I read an article by Milvi Tiislar in The Toronto Star which was published on July 3rd 2006 and it really made a dent in my head.
We all know obesity and awful dietary choices are a problem in modern North America (I don't think we are any better than The Americans on this). The price of good food - fruits and vegetables - is much higher than sugary, starchy, fatty pre-packaged food. For most of us this just means you notice that when you look at the grocery bill. We have the choice to eat well if we spend a little more.
For very poor people, those on welfare for example, money is so tight that every penny has to be accounted for so you need to buy the cheapest food you can to can fill stomachs. This means that fresh fruit is just too damned expensive to even be considered.
In another article in The Star, way back in 1995, Thomas Walkom, who had the Queens Park beat then, hit the Mike Harris nail on the head: The problem was that poor people had too much money and rich people did not have enough money - this was not only wrong it was in fact "common sense" that we reverse that trend.
Well this is what we got folks - obesity and borderline malnutrition in poor people because they have no choice and obesity and poor nutrition in the rich who have all of the choices.
The rich can afford liposuction.
What helps you when your child has "rickets" ??
TF
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Monday, July 03, 2006
Religion, in and of itself, is not a bad thing
Sir, I am a Catholic - I can feel guilty about anything
- Ben Stone
You may conclude, by reading some of these entries, that I think religion is stupid or evil or causes cancer in lab rats. I need to explain where I am coming from because I don't think any of those things.
When I take issue with people who hide behind religion, it is not the religion that I think is the problem - it is stupidity USING religion to make stupid things sound like they make sense. You can be a Muslim without flying planes into buildings, You can be a Jew and not be killing Arabs and you can be a Christian without beating Homosexuals to death.
I have a problem with stupid people in all walks of life.
Most Jews, Christians and Muslims are not out to hurt anybody: same as most Athiests.
I was born and raised a Catholic and attended Catholic school until grade 8. As a post Vatican II Catholic, I was taught not by sadistic nuns, but by Hippies who told us to be excellent to each other. Catholicism has many aspects to it and one of the aspects is that you question everything, including your religion and faith. Today you should want to be a Catholic knowing what it is you are getitng into.
Without Catholicism I would not be the person I am today. The education I received was far superior, in the 1970s, to that which was available in the public school system. Yes as "doubting Thomas" I was given an apt name!!
Anyway here are some straw man questions that I will attempt to answer:
1. Relgion and Science are incompatible, and you have to choose one or the other.
No way - people down South try and make people think this, but there are some people, even scientists, who not only say they keep their faith even though they teach evolution, they in fact see in evolution convincing evidence of God's existence. I just don't think creationism is a worthy theory to be taught in science class (Actually, this is also the Vatican's position on this). A Jesuit priest, Georges LeMaitre, created the Big Bang Theory. Copernicus - who changed our views that the Earth revolves around the sun and not vice versa as we thought before that, had his work commissioned BY the chruch.
2. You can't be gay and be religous.
Nonsense. The Bible tells you how to sell your daughter into slavery. If we can set aside that as a canon belief so too can we stop saying gays are evil people. A commentator on TV once put it this way: There are a few scattered lines about homosexuality in the bible - the fight against poverty is mentioned over 4,000 times - which is the piority?????
3. You can't be religous and accept homosexuality.
Nope - next question. You can totally suck and still claim to be religous.
I think you see my point.
If I wanted to go back to being a Catholic, I could pretty much be the same skeptical person as I am - I'd never make Pope, but I would not have to change more than 3 or 4 of my opionions.
Some of history's best science, art and music were created by very religous people. I not only recognize this, but see religion as woven into the fabric of history. Maybe one day American bible-thumpers will see that homosexuals too have created some of history's best art, music and science and that it too is woven into the fabric of human existence.
TF
- Ben Stone
You may conclude, by reading some of these entries, that I think religion is stupid or evil or causes cancer in lab rats. I need to explain where I am coming from because I don't think any of those things.
When I take issue with people who hide behind religion, it is not the religion that I think is the problem - it is stupidity USING religion to make stupid things sound like they make sense. You can be a Muslim without flying planes into buildings, You can be a Jew and not be killing Arabs and you can be a Christian without beating Homosexuals to death.
I have a problem with stupid people in all walks of life.
Most Jews, Christians and Muslims are not out to hurt anybody: same as most Athiests.
I was born and raised a Catholic and attended Catholic school until grade 8. As a post Vatican II Catholic, I was taught not by sadistic nuns, but by Hippies who told us to be excellent to each other. Catholicism has many aspects to it and one of the aspects is that you question everything, including your religion and faith. Today you should want to be a Catholic knowing what it is you are getitng into.
Without Catholicism I would not be the person I am today. The education I received was far superior, in the 1970s, to that which was available in the public school system. Yes as "doubting Thomas" I was given an apt name!!
Anyway here are some straw man questions that I will attempt to answer:
1. Relgion and Science are incompatible, and you have to choose one or the other.
No way - people down South try and make people think this, but there are some people, even scientists, who not only say they keep their faith even though they teach evolution, they in fact see in evolution convincing evidence of God's existence. I just don't think creationism is a worthy theory to be taught in science class (Actually, this is also the Vatican's position on this). A Jesuit priest, Georges LeMaitre, created the Big Bang Theory. Copernicus - who changed our views that the Earth revolves around the sun and not vice versa as we thought before that, had his work commissioned BY the chruch.
2. You can't be gay and be religous.
Nonsense. The Bible tells you how to sell your daughter into slavery. If we can set aside that as a canon belief so too can we stop saying gays are evil people. A commentator on TV once put it this way: There are a few scattered lines about homosexuality in the bible - the fight against poverty is mentioned over 4,000 times - which is the piority?????
3. You can't be religous and accept homosexuality.
Nope - next question. You can totally suck and still claim to be religous.
I think you see my point.
If I wanted to go back to being a Catholic, I could pretty much be the same skeptical person as I am - I'd never make Pope, but I would not have to change more than 3 or 4 of my opionions.
Some of history's best science, art and music were created by very religous people. I not only recognize this, but see religion as woven into the fabric of history. Maybe one day American bible-thumpers will see that homosexuals too have created some of history's best art, music and science and that it too is woven into the fabric of human existence.
TF
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