It's Easy To Pierce Thin Skins

Not to mention, it also looks like fun. To quote Mr. T: I pity the fool! (But not really.)

Mrs. F

@ms_frazzled

Your tan looks so good up there, friend! Let’s go play something else for a while. #TrumpAnnouncement

Adam Parkhomenko

@AdamParkhomenko

Our Inability to Behave Humanely Or Reasonably

 

H/t Moudakis

Many years ago, I would periodically buy The National Lampoon, the era's  pre-eminent journal of satire. One of its covers has always remained in memory:

Presumably a spoof on the tendency of fund-raising organizations to use emotional ploys to encourage donations, it was also a devastatingly effective reminder of how emotion often strongly affects our decision-making, both for good and ill.

Years of observation and experience suggest to me that the role of emotion or reason in positive decision-making has passed. The only problem is that here in Ontario, our Chief Medical Officer of Health, Kieran Moore, has not gotten the memo.

In his press briefing yesterday, the good doctor appeared to take two tacks: an appeal to reason, based on the rising number of pediatric cases overwhelming hospitals, and an appeal to emotion, as he urged all of us to mask up "for the kids". Indeed, if one cares to look, one can readily find pictures and videos of kids struggling to breathe.

But will that be effective? In his column today, Edward Keenan suggests it will not, arguing that while Canadians are a rule-following people, they are less amenable to suggestions, even when strongly argued:

... in the past, I’ve found myself ignoring warning signs and wandering dangerously close to the edge of the Scarborough Bluffs and then, suddenly realizing I might fall off a cliff, wondering why there wasn’t a high fence to force people to stay away. Maybe a clear warning and an obvious danger — a sheer cliff drop-off, masses of hospitalized children — aren’t warning enough for us, because we’re somehow conditioned to think if something is really important, we won’t be given a choice.

Conducting a social experiment, Keenan donned a mask and went into the Toronto subway system.

In my subway cars, I counted about a quarter to a third of people wearing masks. In the Eaton Centre around lunch time, the number of people masked was more like 15 per cent. Inside City Hall, my observation was closer to 5-10 per cent of people masked.

Most of us say we’d wear a mask if officials say we have to, and a majority of us even say we think they should tell us we have to. But man, it appears most of us won’t do it unless we have to.

What seems reasonable to me is that mask wearing is a measure most of us could easily toggle on and off as needed to head off more severe measures and more severe consequences. What also seems reasonable to me is that if top doctors and public health officials are begging me to consider wearing one because hospitals are getting overwhelmed, then maybe that ought to be persuasive.

The goal, here, obviously, is for as many of us as possible to make it happy and healthy and alive to a time when there’s no real reason to wear masks when we go out. Maybe at some later point, it will make sense to wear masks again, for a while, to again ensure more of us can survive and thrive. Is that too big a burden to accept? And do we need a law to force us to co-operate every time?

Keenan uses reason and reasonable several times in the above. However, as we have seen in the past few years, so many seem to have abandoned that faculty, instead embracing negative emotional reactions to the problems confronting us, up to and including our present medical crises.

Do the right thing, urges Dr. Moore. Are enough of us even capable of that anymore?

Time For Some Truth

 

In Doug Ford's Ontario, the answer is, "Plenty of people." 

Yesterday I attended a rally to protest the provincial government's plans to override local democracy and extend urban boundaries into the valuable Greenbelt and farmlands (a.k.a The Doug Ford Discharging His Debt To Developers Act). By the robust turnout, it was clear that the premier is fooling few with his claim that such is needed to create affordable housing. Indeed, affordable housing today is something of an oxymoron, isn't it?

While much more needs to be said, an unanticipated visit to the dentist this morning forces me to keep this post brief. Just who are these developers? Clicking on this CBC link affords some answers, as will this one to the Hamilton Spectator. Draw your own conclusions.

As well, these letters from readers show that Ford's veneer of concern and rectitude is quite thin:

Ontario backtracks on Greenbelt pledge with plan to allow housing on 7,400 acres, Nov. 4

It’s no wonder people don’t vote. Why bother, when too often it seems that promises made aren’t promises kept.

Why pay attention to a politician’s platform when we suspect it is nothing but lies in order to get votes? Premier Doug Ford said he wouldn’t touch Ontario’s Greenbelt, and many believed him. I would wager there isn’t a single person in this province who doesn’t believe that his housing plan is simply a way to appease his developer buddies. We all know, there is no need to carve portions out of the Greenbelt for the building of homes. In his usual way, Ford acts without thinking things through, ignoring the experts and public opinion.

Bob Coupland, Oakville

Greenbelt is for nature, not housing, Nov. 9

After reading the above editorial and realizing Ontario’s own housing affordability task force found there was no need to intrude on our Greenbelt for new housing, I now understand what Premier Doug Ford is up to.

The only reason he wants the Greenbelt properties is to appease his developer buddies who have bought up lands in anticipation of Ford’s takeover of huge sections for them to build on. This would destroy precious watersheds, wetlands, farmlands and animal habitats which should be preserved in perpetuity. Discussions are going on right now to determine the fate of the Greenbelt, and the answer to its destruction should be an emphatic NO.

Jane White, Scarborough 

It has been said that sunlight is one of the best disinfectants. Clearly, there is the need for some heavy-duty sanitization of the Doug Ford regime.

The Biggest Danger To America Today?

Single women. That's right, single women. According to Jesse Watters, the only way to combat such an insidious threat is for those ladies to get married, where, presumably, they will fall into line with the natural (or God-ordained) hierarchy.

'We need these ladies to get married' — Fox News' Jesse Watters is BIG MAD that single women made waves voting for Democrats during the midterms.

Or, put another way, there's this:

Strange Times Indeed

Having taught for 30 years, I had my fair share of classroom experiences, both good and bad, as is the norm in a long career. Fortunately, most of the students I interacted with over those years were good and earnest, eager enough to benefit from educational opportunities as they anticipated their futures. 

Invariably, however, there were those classes that housed one or two students whose purpose for attendance was somewhat opaque; clearly, educational achievement was not their priority; disruption took precedence, resulting in severe compromise to the atmosphere and quality of learning. They were, to use the colloquialism, bad apples.

Similarly, today one is confronted with many examples of the minority trying to dictate the terms under which society operates. The 'Freedom' Convoy against Covid masking and restrictions readily comes to mind, its participants so passionate about protecting our freedoms that they held Ottawa hostage for three weeks. Perhaps their boundless energy came from the fact that they had been marshaling their reserves for just that moment, their prior efforts in fighting for freedom apparently non-existent. No doubt, they believed themselves agents of history.

Although the Ottawa occupation is long over, the disordered thinking that led to it is not. Consider, for example, the question of returning to mask mandates. The evidence is compelling that such a mandate is needed. Children's hospitals are being overwhelmed, and the all the signs point to a complete collapse as the flu and RSV cases mount, this in addition to the ongoing Covid cases our medical facilities have to contend with.

Despite all of the evidence supporting the use of masks to limit the spread of disease, no public official expresses any willingness to reintroduce mandates. Indeed, that reluctance flies in the face of polling results indicating that the majority of Canadians would support a return to mandates.

The poll conducted for CTV News found seven in 10 Canadians said they would support the return of face masks mandates to some extent. Fifty-two per cent said they would support the return of such mandates, 17 per cent said they would "somewhat support" them, while 22 per cent would be against them. Eight per cent would be "somewhat" opposed to the idea.

Here in Ontario, such a result does not sway Dr. Kieran Moore, our mislabelled chief medical officer of health, nor his political master, the often-hapless premier, Doug Ford.

Premier Doug Ford said Wednesday that Ontarians are welcome to wear masks, but there is no recommendation for widespread mandatory masking at this time from Dr. Kieran Moore, the chief medical officer of health.

 Moore told the Star in a recent interview that he is “strongly recommending” those at risk of severe illness from the three viruses to mask indoors but says he is reluctant to install a mandate.

 Instead, he wants people to remember the “basic layers of protection” of staying home when sick, masking in indoor settings, wearing a mask while recovering from a respiratory illness. and good hand hygiene.

Once again, our overlords seem quite willing to cede to the wishes of the minority. In my classroom days, I, too, tried to reason with the disruptive elements I faced, with predictable lack of results. The stakes, a positive classroom environment in which learning took precedence over disruption by the minority, were high enough then, but they are so much higher now.

People's lives are at stake, but those whose job it is to protect all of us quail before the minority. That is not leadership. That is capitulation.

Readers React

I'm on a bit of a tight schedule today, so I cede to newspaper letter-writers their thoughts on Doug Ford's tactics and values before his province-wide blink yesterday.

Premier Ford’s decision to withdraw Bill 28, and go back to the bargaining table shows the kind of things that can happen when you stand up to a bully.

Joe Virio, Bowmanville, Ont.

 “I pity that man who wants a coat so cheap that the man or woman who produces the cloth shall starve in the process.” This quotation, by former U.S. president Benjamin Harrison, was posted on the wall of the union office where I once worked.

It makes me wonder: how cheap does the Ford government want to make our educational system?

Trampling the rights of the lowest paid is not only deplorable, but devastating to our society.

Who wants to live, work and do business in a province that disrespects and under values its education and health care professionals?

Ontarians want and deserve better.

Paul Templin, Newmarket, Ont.

SHARE:

 Nobody loves a bully.

The development lobby gets approval to build Highway 413, at a cost of $8.2 billion amid disagreement about its utility.

More than $1 billion a year in annual licence fees is given away as an election goody.

Ongoing green energy projects were scrapped mid-development at a cost of $230 million, amid a growing climate-crisis. The lowest paid education workers (70 per cent women), earning less than $40,000 a year, get offered a salary increase of 1.5 per cent, or, in some cases, 2.5 per cent..

Any trained nurse (more than 90 per cent women), with a salary capped at one per cent, could have easily and far more effectively triaged these competing priorities, so that the educational chaos spread across the Star’s recent front pages could have been avoided.

Paul Visschedyk, Burlington, Ont.

 

UPDATED: Breaking: Doug Ford's News Conference In Which His Credibility Further Erodes

I just watched Doug Ford's news conference, prompted no doubt by the fury people feel in Ontario over his government's heavy-handed use of the Notwithstanding Clause to try to break CUPE's strike. Replete with inaccuracies and lies, Ford tried to present a conciliatory tone, but hyperbole such as the province facing bankruptcy if they cede to CUPE's demands undermined that tone. One does not easily forget, for example, the surrendering of over $1 billion in licence and toll fees and other measures to deplete the treasury.

Apparently, people are starting to wake up.

Here is Sid Seixiero's take on the debacle:

WATCH:

@sid_seixeiro

shares his thoughts on Premier Ford's announcement that the province is willing to rescind Bill 28 if CUPE agrees to show similar "gesture of good faith" - by ending the walkout and getting kids back to school.

UPDATE: CUPE will end the strike upon the Ford government's written promise to rescind Bill 28.

And Theo for the win:

Upon Awakening

It would be nice to think that the slumbering masses have awakened to a new understanding of government and its relationship to the people, but I abandoned magical thinking a long time ago. Nonetheless, occasionally our overlords overplay their hand, and people do get a glimpse behind the curtain.

Such seems to be happening in Ontario, now in the midst of an education labour disruption that could have been so easily avoided, had our rulers not been consumed with their own arrogance.

A new Abacus poll reveals some interesting statistics:

... 62 per cent of respondents blame the provincial government for schools closing after thousands of education workers, including education assistants, custodians and librarians, walked off the job Friday. Meanwhile, 38 per cent point the finger at the workers.

Sixty-eight per cent of parents of school-aged children believe the Ford government bears the most responsibility, the survey found, while 71 per cent of respondents want the province to negotiate a "fair deal" with education workers, rather than continue with its current strategy.

Laura Walton, president of CUPE's Ontario School Boards' Council of Unions, said the results of the poll show Ontarians support the education workers in their job action.

"This poll confirms what we already knew: that the majority of people support education workers, that they see through the Ford government's lies about working for workers and students, that they know $39,000 isn't enough, and that they believe workers' rights to freely bargain and strike if necessary must always be protected," Walton said in a statement.

"Seven out of 10 Ontarians want the government to negotiate a fair deal. That starts with repealing Bill 28, an unjust law which Ontarians know is like giving a schoolyard bully a sledgehammer."

Meanwhile, both sides are now appearing before the Ontario Labour Relations Board, the government seeking a declaration of an illegal strike, CUPE arguing against that designation. Perhaps the desperation of the Ford cabal is reflected in the chief argument of its legal brainstrust:

Ferina Murji said strikes are prohibited in the midst of any contract, not just one that was ratified by union membership.

"A collective agreement is a collective agreement is a collective agreement," she said.

If one believed in the power of pithy sayings, one might be able to sum up the current imbroglio this way:

The Ford 'Progressive' Conservative government: not here for you. 

 

 

 

 

Finally, Some Passion!

Watching the American news this week in the leadup to their mid-terms, I was struck by the dichotomy between Democratic leaders and candidates and their Republican counterparts. On the one hand, you have people like Joe Biden and Barrack Obama trying to appeal to reason in their stumping, and on the other hand you have the Republicans blowing loudly and incessantly into their dog whistles (Crime! Immigration! Inflation!!!), appealing to the prejudices and passions of their people. 

It is two polarities appealing to two different planets. Platonic ideals are not exactly vehicles of galvanization.

Fortunately, Politics Girl has the antidote: some 'reasoned passion'. Be advised, however, that her language in this video may not be to everyone's taste.

Stop saying the Democrats are going to lose. It’s lazy, defeatist bullshit not at all based in truth.

UPDATED: Brittlestar Understands

 ... what the Ford government is either too arrogant or too stupid to get:

H/t Brittlestar

I imagine only those who favour government by a cadre of contemptible clowns are content right now.

UPDATE: Here's another expression of disdain for our diminished-capacity politicos:

"I'm angry."

@sid_seixeiro shares his thoughts as thousands of CUPE education workers prepare to walk off the job today.

Mr. Musk Unmasked

Once more, Unlearn16 reveals something important, and her observations I could not disagree with. Yesterday, she pierced the facade perpetrated by the Ford government about the soon-to-be striking school support staff in Ontario. This time, she turns her laser-focus on Elon Musk and his purchase of Twitter. 

Well-worth the three-minute listen.

 

The Simple Amongst Us.

The older I get, the less satisfied I am with life. Probably because I have a lifetime of context, events bother me a lot more now than they did earlier in my life. Indeed, my bleaker moments see me almost envying the simple-minded who view the world through a bifurcated lens: black is black, and white is white.

Those with life experience and a functioning brain know that things are almost never binary. Yet, to believe the idealogues amongst us, things really are that simple, even if they have to disguise that conviction, as, for example, governments are wont to do.

Take the Doug Ford 'Progressive' Conservative government in Ontario. Quite willing to use the notwithstanding clause to abrogate education workers bargaining rights, they are prepared, as of this Friday, to impose a four-year contract that offers wage increases well below the rate of inflation and amounts to a massive slap in the face of those who dare assert their rights under our Constitution.

The Progressive Conservative government's final offer was a 2.5 per cent annual raise to workers making less than $43,000, and 1.5 per cent for those earning more, either of which would mean a raise of about $1,000 per year.

One can rightly ask why these and other essential workers (nurses come readily to mind) are being treated with such disdain. My thought, for what it's worth, is that this government consists of rabid ideologues (a form of simple-mindedness, to be sure) who see the world through a specific and very narrow lens: public sector (and its attendant costs) bad: private sector good. 

One very small example of this is the $200-$250 per child the government is giving to Ontario students for tutoring, books or computer programs to help students catch up after the learning disruptions imposed by Covid. Such a gimmicky and populist ploy does little good, but it is money, of course, that will be directed to the private sector should parents choose to use it for its stated purpose. 

One wonders how those many millions of dollars could have been better used were they directed toward schools and education workers to pay the latter a living wage. But remember: public sector bad; private sector good.

I leave you with another suggestion made by Unlearn16: deem those working in education essential workers:

UPDATED: Just Wondering

I've got a busy day ahead of me, but I do have a question: Now that Team Ford in Ontario has brought down the notwithstanding clause hammer to thousands of education workers seeking relief from low wages, thereby making a mockery of collective bargaining rights, do you regret not voting in the last provincial election? And if you did vote for Ford, are you sorry now?

Or should we all just go back to sleep?

UPDATE: This is the latest from Moudakis:

It's All So Simple

 ... if you are a devotee of Fox News and its ilk.

I talked to this lady who says drugs will be handed out tonight for Halloween by “illegals” because she saw it on an “episode” of Fox News. Happy Halloween and stay safe out there.

H/t Davram

Cool And Rational

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day, and I suggested to him that people like us (we who strive to be rational, critical thinkers) are an endangered species and becoming largely irrelevant in the world today.

It is good to know, however, that there are passionate and articulate people who refuse to go down without a magnificent fight. Politics Girl, an American voice of sanity, is one of those people. And, by the way, her observations are relevant to our country as well, especially given that many simple-minded people blame #justinflation for all of our economic woes.

Just Because I'm In A Mood

Make of the following what you will. If you view it, be sure to watch right to the end. 

H/t Annie

About Canada's Much-Vaunted Reputation On Human Rights

Despite our politicians' proud proclamations, there is actually much less to them than meets the eye:

From The Land Of Make Believe

That would be Ontario, though I suppose, in truth, it is far more widespread: a rising number of deaths from Covid (this week was the worst since last May, despite three days missing from the weekly data) in the province. Nevertheless, our political overlords and their minions continue to do little to dispel the delusion that the pandemic is over. 

That, presumably, would be bad for business.

True, Ontario's medical officer of health, Kieran Moore, has made some mewling sounds about mask-wearing and booster shots, chiding us for the low rate of -fourth-booster uptake among those 70 and up (a mere 16% , which he deemed "not acceptable"). Yet he seems strangely reluctant to really address the issue:

While a return to mandatory masking is not yet being recommended, Moore called on people to consider [italics mine] wearing masks indoors as cases rise and said he would not hesitate to recommend a stronger measure if necessary.

“If there is any significant impact on our health system where we can’t care for Ontarians appropriately, I will absolutely have the conversation with government (around) whether we have to mandate masking for a set period of time,” Moore told Global News.

Huh? Hasn't he heard about the current crises of overcapacity and staff burnout in our hospitals?

Perhaps his pusillanimous response is the inevitable outcome of working for the Ford government. The message seems to be: normalcy no matter what the cost. 

And the cost could be substantial. New immunity-evading variants are of growing concern.

The increasing concern around these emerging variants has earned them unofficial Twitter hashtags that spare users from constantly typing awkward combinations of letters and numbers. BQ.1.1 is known as #Cerberus; its parent BQ.1 is known as #Typhon; BA.2.75.2 is being called #Chiron; and XBB has earned the moniker #Gryphon.

Whether or not these new immune-evading variants will lead to worse health outcomes than previous variants is the key question.

Dr. Peter Juni, former head of the Ontario Science Table, says thanks to vaccines and previous infection, the new kids on the block may not be as deadly as previous iterations. However, he admits of the possibility

that a variant that is both very good at evading the immune system — and also more virulent than existing strains — could one day arise. 

Of course, the chances of new and deadlier variants increase with each new infection. Undeniably, vaccines are of tremendous importance in preventing serious illness and death, but so is masking. While neither confers absolute protection, statistics show significant reductions in infections and thus significant reductions in the chance for endless mutations to arise when both are embraced.

So why the increasing stigma and public repudiation of masking? I suppose some see the mask as a very visible constraint on what they regard as their freedom, binary thinking being very popular amongst the simple-minded. And, of course, as alluded to earlier, government sees it as a reminder that the pandemic isn't over, and that is surely viewed as an impediment to the economic imperatives that drive government.

It has been said that we get the government we deserve. Perhaps that observation needs to be updated to include the diseases that can decimate us.

Meanwhile, On The Other Side Of The Pond

One can either be appalled by the clown show that is now British politics, or one can cultivate and embrace a wry sense of humour.

M.G. Duggan chooses the latter:

A new door has been fitted at number ten.

Seems About Right For The Times We Live In

 

The Next President?

Many think the swamp in Florida will yield up one of its fondest denizens, Gov. Ron DeSantis, as a contender for the GOP presidential nomination. The following reveals much about the heart of darkness that defines him:

Meanwhile, In The Land Of The Looney

Danielle Smith cultivates her tribe.

H/t de Adder

However, those inoculated against her lunacy beg to differ.

Anti-vaxxers are wilfully ignorant and uncaring about their responsibilities in society. To my mind, for Danielle Smith to say they are being discriminated against is akin to saying that incarcerating crooks is discrimination against the criminal class. Before discounting this comment, consider the thousands of people that failed, through no fault of their own, to get timely medical care because hospitals were unnecessarily challenged by unvaccinated, COVID-19 patients!

As of February 2022, over 900,000 people had died of COVID in the U.S. If the Canadian program had been in place, with 91 deaths per 100,000 people, the U.S. would have seen 600,000 fewer people die. This was because of Donald Trump rhetoric, like that of Smith.

These are irresponsible statements from a main-stream politician. Is Smith really this ignorant or dismissive of medical science? Or is this an attempt to garner votes?

Tom McElroy, Professor Emeritus, York University

The unvaccinated are the most discriminated against group Danielle Smith has ever seen? How does someone with so little lived experience ever get elected? A quick search for “Amnesty International” will show that unvaccinated are among the world’s most privileged and pampered victims ever.

Paul Collier, Toronto

As with Covid-19, one wonders when this pandemic of demagoguery, ignorance and manipulation will end.

Perhaps This Is Part Of The Answer

My wife, who is far from being the cynic of the family (that would be me), often concludes that humanity is a failed experiment. It is not an assessment with which I disagree.

I often find myself pondering why and how we have reached our current perilous, likely terminal, state. While there are many obvious factors, perhaps one of the biggest is that there are far too many people today. Beyond the physical pressures that our population puts on our planet, there is a breakdown of any sense of community with the larger world. Perhaps in earlier times, hunters and gatherers found it much easier to feel a kinship and responsibility for each other. Even today, we behave toward our immediate community, family and friends, far differently than we do with those with whom we have no immediate connection.

And with that loss of connection comes increasingly selfish behaviour, and self-regard often becomes our default position. If Covid has taught us nothing else, it is that large numbers put their personal freedom and comfort over the safety of others. Hence the outrage over mask mandates, vaccinations, etc. The same, I suspect, is reflected in our attitudes toward climate-change mitigation. While some can see the larger picture, others can only see the cost of gas, carbon taxes, etc. that elicit reflexive, often violent, reactions.

There is a letter in today's Star that got me thinking about the above. It expresses a perspective that succinctly puts all of us in our place.

Microbes may have swarmed Mars, Oct. 11

So French scientists have concluded that Mars may have harboured an underground world teeming with microscopic organisms …. Sadly, they say, these microbes may have themselves altered the atmosphere and triggered a Martian ice age, leading to their demise. These French scientists have further concluded that simple life like microbes might actually commonly cause their own demise.

I look at what is going on in our world today: climate change caused by humans; senseless destruction caused by the Putins of the world; the toxic environment created by politicians like Trump, Poilievre, Smith et al.

My non-scientific conclusion is that humans are no smarter than single-celled microscopic organisms.

 Patrick Stewart, Toronto

A Lioness Roars

I wonder how many millions of people Nancy Pelosi represents here. No doubt, however, the right will denounce her for her threats of violence against their 'man'.

“I hope he comes, I’m going to punch him out ... I’m going to punch him out, I’m going to go to jail, and I’m going to be happy.” — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s just-revealed response to the prospect of former President Trump potentially marching to the Capitol on January 6th.

Some Teachable Moments

I originally found the following on Twitter. You will see that the first speaker is earnest and forthright in his defence of diversity, The look on some of the audience members tells it all.

The second speaker is doing a sendup of those who would have students hew to a very narrow line of instruction, reading and discussion. Reading some of the comments that followed on Twitter, it is clear that many did not realize what he was doing.

I'm sure you will.

I trolled the school board meeting at Connetquot after they had a teacher remove the Progress Pride flag.

H/t Walter Masterson

We Need To Talk About PP

 

You have probably heard all about PP courting the incels, a profoundly misogynistic conglomeration of sad sacks who hate women because they can't seem to forge a relationship with them. The following is a video I found on Twitter that examines the type of people the would-be PM courts.

“Pierre Pollivere has been caught using a hashtag specifically designed to target anti feminist and hate groups…..”