read any studies providing evidence for an opposing hypothesis. To be honest, I haven’t read any studies on the issue, period. Consequently, I’m not in a position to either support the recommendation or denounce it.
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One of the great many things in this world that baffles me is why some types of spam still exist. I’m not talking about spam coming almost continuously from legitimate companies offering genuine products and services. That junk is grossly annoying and a horrible time-waster, but at least it’s honest.
I’m also not talking about the spam scams that are cleverly crafted to look they are offering worthwhile products from legitimate companies when they are not. We’re all busy and can’t spend a lot of time to check everything out, so I can understand how some people might fall for something that is meticulously designed to look legit.
My slight paranoia and colossal neuroses prevent me from being duped by that stuff—thankfully some good comes from my sickness—but not everyone is lucky enough to benefit from the same protecting angst.
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I don’t know about you, but I find food labels to be useless when it comes to making healthy choices. It’s never straightforward, is it?
What if one product contains a lot of the stuff you want—fiber, proteins, and vitamins, for example—but also has a lot of the things you want to avoid such as fat, cholesterol, and sodium? Is that product better than a product that has almost none of the bad stuff, but also absolutely none of the good stuff? At what point does one balance out the other?
I haven’t yet come up with a formula to help me choose which food products to buy if I want to stay healthy, but I have devised a few simple rules that I use to help me decide which products to eliminate from my consideration. You might find these 11 food rules useful too. Or not.
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I’m on a Via Rail Canada train. In the washroom, on the wall behind the toilet and immediately above the toilet, there is a sign that reads, “No hand towels.” Is that really necessary? I mean, how may people look in the toilet for the hand towels? Most people probably already know that they won’t find any there, at least not any they’d want to use.
OK, OK; I know that what they really meant was that they don’t want me to dispose of hand towels in the toilet. But then why say hand towels? Does that mean that if I wash my face and use one of the towels to dry my face I’m OK to throw that one in there?
Wouldn’t it have been less ambiguous to say, “Don’t dispose of any towels in the toilet.”
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Rob Ford, the mayor of my hometown, Toronto, wants all new public transit projects to go underground. He campaigned on that promise.
Some members of city council are pushing back on that, saying that we can’t afford all of those subways. Rather than burying the new Eglinton “Crosstown” light rail line for its full length as Mayor Ford wants, they want to bury only the portion of it that passes through areas that are particularly congested or where the available roadway right of way is too narrow to reasonably run a surface-level light rail route along it without disrupting car traffic too much.
Many of those same councilors are against Mayor Ford’s as-of-yet unfunded plan to extend the existing Sheppard subway line both eastward and westward. Instead, they want to put a surface-level light rail line where Ford wants his eastern subway extension.
The dissenting councilors state that Toronto—which already struggles each year to balance its budget—can’t afford the many billions of dollars required to build, maintain and operate all new lines underground.
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To say the least, the universe is unimaginably large and complex. One of the least consequential of the astronomically large number of its phenomena that I don’t understand is soap scum. What’s the point of soap if we have to clean up after it?
