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That Sick Sikh Singh
Oh dear, I fear this might be a very Trudeau-like epistle – full of apologies. The first one is the apology for that disrespectful title, but it struck me funny and I just had to stick with it. The second apology is for any racist tone you might detect in the article. I honestly try…
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Ten Years of Political Debris
(Caricatures by Niall O’Loughlin) I wrote in my last essay, in which I ranted about the lies, disinformation, and nastiness of the populist Pierre, that I was reluctant to enter into the world of commentary about partisan politics. However, having done it once, it seems to me that it would be only fair for me…
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My Unbroken Canada
(Cartoon by Graeme MacKay in The Hamilton Spectator) I find it hard to watch Canadian television these days because at some point the program Pierre Poilievre shows up, telling us that “Canada is broken”. I don’t think we really need an election right now, but honestly, I might welcome one if only because it will…
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Gas Price Gouging
I drive a “luxury” vehicle. It’s a second-hand, 13-year old Lexus IS 350 with an annoying scratch in the paint on the trunk. It only has about 160K on the odometer, and since I rarely drive more than 15000km/year, it’s likely to do me for a long, long time. However, it takes premium gas, and…
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Getting Trucking on the Right Track
In early August, I drove down to Cape Breton and then to my birthplace, beautiful PEI. It was a really good drive. I was really pleased with how well the traffic flowed, generally. I went through some construction zones, it being construction season (the only other season in Canada being dead of winter), but even…
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Judicial Integrity in Canada
Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Judicial integrity in Canada is still a thing. South of the border, it’s appears to be just a myth, or a sad memory. I want to do a review of the US situation, with an update covering some of the US courts’ more recent and inexplicable decisions.…
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Are Exported Emissions Really So Bad?
On June 20th, CBC News featured a story on what they called Canada’s exported emissions. The gist of the story is captured nicely in the first sentence of their story – “While Canada claims to be a climate leader, the oil and gas we export to other countries have the potential to produce more emissions…
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De-Bunking Anti-Vax Myths
In my first article on vaccination, I tried to convince you that a population-wide adoption of vaccinations is the best shield we have against a number of dangerous diseases. In the second, I showed that while there are a number of somewhat rational excuses for not getting vaccinated, (or more importantly getting your child vaccinated),…
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Anti-Vax Ideas – Rational but Wrong
I have tried to convince you that data shows that vaccines work, and that maintaining a whole-population vaccine coverage shield protects us all. It follows that those who actively oppose vaccination – anti-vaxxers – are in fact sabotaging the public health programs that are designed to protect their own children…and yours. So, why would people…
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Refusing Measles Vaccine Is A Rash Decision
If, like me, you were a child in the late 50’s, you were probably not terribly concerned by the recent stories about an uptick in measles cases in Canada and other rich-world countries. Health Canada reports that as of May 4th, there have been 75 reported cases of measles in Canada this year. There were…
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Student Protestors – Emotion vs Rationale
Prompted by the recent student demonstrations against Israel, I re-read the article I wrote on October 27th, just three weeks after Hamas let slip the dogs of war. Rarely have I felt as prescient as I did upon reading what I wrote in October. It’s probably self-congratulatory, but allow me to quote from my own…
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Maple Leaf Problems with Defence
No, this is not an article about hockey. That was just a teaser to suck in readers who thought they were going to see a life-long Leafs fan losing his mind about the fact that they can’t ever seem to protect a lead and close a game out. Sorry gang, not happening. Instead, this article…
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Stop this Carbon Tax BS Already!
It is March 31st today as I start writing this. I still have a lot of reading to do before I finish it. I fearlessly predict that before I finish this, April 1st will have come and gone and we will all have survived the increase in the carbon tax which will add 3 or 4 cents…
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Sport Irritations
I like watching sports on TV, and I do it a lot. But although I love my sports shows, there are a number of things that irritate me. Mostly when I write my articles, I spend a fair bit of time on them doing enough research to feel I can justify why I adopted whatever…
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Fusion or Fission – Pick a Horse
In 1920, physicist Arthur Eddington proposed the basis for nuclear fusion power. Referring to the energy contained in nuclear reactions, he said “we sometimes dream that man will one day learn how to release it and use it for his service. The store is well nigh inexhaustible, if only it could be tapped.” In 1955…
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Resist That Click Bait
Every now and then my friends like to wind me up by sending me a provocative bit of right-wing propaganda. It’s like chumming the waters for fish – they just chuck it out there and then watch the fish rising to the bait. One of my golfing buddies sent me a document recently. And in…
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To Infinity and Beyond! …Well Maybe Not
A couple of weeks ago I saw a tv news report on a launch of a space probe of some sort – I forget which one it was. At the end of the news item, the anchor closed with the cheerful statement that it was one more step in gaining the expertise “we are going…
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The Future for Hydrogen Powered EVs
The vehicle pictured above is the $2M+, 2000 hp, 1000 mile range Hyperion XP1 sports car. It has absolutely no relevance to this article or to average Canadians except to offer visual proof that exciting things are starting to happen in the world of hydrogen powered electric vehicles. Ok, so back to reality for average…
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The UN – Missing In Action
The United Nations – It Kinda Works (cartoon movement.com) I told you back in October that the mess in Gaza was going to be ugly. I told you so! It is brutal stuff to watch. And it could be stopped if only the UN had the impact on world affairs that we always thought it…
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Ukraine, We’re Behind You – Waaaay Behind You.
(Great cartoon by Graeme MacKay harpoons both Trudeau and Polievre) Hamilton Spectator When Russia invaded Ukraine, there was great concern that this was the opening phase of World War 3 and that it had potential to become a nuclear war. Vladimir Putin played on those fears immediately after the invasion with his assurance that that…