caroljane

It is funny to read this on the very day that I read that McDonalds has admitted that nobody could actually live on the minimum wage, however many hours they worked. They counsel their employees how to `Budget`and `plan.` Yeah. Unions like all institutions have corruption and inefficiency. But they are the only institutions I know of that are bottom-up, based on the rights and the needs of the workers, period full stop.

I am continually amazed how close the Objectivist mindset is to the many previous religious or pagan dicta which they disdain`He who does not work should not eat!

It is indeed sad that a living wage and job security can be achieved by labour unions, and that the entire world economy is being destroyed by them. Obviously their time is past, as no one today deserves or should expect a living wage, much less the continuation of any wage, unless they continually surpass the expectations of the free markets, those infallible arbiters of excellence.

As documented, there were at least four heavily armoured policemen there who could easily have overpowered and disarmed him of his knife. Yet they shot him dead. I am appalled and revolted.

This is probably even more infuriating to the Toronto police officers who a few days ago, arrested a knife-wielder who had just murdered three people, without incident or harm to officers or suspect. »This happens all the the time and should be acknowledged.

Calvin, are you reading the same news reports I am The guy was totally alone on the steetcar, threatening nobody, albeit holding a knife and maybe with his pants down, but. How this justifies shooting him dead beats me, but I know the Toronto police and I am sure they will explain it to everyone`s satisfaction.

Dear Cathy, and dear Conny too, what an amazing, astonishing and utterly American journey you have survived. I am so proud and enriched to know you.

I have now checked out the news reports. «Glad to see the SIU is immediately investigating. Sure the shooters will get exonerated one way or another, but at least they will hae to go through a few hoops.

II have deliberately not looked up anything about this beyond the initial post. I regularly travel on that streetcar and live one block from the Queen Street Mental Health Centre, and know many of the outpatients as nodding neighbours. In my opinion, `mental``, crazy, out of control, loonies do not need to be killed, and not ought to be, unless they pose imminent and irrefutable death threat to others.

Yes, you are right, it is safe to say that I could never argue that my mindset is the same as that of a resident of Sanford Florida, and I never have argued such a thing. I have never lived there or anywhere like it. I never never lived anywhere where to be doubted or feared, even for a moment, is to die.

I am biased of course, but the previous posters are correct. My parents bore the main costs of my university years but I took out student loans as a matter of course and eventually repaid them.(I am still kicking myself that I did not know I could have got scholarships easily to cover my studies, but too old a story) I worked throughut my university years to supplement and that was good for me.

Exactly, that is is Toronto all over. I am proud of us all, even you Calvin

Incidentally if you are wondering why I disparage Thor's lit skill on first reading, it is in part because he robbed me of suspense. As soon as I knew the premise dilemma and that the hero was a renegade, individualist hero with a lot of important connections, I knew he would of course both capture the villain and rescue the heroine, although a few good people would be killed along the way.. I should not know or expect this until the very end of a new storyteller,s story.

I read Thor's novel "The Apostle" and thought it was a competent thriller with a few lame elements. But I came to it as a non=appreciator of military action scenes as I will never understand the armaments or tactics involved. I read for the overall story and the conclusion. What jolted me was reading reviews of Thor comparing him with Forsyth, LeCarre etc. There is no comparison. The thriller genre, whether psychological or action thriller or a combination, is dominated by superior novelists, and simply as a novelist Thor is not yet anywhere near superior. |He is a plotter and a storyboarder and something of a polemicist. He does have some nice kudos towards the Canadian military which are accurate and which I very much appreciate, thanks Brad and sincere congratulations on your hard work and achievements.

The Triple-R would also be a nifty Brand (consult your many graphically-talented colleagues)for when you recapture those pesky "emancipated slaves.

And Oh, your new political movement will need a name, evocative of the noble tradition but utterly up-to-date. I suggest RRR (Rational Radicals for Racism) which ought to satisfy your demographic.

.RM, As you and Dog get cosier, I see he opines that non=|Leftists whites should form a large political organization that would pursue the broad common aims while ignoring minor differences. It might save you time to remember that two such organizations already exist, although reduced in power and influence, and perhaps you are the very sparks to revive them. I refer of course to the KKK and the John Birch Society, They are fairly moribund these days but their inheritors are still around and so is their money. Good luck!

lol, that is great. You are right, even your poem is essentially a prose sentence broken up. I guess you are just doomed to good scholarship and excellent prosody.

George, your OP expressing utter contentment communicates a feeling that has often inspired poets;;" a loaf of bread, a jug of wine and thou"...and "hyacinths to feed my soul" down to "This Magic Momen": and such . Have you ever written any poetry? Most writers are guilty of it at some point in their lives.

ReasonMan, I really cannot believe you have anything to add to the Himalayas of extant explication on the "difference between Protestant and other religions." Leave it to the theologians, please.

I just heard a great story on local radio. n illegal immigrant is being back to Jamaica today after 23 years here. Her Canadian-born son , 17 in his last year of high school, is not going with her. His father "has been invisible," and cousins don't want the responsibility of lodging him. But somebody does. A local news photographer who has become friendly with the woman and her son over the years at the coffee shop where she worked, and his wife are taking him in . The photog said he had to drop out of school to support himself and he does not want that for the young man. The deportee has no relatives or friends or job prospects in Jamaica..as Arnold said, "no hope, no love, no light." But she has the comfort of knowing her son has all those things. I am sorry I did not catch the names but the "foster dad" works for the Sun so they likely got the story from there.

People are not constructed to sit up straight in chairs for long stretches. The ancient Romans did not have chiropractors I bet, because they did so much reclining on couches.

Dggl, Not only leave the doors unlocked, I leave my bedroom door wide open in this weather, and I probably scare the neighbours regularly at the sight of me lying here typing in my Lucky Leafs Sarong. (The bedroom opens onto a fire escape and faces the neighbours' wall and kitchen window. I can only see their hands and torsos at what I presume is the sink) I

I just came across these excellent verses , and I too feel that it needs one or two more stanzas - maybe showing what you get for the price you pay. Good, good work, Roger.

And you know what else? The floating abstractions of life and art light on strange places. Saunders could not possibly have known that Rand actually visited a home where she met abused children, relatives of her significant other. Yet he satirized a variation of such a meeting.