Friday, September 30, 2005

Watch out in FLA

I’m not sure if this law is good or bad...bad if you believe this group:

The Shoot First Law is an invitation to reckless use of guns in the streets of our cities and towns. Without the law, people carrying firearms in public places could use those guns against perceived threats only as a last resort. The new law eliminates a citizen’s duty to avoid the threat, and allows the use of deadly force before other options. Below is some legal context to the new Shoot First statute. It is not a comprehensive analysis of all laws on this subject, or all the situations that may arise under the law.

Sliding down the slope

There’s no reason that this won’t happen here.

In the U.S., some opponents of same-sex marriage – including, notably, Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa. – have argued acceptance of same-sex marriage will create a slippery slope, leading to the sanctioning of other types of relationships, including polygamy.

Got away with it?

Robert Latimer must be wondering what he did differently to get a jail sentence, when Carmichael seemingly got off.

A Toronto father who admitted to drugging and suffocating his epileptic 11-year-old son has been found not criminally responsible on account of a mental disorder.

Drugging our kids

I can’t believe the number of parents I’ve talked to over the past little while whose little boys are all drugged up. Most teachers and parents are pleased with the results that they can control their kids, but are they prepared for all the side effects?

ADHD is thought to afflict around 3% to 7% of school-age children and is believed to be a genetic condition which affects those parts of the brain that control attention, impulses and concentration.

Monday, September 26, 2005

On being poor

Fred has no time for the so called poor people of America.

Repeatedly I hear that the misbehavior in New Orleans sprang from the exigencies of poverty. I would offer a countering view. Permit me to start with the family of Violeta, mi pareja in Mexico. I know them well. Listen, and judge.

He’d laugh if he saw our poor in Canada.

Honk if you hate humps

Downing says the humps are about to invade his neighborhood, and he doesn’t like it.

Did you know that some drivers retaliate by beeping their horn at every hump? That some drivers claim it’s easier to take humps at a higher speed? Did you realize humps affect the disabled and those in wheelchairs more than the rest of us? Did you know City Hall has never done a study into how much of our safety is compromised by these humps?

Tired of busy women

You know society is about to come to an end when we don’t have time to propagate the species.

An article in the Daily Telegraph reports on women who are too busy for sex who opt for in vitro fertilization (IVF) to start pregnancies.

Wealthy career women in their 30s and early 40s, some of whom have given up regular sex altogether, are turning to “medicalised conception” - despite being fertile and long before they have exhausted the possibility of a natural conception.

Fateful step back

Looks like South Africa is going down the broken Zimbabwean road.

Well, I can not say this bad story came as a total surprise, given the near-total lack of respect for property rights and the rule of law in Africa:

South Africa says it will for the first time force a white farmer to sell his land under a redistribution plan.

Africa is going the wrong way if it wants to join the first world anytime soon.

Girls gone nutz

High school girls just aren’t like they used to be.

Increasingly, young women are treating themselves and each other like pieces of meat. Why?

Thank you Paris Hilton.

Sunday, September 25, 2005

Hurray for Dads

Debbye has a link plentiful post on the importance of fatherhood to familes and to society.

I read two posts yesterday that really stuck with me. They both concern parenting, or more properly, the lack of full parenting, and raise some disturbing issues.

Our feminist driven court and political system needs to take note.

Saturday, September 24, 2005

Flat earth society

Ride the GO train, save Texas - so says our minister of cities.

He even argues that riding the subway instead of vehicles that run on fossil fuels — thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions — could help take the sting out of a hurricane.

“When we encourage people to take public transit, we’re also addressing these issues of more intense hurricanes,” Godfrey said. “We’ve got to connect all those dots for people.”

The scarier thing is that the majority of Canadians actually believe him.  How sad - and dangerous.

Canadians are statists

There is little doubt that Canadians are, and always will be, Liberals to the core.

When something new appears in the world, the American asks: How can money be made from this? The Canadian asks: How can we regulate it?

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

The lid came off

Fred says the lid came off on the black underclass of America, and it wasn’t (as always) pretty.

I was traveling in China when pictures of the looters in New Orleans began to appear on CNN. They were black of course. Looting and raping and burning are what blacks do when the lid loosens. Yes, I could phrase this more cautiously: These things are what some blacks, etc. or, more cutely, not all blacks are looters, but all looters….blah blah.

Be all you don’t want to be

Fred doesn’t recommend your young men enlist...unless they know the rest of the story.

A friend recently asked me what I would tell a young man thinking about enlisting in the military. (He had in mind his son.) I would tell him this, which I wish someone had told me:

What about hunting?

We’ve been so good to our wildlife that they’re killing us.

“One in every 18 motor vehicle crashes involves a wild animal. This
represents an 86 per cent increase over the past decade...To reduce collisions the ministry has also taken several other steps, including installing fencing along major highways, better lighting, and posting warning signs where wildlife is known to roam.

Doesn’t have anything to do with the lack of hunting allowed, I suppose?

Such problems

The envy that must be brewing over the Alberta dividend checks has to be a real concern to the feds.

Albertans may end up getting much more than $300 when prosperity dividend cheques arrive in the mail later this year, Premier Ralph Klein said Monday.

Whose oil is it anyway?  We all know provinces have jurisdiction over natural resources, but who actually owns the resource? 

Sorry, but I say Canada does.  Let’s have some of that dough!

Mocking marriage

Rosie laments on the mockery celebs make of marriage.

The weird Zellweger/Chesney union would have been somewhat more understandable had the couple gone on a booze-infused toot and woken up hung-over the next morning to discover themselves matrimonially yoked.

Between labeling gay unions marriage, and what the famous call “marriage”, it’s no wonder young people today have no interest in making it official.

Society has made it meaningless… and society will pay.

In the dumps

John Downing writes that our garbage woes could be easily solved by simple incineration or filling the huge abandonned mines around our province.

The future will peer back at Toronto and think today’s politicians dumb to the point of silliness in how they handle garbage. And they’ll be right. We’re as primitive as if we still lived in caves.

Goodbye Gardiner again?

Looks like another leg of the Gardiner is up for debate.

Toronto before the Gardiner Expressway featured gridlock on Lake Shore Blvd., and bumper-to-bumper action on King, Queen and Dundas Sts., Cass said.

The Gardiner does look ugly in some spots, but it’s no more a blight on the waterfront than the row of ugly condos completely obstructing the lake.

Germany’s dying

Mark says Germany, like the rest of Europe, is dying, but Germans aren’t ready to do anything about it.

That’s the perfect summation of Europe: welfare addiction over demographic reality.

Monday, September 19, 2005

Rides we’d like to see

Here’s some amusement rides you’ll never see.

Saturday, September 17, 2005

Kyoto is dead

Keith notes that Kyoto is, for all intents and purposes, dead.

The bell continues to toll for Kyoto.  Could someone please inform the government of Canada?

The hits keep coming

So much for the latest crackdown.  Now there’s three more in the (body) bag.

The rash of shootings came just a day after Toronto police conducted a massive crackdown on a Rexdale street gang.

Perhaps we need to import the Jamaican police to take care of the Jamaican problem.  Ask any Jamaican about how they take care of the gun toters.

Keep growing, Pinocchio

It’s good to see our political leaders in a sense, grow up and mature while they are in office.

“It’s time for us to mature and in a sense grow up in Ontario when it comes to understanding what our energy needs are and making the decisions today that have been avoided yesterday to ensure that we have a reliable supply of affordable, clean, safe electricity,” he said.

Question is, will there be enough power to go around while he dithers with studies for the next few years?  Not everyone thinks so.

Thursday, September 15, 2005

Return Mail Revenge

I don’t get nearly the junk mail that my relatives in the US get, but if I did, I might do this.

Tired of receiving mounds of unsolicited letters and offers in the mail? Want to fight back? Want to get rid of that old tire in your garage that the garbage man won’t take? Then read on......

For envelopes, I typically just right RTS and throw it back in the mailbox.

via JWalk