At some point in time, probably not in the immediate future, the Anglo-American world is going to wake up to the fact that no man, nor no woman, is an island. The environment, beginning in the womb, has profound effects on the people we turn out to be. Seems pretty straight
Continue readingTag: America
Eclectic Lip: How Trinity Western University (unintentionally) promotes divorce
Trinity Western University has been in the news recently, as law societies in Ontario and Nova Scotia voted to not recognize lawyers trained at the religious university’s soon-to-open law school. These two law societies – like your blogger and the vast majority of Canadians – recoiled in horror at the
Continue readingEclectic Lip: British Columbia hits 1,000 EV’s (and gov’t drops support)
image of Tesla Model S’s at a rally, from Consumer Reports British Columbians have now purchased more than 1,000 plug-in electric vehicles. Add in low-speed neighbourhood electric vehicles and owner conversions, and the number will be a bit higher. As of Jan 31, 2014 Polk research (now a division
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: If the U.S. Was in Russia’s Position, How Would It React to Russian Meddling in Canada or Mexico that Threatened America’s Security?
The Ukraine sits right on Russia’s doorstep. It is the land route to Russia’s Black Sea naval base at Sevastopol by which the Russian navy can access the Mediterranean. Severing Russia’s naval access to the Med is thought to be why the U.S. has been meddling in Ukrainian affairs, funding
Continue readingEclectic Lip: Back from Happy Hawaii
Synchronized phoning, coming soon to a summer Olympics near you… Trivia note: Swedish supergroup Abba’s “Why did it have to be me” was originally titled (and lyricized) as “Happy Hawaii”. But those of you who also secretly bought the 4-CD ABBA box set without admitting it to your friends, already
Continue readingEclectic Lip: The losers of Superbowl XLVIII will be…
Religious moderates. Here’s my reasoning. After the game, someone on the winning team, exulting ecstatically, will say “God was on our side” or words to that effect. It’s as sure as a post-touchdown two-point conversion attempt late in the fourth quarter, if the team is still down by a pair.
Continue readingThe Political Road Map: Why Sochi 2014 is My Generations 1972 Summit Series
I was not around in 1972 to experience the dramatic and intense summit series between Canada and the Soviet Union, however I have read a lot about the event and heard many stories from hockey fanatics who had the pleasure of experiencing it live. The Summit Series was an immensely
Continue readingEclectic Lip: The 1-2-3′s of EV market share in the US
My article on the 1-2-3′s of electric vehicle adoption in the U.S. went up on GreenCarReports on the weekend. The commentary went through a title change – a procedure familiar to many famous writers, and many more of us unknown mediocrities. 🙂 About fifteen years after a publisher’s first impression
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Strong winds, big waves, and the interconnectedness of life
When the waves are high, from my backyard I can hear the lake, which is just a few hundred feet away. It sounds like a great, strong wind, or a freight train in the distance – or a tornado. The strange thing is, the sound of the waves does
Continue readingEclectic Lip: The quest for the golden meme
Golden mean image sourced here. It’s been a pretty good month, in terms of writing. Over at GreenCarReports, I had my piece on September EV sales in Canada, a Canadian Thanksgiving-centric story riffing on the country’s nationwide EV charging network, and discussed what our EV drivers do, to get through
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: American and Canadian Politics – A brief comparison and lay of the land
Here is a rough translation of Canadian political culture for Americans and others who may be unfamiliar with the political landscape of the second largest country on earth, the holder of the largest oil and mineral resources on earth, the pantry to the American empire, one of the richest nations on the
Continue readingEclectic Lip: Passing Gas – EV’s now outnumber gas stations, in America
My latest piece is up on GreenCarReports, here. It’s where I sourced the photo from. 🙂 And yes, putting “Passing Gas” in the title was deliberate. Hey, it’s catchy! From what I can tell, electric vehicles also outnumber gas stations in Japan as well. Alas, Canadians are somewhat behind our
Continue readingLeDaro: American Healthcare and inequality
If you’re employed and especially if you’re rich then you can get all kinds of healthcare services. If an employed and rich person’s kidney, lungs or heart fail, a new organ will be available so that you can live on and maybe live a long life. However, if you’re unemployed
Continue readingLeDaro: Brothels and Massage Parlours: Girls are bought for prostitution
America talks about spreading democracy and freeing women in Afghanistan. Why doesn’t the American Government do the same in their own country? The situation in Canada is not much different. The majority of these victims are Asians. Slavery continues to exist in some form or even worse than slavery. These
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Wake Up America
From a study that reveals increased risk of death for young coffee drinkers who have 4 cups a day or more, to a man who woke up America to the deadly automobile industry’s greed, we’ve got a full morning of reading for you, here at Abandoned Stuff. Or that’s what
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Could "America’s Quiet Environmental Revolution" Sound Last Call for Athabasca Bitumen?
A PostMedia article discusses what it calls America’s “quiet environmental revolution,” a nationwide, broadbased movement away from fossil fuels toward non-carbon alternatives. Even the most unlikely Americans are taking up the carbon-free challenge, often viewing it as a path to energy independence. Kentucky Republican congressman Thomas Massie, for instance, built
Continue readingThe Political Road Map: Detroit Wants Robocop!
Movies, while providing a source of entertainment, also possess the ability to inspire us, move us and provide an example of the direction our society is moving in. Robocop among many memorable movies of our youth or general collection, gave us an image of a city named Detroit suffering from
Continue readingEclectic Lip: The surveillance state is an autoimmune disorder
Autoimmune disorders (Wikipedia prefers autoimmune diseases) occur when the body’s defenses — antibodies — no longer distinguish between healthy tissue and harmful cells. Instead of focusing on the dangerous antigens, they attack the body itself. Type 1 diabetes is an example, where the patient’s immune system attacks the insulin-producing regions
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Wealth in the USA Graphed Nicely
You can see what Americans desire as wealth distribution, vs. what they think the unfair situation is vs. reality. It’s off the charts, literally, how much money the 1% makes in comparison to what sort of uneven system Americans accept they experience. It really displays the absurdity of even well-off
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Happy 4th of July – Oh btw America, Welfare *Promotes* Independence.
“When we see the expansion of the dependency class in America and you add this to the 79 other means tested programs that we have in the United States, each time you add another brick to that wall, it’s a barrier to people that might go out and succeed. ”
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