I was recently reading some arguments for the crown. As a Canadian republican, I believe that Canadian values would best be reflected in making Canada a democratic republic, rather than what it is, a democratic monarchy. Reading over the document I noticed a very interesting thing. Monarchists generally believe that the Queen has several important roles in our country. One of them is an embodiment of the country itself. And they believe that this is better then many of the alternatives. Consider the US Pledge of Allegiance. You pledge "to the flag of the United States of America, and ...

Iain M. Banks once wrote that "at some point a conspiracy is so powerful and far reaching that there is no point in worrying about it even if it's true." If it is true, there's nothing you can do about it. We have no shortage of conspiracy theories floating around today. From the reptilian conspiracy, the moon-landing hoax conspiracy, the 9/11 conspiracy, and so on, there are plenty. The interesting thing about conspiracy theories is that they are very much based on a lack of critical thinking. They may be critical of the official story, they may be critical of the evidence, but they ...

Some people lament Canada's supposed multicultural society, thinking that we lack culture. I don't think this is true. Canadian culture is a new thing—Canada is a new country after all. Its culture is a new type of culture. Culture used to be defined by a shared history, a shared identity, and shared set of values or beliefs. But I think that modern culture is changing, and not only in Canada. I think that the future of Canadian culture is still about values and beliefs, or, more specifically, about a shared attitude. (Thank Iain M. Banks.) An attitude of of working and living ...

Be Honest Make Good Decisions Be Responsive to Others Better Yourself This list is intentionally unordered. ...

Once someone said to me that she was disappointed that Canadian patriotism exists only in beer ads. Years later around Canada day I started taking pictures of random displays of patriotism, but stopped. Patriotism is all around. Of course, we tend to put it down after July 1st. Far from being non-existent, I think that instead the appearance of patriotism is changing. The United States is very good at the old style of patriotism. But I think there is a new style coming. A new context of looking at patriotism. Before, patriotism was about size, military, and money. I think that as ...

misogyny n. Hatred of women. misandry n. Hatred of men. misanthropy n. Hatred or mistrust of humankind. Compare to the opposite. Well, not exactly the opposite pe se: polygamy n. The condition or practice of having more than one spouse at one time. Also called plural marriage. polygyny n. The condition or practice of having more than one wife at one time. polyandry n. The condition or practice of having more than one husband at one time. polyamory n. The desire, practice, or acceptance of having more than one loving, intimate relationship at a time with the full knowledge and ...

There is one question that comes up again and again—what is the purpose of life? And it's very easy to see why this question keeps coming up. For one, we never seem to really get a satisfactory answer. Many religions have tried to come up with an answer. A path. A reason. The ancient Mesopotamians had a scripture in which Marduk, the king of the gods, created Humans to do the toiling, the work, for the gods. That's why this ancient religion had animal sacrifices to the gods. It was our job to keep them feed. If you look at the Bible, you see the same thing in the story of Adam ...