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.