Zeitgeist

You won’t get high speed rail in Canada or much new valuable boosts to energy efficient infrastructure as long as our governments continue to spend billions on fluff like equity departments, bloating the size of government with more civil servants, and dubious actions overseas.

I really enjoyed the ceremony in Ottawa. The priest who spoke had quite a moving speech. He quoted a rabbi who I guess was the former Chaplain as saying that these fallen represent the best of Canada. He referenced the importance of having our right to express our beliefs publicly. I thought he was very inspiring. There was a francophone speaker and a woman who went on about differences and inclusion. I guess she was an equity officer? Still, quite moving.

So right after declaring that trans people can be baptized, be godparents, etc., Pope Francis fires Bishop Strickland. He appears to be making an example of what happens to anyone who questions too loudly the major changes to the Catechism that Francis is making, despite many dubia (questions) from high ranking clergy. Some of these changes require quite an acrobatics of logic to follow and appear to contradict long-held Church teachings. Confusion is the general impression. Strickland is clear, loved and respected in his diocese. He was the led the protest against the sacrilegious drag nun performance at the Dodgers game. It’s very hard not to see the division and confusion in the Church right now. It’s definitely made me question whether the Pope is legitimate or good. Whatever is popular in mass media and at the UN seems to be what matters now. Non-practicing “Catholic” pro choice leaders like Biden and Trudeau are given the red carpet treatment. Practicing Catholics seem to be derided.

It’s hard to get much done federally because there are few national projects in which all provinces see the benefit. Whenever the federal government decides to create and pay for a new program, there are provinces that already have such a program. However, if greenhouse gas emissions are so important to the Feds, BC treehuggers, and Quebec language fascists, I think HSR ticks a lot of boxes. My guess is that at least a quarter of domestic flights are in that Windsor-Quebec City Corridor. How many cars make trips along this corridor? It would reduce fight and auto trips, and improve highway traffic flows. So you help hit emission reduction targets, but you also improve productivity, service trade flows, tourism, and quality of life. I live in a Toronto suburb with a VIA and GO station. I would take that train to Toronto Union and hop on a 2.5 hour train to Montreal instead of driving. I’d pay good money for it. I think it would be very popular.

There’s a business case for KW to Toronto to Montreal. Ottawa would probably be included for political reasons. The Ontario and Quebec governments were pushing for it, including a Toronto to London connection. To my mind the Feds should push through a Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal HSR and let the provinces build fast local connections to Toronto and Montreal. Alberta can afford to subsidize a Calgary-Edmonton HSR with federal and private funding. That’s all I realistically see for HSR in Canada in my lifetime. The dream for Ontarians would be to reach Detroit and Buffalo by HSR and continue onto American HSR networks. Our feds can’t even get people through airport security or issue passports, so none of this is likely to happen while anyone here is alive. High frequency rail is better than nothing, but it’s not going to get you between Montreal and Toronto in substantially less time than current trains, at least with what is in the works.

The high frequency rail line they’re building actually goes through Peterborough to Ottawa then to Montreal, I think. It’s not through Kingston, though that slow route might still be maintained. The idea is that it’s faster because it’s a separate line from freight, dedicated specifically to passengers, but to my knowledge the train sets that will run on it won’t be much faster; they’ll just slow down less because they won’t face freight traffic. The sets can be upgraded over time to be faster, but true high speed in that range of 250-400 km/hr requires replacing track that has crossings, certain degrees of bend, etc. That’s a bigger program that our provincial and federal governments always chicken out from backing. The Windsor to Quebec City Corridor always made sense for this, because Quebec and Ontario destinations are the only realistic destinations for most Ontarians and Montrealers. The East Coast is too far without at least 9 days off, unless you’re flying. The problem with the distances between Toronto and Montreal or Toronto and Ottawa is that, at a 6 and 5 hour drive respectively, these trips are hard to squeeze into a weekend. Get the train trips between Toronto and Montreal down to less than 3 hours and people will hop on the train on a Friday after work, eat in the dining car, and still have a Friday and Saturday night out before having to return home. This option would give the people of both provinces so many more recreational and business opportunities.

That’s pretty twisted. Be grateful that Israel exists as a bastion of progressivism. If Jews aren’t the First Nations of Israel, who is? Oh and before you go on with your BS anti-British rant, remember who was the first country to declare war on Hitler’s Germany.

You obviously don’t know the history of the region, so I won’t bother explaining why you’re wrong. There was never a Palestine. It was Egypt and Jordan. Israel always had Jews in it, as well as Palestinians, including the West Bank. The West Bank is actually working okay. Gaza is run by a group that wants to eliminate or remove all Jews and just mass murdered 1400 innocent civilians. You’re an irresponsible person.

A powerful article by Beri Weiss explains how the left is destroying much of what makes America a free society of opportunity. https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/end-dei-bari-weiss-jews

Who are “you people” and what makes you so special? I just see oversimplifying and equivocating in your comments. I may not be as religious as Blackbird or as literal when it comes to scripture, but these values underpin much of what is noble and just in a free society. You give a pass to terrorism and represent a worrisome trend of justifying evil.

Pure radical left garbage. Actually you’re reading from the anti-Semitic song sheet passed around universities across North America. It’s a way of reframing Canada as a settler colonial bastion of oppression instead of being one of the world’s most accepting and tolerant countries. It’s worse than exaggerating; it’s a narrative used today to justify terrorism, anti-Semitism, and extortion of people who had nothing to do with injustices of the past who happen to have been born white. It’s called discrimination on the basis of race. Who knew that it would be the left that would re-establish racism and antisemitism? I’ve learned a lot about reality these last few years.

What a load of rubbish. Canada handled Indigenous affairs better than the Americans, Australia, and probably anywhere else. No Wounded Knee massacres, no bounty hunters. The French lived among the Hurons; the Brits fought alongside the Iroquois and made Brant a Captain. No Manifest ;Destiny. The Brits tried to establish an Indian territory with Tecumseh in the Ohio Valley. The Residential School system was set up by progressives as a way to provide literacy and public education, and yes, to “civilize” Indigenous who lived under harsh conditions relative to the settlers. It had problems but all cultures warred and fought and had conquests. How do you preserve native cultures? Let me guess, through reservations, treaties, and government funding. The very ingredients of preservation are also the ingredients of oppression. The assimilation versus preservation debate remains unresolved because no one can resist or ward off human development for long. Stop pretending Indigenous are so victimized. They certainly get more freebies than any group by far. Bad shit happened to lots of people in the past, some more than others, but no one alive today caused any of it. How much does Bob’s Pakistani-Canadian wife owe buddy on the reserve? Taxpayers already pay for health, education, social services, and much infrastructure for Indigenous who don’t pay taxes, have free land, and don’t pay for university. Gimme a break. The extortion has to stop.

Where are you, Star Trek? Remember the Borg might come.

The high cost of energy without carbon taxes is already an incentive to reduce energy consumption. I’ve said it many times and it never seems to be said enough: Existing is a carbon footprint. We use energy and consume to survive and thrive. The jurisdictions that have the highest standard of living at the lowest cost and the most freedom will always be the most desirable places to live and people will always flock to them, no matter what ideological bullshit they spew in denial of this fact of human nature. Adding to the cost of living doesn’t make life better. It makes life harder. Improving the environment is good but must be affordable or it simply won’t register with taxpayers. I say taxpayers, not most university students who don’t bear the costs of their existence. Once people realize how hard it is to buy a home, start a family, and have some semblance of the American Dream, priorities change fast. Only the rich central planners, guys like Bloomberg or Gates or Carney, want to slap existence taxes on the population because they can afford them. Most MP’s are in the top one or two percent of income earners. Quite frankly they’re out of touch with what most Canadians want and need. Yeah Poilievre could do more on nuclear and I’m sure he’ll have some program ideas incentivizing green tech, but he should get Canada out of all climate agreements immediately, as we have no chance of meeting climate targets without exterminating most Canadians or at least turning the population into a feudal outdoor encampment. In fact, our emissions are increasing. Get real. The US won’t play these games. Not even Biden imposes carbon taxes. Trump or the next Republican president will get the US out of all BS net zero agreements the second he can.

Yes. I get the whole criticism of Israel: apartheid state, control of resources, etc., but Gazans elected Hamas and put Israel in a position of having to defend itself. I opposed the settlements in the West Bank, and there are radicals in the Knesset who took a hard line, but I’m not sure Israel has any choice but to be militant. It’s false to call the Indigenous of Israel, the Jews, settler colonialists. Yes Palestinians were there too. Unfortunately sharing the land doesn’t work for some people. People have to protect their families and communities. Hamas blew it. This was not the way to improve conditions for Gaza, because Hamas seeks the destruction/removal of Israel.

You’re missing the critical distinction. Israel didn’t do a surprise attack on civilians to start this. Israel’s mission is to root out Hamas, not kill innocent people.

The irony of Canada being soft on terrorism is that the terrorist-led country of Gaza doesn’t respect Canada. Canada is a country run by equity activists who are enabled by too many dim and cowardly people. Canada is down the list in the pecking order, and smaller countries are getting more pull. Project weakness and suffer the consequences. Also, Trudeau has sold out Canada. He and his activist friends have labeled Canada settler-colonialist, which undermines Canada’s stature. This is the fruit of all the identity politics fluff Canada has peddled for the past several years.

Two points: Living for free or living on a state-set universal wage with conditions attached that feel more like imprisonment and poverty than the freedom and prosperity we have today? Secondly, it’s critical that we don’t hand over decision-making to A.I., give it rights, or become slaves to algorithms that can never be fine-tuned fast enough to appreciate the uniqueness of every person in every situation. Tech is only a tool, so we should be careful what and how we automate.

They’re knowledge keepers of capitalist opportunism, using victim rhetoric and the art of persuasion (media campaigns or advertising) to accumulate property and wealth. This rhetoric will persist no matter how wealthy and privileged the Indigenous become. They will always be able to say that the government isn’t living up to the recommendations of the TRC because those recommendations, if followed, would bankrupt Canada and create a Saudi elite who are required to do nothing strictly on the basis of a racial claim to have been on the territory first. Treaties have their privileges and stories are powerful. Only very stupid, gullible people would lay down and accept such terms, but it doesn’t matter. Even if all demands are met, it will never be enough because it pays to claim victimhood rather than be a reconciled partner. Do I think many Indigenous will move on eventually from dependence? Hopefully, but maybe not. Emotional blackmail is probably eternal.

While I understand that soon most work will be automated and there will be a need to ensure that people have income, there’s great risk that the economy becomes geared to a subsistence, uniform, scaled down existence that “saves the planet,” “keeps us safe”, and neuters all character and culture in the name of not offending anyone. It’s Maoism meets technology. It means a population that’s more or less imprisoned in low carbon footprint cells where there’s no need to leave home. Throw in transhumanism wherein A.I. runs the show in terms of policing. People are stripped of sex and biological features because life becomes essentially virtual. Brains on Meta. Tech replaces humans. It’s not that UBI itself has to lead to all these dystopian conditions. It’s that the state has a tendency to socially engineer society. Even Lenin understood that at the local level people need to be free to create and exchange what they want in relation to a free market where people can buy what they want. You also need to be able to build and sell as much as you want to acquire the best items that people are capable of producing. People who have a choice will always choose the most opportunity, freedom, and prosperity they can find. Always. All ideologies crumble before the reality of human nature. It doesn’t mean we don’t need guardrails to prevent oppression, exploitation, destitution, etc. I just think people will seek the best lifestyles they can acquire for themselves and their loved ones. What are the optimal levels of taxation, social safety nets, regulations, etc.? Which jurisdictions work best for people? You won’t get much consensus but will get some. If the formula fails, people who can leave will do so.

Yes, I especially love the “ways of knowing” hocus-pocus.

It needs to be understood that the government of Canada and taxpayers will constantly be told that they don’t give enough to Indigenous. This won’t end. Reconciliation is a myth. Genocide from the Canadian government against Indigenous is also a myth, but accusations of genocide and mistreatment, bad treaties, etc. make people money. That isn’t to say Indigenous people didn’t get a raw deal sometimes and in some places. Indigenous groups also treated each other like shit at times. Northwest Coast Indigenous kept more slaves than any settlers in Canada. Europeans slaughtered each other and colonized, as did Asians and Africans. Ghengis Khan killed 40 million people. Thank God for the Western Enlightenment for constitutional democracy, the end of slavery, the creation of public education, the advancement of public health, etc. Indigenous made some contributions to this progress, but so did many other cultures, especially Greece, Judeo-Christian Mosaic law and other religious codes, British Common Law, and the French philosophes. Indigenous activists can tell their stories, but so can many others. It’s time that we heard from those making the case for Canada. Haven’t heard that in a while except from a few brave commentators constantly under threat of cancellation.

You’re right. The NDP are always a disaster because they disincentivize work and drive up debt. They keep the poor down by making it easier not to work rather than supporting the working poor. It’s a countdown to economic crisis. The Conservatives are much better for Canada. The Liberals used to be strong but basically lost their way after Chrétien. Now they’re the NDP on steroids.

I find it fascinating and powerful when the NDP and Conservatives come together on issues. It speaks to the workers’ roots of the NDP and the upward mobility opportunity aspects of the Conservatives, which are the best aspects of both parties. The NDP want special privileges for the poor and the Conservatives want to bring down economic barriers for all irrespective of class. The Liberals lose here, because they appear as cynical elitists using socialist rhetoric. It’s the realization that statist, highly interventionist approaches by government are often self-serving and create barriers to the self-determination of individuals, including at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder. The social engineering of big government gets replaced by deregulation, lower taxes, and less political ideology from on high. It would be a breath of fresh air after 8 years of government expansion and stories about how colonial, racist, and genocidal Canada is. It might actually salvage a sense of national purpose and pride. Otherwise, if the Post-National State Liberals get re-elected, I hope all power devolves to the provinces and the ridiculous country Canada has become, a shadow of its former great self, is cast into the dustbin of history along with its cartoon passports, snowflake crowns, and western alienation.

I don’t think there’s as much expertise or consensus among the “experts” as you indicate. There’s a debate about how fluid gender really is and how much people claiming non-biological genders should be affirmed and afforded rights that clash with other rights. I think for every doctor who claims that gender can be treated away with drugs and surgery, you will find many more who say it’s not that simple. Similarly on the psychological front, some will be all in on affirming how one identifies today on one end of the spectrum because it’s good to be told one is correct under any circumstance and others who say that trying to defy biological reality is psychologically damaging because it’s an unnatural, dishonest account of reality. One is free to have an opinion but there will limits to how far the biological realists can be pushed to pretend to see the world other than they see it. Making people lie and violate their beliefs isn’t going to fly in a democracy for long, nor will many competitive female athletes or modest women swallow having trans people in their change rooms or on their swim teams. You don’t get your fantasy indulged to that degree in a reasonably run society.