In my latest Epoch Times column I cite Canada’s swelling bureaucracy and shriveling RCMP and armed forces to illustrate that bad policy drives out good.
In my latest Loonie Politics column I berate Canadian “conservative” politicians for being as clueless about how to avoid wedge issues as they are spineless about how to approach them.
“Tyler Giles of Wellesley College, Daniel Hungerman of the University of Notre Dame, and Tamar Oostrom of The Ohio State University... noted that many measures of religious adherence began to decline in the late 1980s. They find that the large decline in religious practice was driven by the group experiencing the subsequent increases in mortality: white middle-aged Americans without a college degree. States that experienced larger declines in religious participation in the last 15 years of the 20th century saw larger increases in deaths of despair. The researchers looked at the repeal of blue laws in particular. Blue laws limited commerce, typically on Sunday mornings.... The repeal of blue laws had a 5- to 10-percentage-point impact on weekly attendance of religious services, and increased the rate of deaths of despair by 2 deaths per 100,000 people, they found — accounting for a ‘reasonably large share of the initial rise in the deaths of despair.’ What’s also interesting is that the impact seems to be driven by actual formal religious participation, rather than belief or personal activities like prayer.... They further added that they didn’t know of any cultural phenomenon that matches the mortality patterns, which are seen for both men and women, but not in other countries, and in both rural and urban settings, but mostly middle-aged, less-educated white individuals. ‘The decline in religiosity matches mortality trends in all these characteristics,’ they wrote. The authors also pushed back on the opioid theory. They said OxyContin was first introduced as a prescription drug in 1996, yet already by then deaths of despair for middle-aged white Americans were well above trend.”
MSN story from “Market Watch” January 17, 2023 [why “Market Watch” I do not know]
In my latest Epoch Times column I ponder uneasily what George Washington, or indeed Sir John A. Macdonald or the Duke of Wellington, would make of modern politics.
In my latest Epoch Times column I say we should get back to the values that made Canada great starting by celebrating them with gratitude on July 1.
“Eddie Izzard likes pink. Pink coats, pink jackets – they’re all over the website promoting his failed bid to stand as a Labour candidate at the next general election. Labour’s colour is traditionally red but pink is for girls, and Izzard has been campaigning in what he coyly calls ‘girl mode’ for months now. Alas, all his efforts came to nothing at the weekend when he was soundly beaten by a local councillor who also happens to be a woman…. while people are ready to applaud an actor and comedian who challenges gender stereotypes, they may not be so keen on a man making demands that defy the evidence of their senses. Izzard’s claim to be trans highlights the problem at the heart of self-identification, which is that it requires so little of the individual – but so much of everyone else. Izzard is a man who likes to wear women’s clothes, favouring garments that are a parody of what actual women choose to wear.... The setback to Izzard’s attempt to become a Labour MP is a heartening sign of a return to sanity. After all, being a woman involves a great deal more than wearing pink.”
Joan Smith on Unherd December 5, 2022
“Indeed, one of the real lessons of history, is that nobody ever learns them. In every age and era, too many people believe that the experiences of others can’t apply to them. Their age and place is unique and therefore exempt from experience. Two other lessons of history are these: Nothing lasts forever, and very few people notice or care that their society is in trouble until it is too late.”
John Thompson in Mackenzie Newsletter April 1998 #32
“Why would a journal [The Lancet] committed to scientific rigor & medical ethics totally ignore the good reasons people have for stigmatizing untreated mental illness?/ Find out at my Substack!”
Tweet from Michael Shellenberger October 11, 2022 [https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1579914325405622272] pointing to his piece “Dark Side of Destigmatization/ No human being should be stigmatized. But untreated mental illness and addiction are dangerous and destructive, and should be.”