So I was working in my local public library the other day – well, trying to work. I was distracted by the kid on the computer next to me who was playing a computer game. My first point. Is it appropriate for kids to be allowed to play computer games on the computers in public …
Category: uncategorized
Jul 27 2011
The Illegality of Assisted Suicide
Let’s say assisted suicide is illegal because it’s often a tragic, premature, perhaps even ill-informed, death. But so is unassisted suicide. And there are alternatives to assisted suicide – better pain management, for example, or counselling. Same goes for unassisted suicide. Assisted suicide violates our social values, our respect for life. Yeah, well. And yet …
Jul 01 2011
An Open Letter to Summer People Everywhere
This is not “a recreational paradise” or “a summer playground”. This is our neighbourhood. Those labels are marketing ploys used by real estate agents and business owners eager to make money on sales. They do not speak for us. We live here; they do not. Many of us have lived here for five, ten, twenty …
May 15 2011
Politics in Government: The Problem with Representation
Long ago and far away, I was one of several high school students to participate in a Federal-Provincial Government Simulation. Each of us took on the role of a provincial or federal minister and met for three days of plenary sessions, committee meetings, and caucuses. I was the federal Minister of State for Science and …
May 02 2011
Baby Androids
It finally dawned on me after reading one too many ‘failed android’ stories. I can’t remember whether it was sci-fi or AI, but suddenly I saw the problem: they always try to create an adult without a childhood. If it weren’t for Mary Shelley, I’d be tempted to put the blame on our sexist society: …
Apr 29 2011
Fiscal Conscription
It’s income tax time. Do you know where 9.2% of your taxes will go? Well, let’s just say that you bought the bullets. (Out out damned spot, you say?) Then again, $2500 (if your taxable income is about $25,000) might buy more than a few bullets. Maybe you can pay for a whole box of …
Apr 04 2011
Property Tax
Property tax (money one must pay to the government based on the land, and the building/s on the land, that one owns) is odd in that unlike sales tax (money one must pay to the government based on the goods and services one purchases), it is payable every year, not just once when you buy …
Mar 25 2011
Income Tax Deductions
In Canada, if one agrees to pay someone else’s way in life, one gets to pay $7,500 less in income tax. I’m referring, of course, to the spousal deduction. If one decides to make some people and pay their way, one gets to pay $7,500 less per person in income tax. The deduction for kids. …
Mar 14 2011
Who Owns the Water?
I am intrigued by struggles over ownership of water – not so much the issue of whether or not Canada should sell its lakes, but whether or not they are Canada’s to sell. Similar struggles arise in our international deliberations over blame for air quality. What intrigues me is not that we are struggling with …
Mar 07 2011
How many specialists does it take to change a lightbulb?
Every now and then, perhaps with Hegelian predictability, there is a swing in academia toward the holistic approach, toward systems theory, if you will. In this anti-atomistic, anti-reductionist view, the essence is the process, not the structure; what’s important is not so much the thing, but the relationship between the thing and other things. I …
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