New Year Prediction – The New Veganism
Perhaps not this year, but I can see it coming as clear as the lighting in a laboratory clean room. It started with vegetarianism, a dietary preference to avoid eating…
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Happy New Year – We Are All Going to Die
Yes, we are all going to die and that’s it, the end. Except for the Christians, of course, they get to go to an afterlife of either heaven or hell.…
The War Against Holiday Diversity
They call it the War on Christmas, but in reality it is just an opportunity for a few people to get apoplectic, or is it apocalyptic, about the fact that…
Towards a Green Social Democratic Economy
Background/Context Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Characteristics central to capitalism include private property, capital accumulation,…
The Truth About the Kanata Lakes Golf Course Development Proposal
Many of you probably see the opposition to replacing the Kanata Lakes golf course with housing as just a NIMBY response of a bunch of privileged entitled suburbanites living in…
Federal Election 2019 Reflections
The big surprise of the election has to be the Bloc Québécois resurgence, although I am sure they probably saw it coming even if the rest of us didn’t. This…
On Inequality, Democracy and Taxing the Rich – A Modest Proposal
No doubt many raised in our capitalist society, where inequality rules and excessive incomes and wealth are seen as a right (and where even the NDP only proposes a measly…
Guns – What Are They Good For
War The Wikipedia section on the history of guns makes it clear that the history of guns and war are clearly intertwined, guns being developed primarily as a means to…
Can We, Should We, Will We Live Forever Online
When typing for this blog I have often wished I could just think my thoughts at the computer and have them type out on the screen. This, no doubt, has…
Metric for Americans
American exceptionalism often means things like calling football soccer while the rest of the world calls it football . Yes, us northern neighbours do the same thing but it’s still…
On Television
Definitions: 1 A system for converting visual images (with sound) into electrical signals, transmitting them by radio or other means, and displaying them electronically on a screen. 2 A device…
Primitive vs Civilized Societies
As someone born in 1950 and raised and educated in a Eurocentric culture I learned early that civilized societies are intellectually, socially, and technologically superior to primitive societies. This despite…
On Gender Identity
I was born in 1950 at a time when spouses were specifically excluded from rape laws and homosexuality was illegal. Homosexuality was only whispered about in “polite company” and people…
Is American Democracy Fucked ?
So is the American political system completely dysfunctional. I suppose the easy answer is to say they elected Trump so case closed, but of course it is much more complicated…
Christmas – Whose Holiday is it Anyway
It is time for the annual discussions about the “War on Christmas” and putting “Christ Back in Christmas”, but whose holiday is it anyway. The Christians claim it as theirs…
THE FIFTH COLUMN 2018-10-13 19:17:00
On Democracy What a better way to restart The Fifth Column than by a treatise on how to make our democracy actually democratic. Hopefully this will be the first posting…
Unable to “View in Google Earth” GPS tracks opened in Garmin BaseCamp or Mapsource – Solution
When I first installed Garmin MapSource (and later BaseCamp) I could open GPS tracks (gpx files) in it and select “View in Google Earth” and Google Earth would open and…