One year!

Well, I'm extremely proud to say that I've been a low-carber for one year today. Thank you, thank you.

In this time period, I've lost 40 pounds, 4 inches of waist-line, and a 22 year old curse of chubbiness. Breaking this curse is by far my greatest accomplishment. Losing the weight was easy. Just stick to the plan and stay motivated by the moving scale.

Staying at my new ideal weight is the real deal, as the early excitement has waned and temptations to sway from healthy eating are numerous. But so far I'm hanging in there, helped by the variety and rich taste of natural, healthy, low-carb food.

Cheers to the next year, which will, I'm sure, be as rewarding and pleasurable as the last one has been.

Thoughts on Virginia Tragedy

Not mine though, but Pierre Lemieux's, can be found here. This great article summarizes the issue quite well, and brings a refreshing point of view on the misplaced gun control debate. Extract :

In Blacksburg today, the tragic spectacle of tens, if not hundreds, of heavily armed policemen, with at least one armoured vehicle, all powerless to prevent a single gunman from killing and maiming more than 30 people reminds us of a dire fact: it is impossible to be totally protected against madmen, except by turning society into a convent or a jail.


One question needs to be asked, though. What if a student or a professor had been armed today at Virginia Tech? This possibility was very remote since guns are illegal on the Virginia Tech campus, and non-criminals usually try not to become criminals. At Dawson, what if the security guard who, we are told, helped some students flee and was not far from the killer had been armed? In all these tragic events, how many students wished, before dying, that they had a gun?


Those who call for increased gun controls should ask themselves whether their motives are rational or emotional. If they're rational, then the answer is simple : just think about it real hard for a couple of hours and you should deliver yourself from these fallacies.

If it's emotional (and I suspect it is for the vast majority), then simply read over again, and again, the last sentence from the previous extract. I'll restate it here, just in case :

In all these tragic events, how many students wished, before dying, that they had a gun?

I think this says it all.

Alberta in serious need of socialism

This is the province's new Premier, Ed Stelmach's, opinion.

There is a price to prosperity, a substantial price, as you will see, Stelmach said in a speech...

Stelmach said the province is dealing with double-digit growth hikes virtually across the board, leading to job and housing shortages and concerns about quality of life.

We need stable funding for municipalities, for capital projects, and we need to provide for the maintenance of public infrastructure," he said

He noted the province has committed $400 million for water and sewage treatment and affordable housing in Fort McMurray, the centre of Alberta's thundering oilsands economy


Here we go again with the unsustainable growth nonsense. The 2 main reasons why growth may be unsustainable are :
1. a bubble created mainly by inflation and;
2. not letting the market adjust on its own to changing economic conditions.

Clearly, Alberta's growth is more genuine than a mere paper bubble. What's threatening its development are the rigidity of the public infrastructures and of regulation. Even this second point about too much regulation is conceded by the Premier :

A deal will mean less red tape for Alberta business, and faster entry for the workers we need.

Stelmach said they continue to press for recognition of overseas credentials to fill job vacancies.


Why then can't he recognize the first point about rigid infrastructures that do not respond to price incentives? Why is his miracle solution to reduce Alberta's formidable economic growth to the detriment of everybody?

The solution to socialism is simply not more socialism. Sorry Eddy.

Global warming alarmists as big a threat as communism

I'm no fan of voting or democracy itself. Politicians are usually nothing more than ambitious individuals willing to promise the majority to do all kinds of bad things to unpopular minorities to be/stay in power.

Vaclav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic, is, until proven otherwise, probably of the same breed as all the others. However, one one topic at least, we share the same opinions. And this topic happens to be critical as well as pervasive in today's "environment" : global warming and its causes and solutions.

Mr. Klaus, described as a "right-wing president, a free-market champion" in an Reuters article today, has this to say on climate change :

Communism has been replaced by the threat of an ambitious environmentalism.

They (developing countries) will not be able to absorb new technological standards required by the anti-greenhouse religion, their products will have difficulty accessing the developed markets, and as a result the gap between them and the developed world will widen,' he wrote.

This ideology preaches earth and nature and under the slogans of their protection – similarly to the old Marxists – wants to replace the free and spontaneous evolution of mankind by a sort of central, now global, planning of the whole world.


No government action can stop the world and nature from changing. Therefore, I disagree with plans such as the Kyoto Protocol or similar initiatives, which set arbitrary targets requiring enormous costs without realistic prospects for the success of these measures.
"

Well, Stephen Harper could find some inspiration there, as his "right-wing, free-market, anti-Kyoto" beliefs seem to have waned somewhat in the last year, pouvoir oblige...

If Mr. Klaus' actions are consistent with his discourse, we can certainly expect Czech Republic to flourish in the next years.

Good for the Czechs, good for all of us. Yeh!

It was only democracy, but still...

Chavez granted powers to remake Venezuelan society

Lawmakers loyal to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez approved a law on Wednesday giving him the power to enact sweeping measures by decree, a move critics say is a step toward authoritarianism.

Members of the National Assembly unanimously approved all four articles of the law by a show of hands.

Viva President Hugo Chavez, long live socialism!" assembly president Cilia Flores said as she proclaimed the law approved. "Fatherland, socialism or death. We will prevail!"

The legislation gives the president special powers for 18 months to transform 11 broadly defined areas, including banking reforms, tax, insurance, financial regulations, security and defence.

Geez, they're not shy about dictating in the South. They could have at least tried to make it look like something mild and administrative. You gotta admire the openness...

Une grenouille dans l'eau bouillante

Une légende urbaine affirme que si l'on plonge une grenouille dans l'eau bouillante, elle bondira instantanément pour fuir, mais que si l'eau est agréablement tiède au début et qu'on la fait chauffer graduellement, la grenouille y demeurera jusqu'à ce qu'elle soit ébouillantée et meure. La grenouille serait en effet incapable de détecter à temps l'augmentation graduelle de la température.

Et bien, on dirait que l'intensité du feu vient d'augmenter quelque peu. La Presse Canadienne, de sa propre initiative bien entendu, nous rappelle aujourd'hui que "la tête a besoin de la protection d'un casque dans une descente sur toboggan." Lien.

En effet, "quelque 2000 enfants sont blessés chaque année dans des chutes en glissade." 

Un agent spécial..., pardon, un "spécialiste des blessures d'enfants, Louis Francescutti, a d'autant plus calculé [...] que ces blessures coûtent probablement davantage à la société que les décès qui résultent des chutes." L'article omet malheureusement de mentionner combien d'enfants meurent chaque année des suites d'un accident de tobogan...

Et que fait-on, donc, quand des parents irresponsables induisent des coûts à la "société" canadienne en ne forcant pas leurs marmots à se casquer?

"Au niveau fédéral, Santé Canada recommande le port du casque pour les enfants dans les sports de glissade. Dans certaines provinces, dont l'Ontario, des voix se sont déjà élevées pour encourager le port du casque, mais jusqu'à maintenant, aucune législation n'a été adoptée en ce sens."

Bon sens, cet article a vraiment réponse à tout! Il poursuit d'ailleurs : "D'un autre côté, plusieurs parents interrogés sur le sujet trouvent la controverse totalement ridicule et croient `être pleinement en mesure de prendre soin de leurs enfants eux-mêmes.`" 

Oups, je crois bien avoir imaginé la dernière partie. Pardonnez- moi, elle ne se trouve pas dans le texte, non.  C'est sans doute que je croyais toujours lire un véritable article provenant d'une agence de presse crédible, et non un message d'intérêt public... 

Quand tous les enfants devront recevoir une formation obligatoire sur le maniement du couteau de cuisine, et qu'un logiciel de contrôle parental du contenu diffusé sur internet sera installé sur chaque ordinateur personnel, "pour la sécurité de nos citoyens les plus vulnérables", le sifflement de la bouilloire ne devrait pas trop tarder.

Martin Masse (encore) à Télé-Québec

 
Même heure, même poste. Il va y avoir du sport, en effet, alors que M. Masse, accompagné dans son coin "néolibéral" par René Vézina, rédacteur en chef du Journal Les Affaires, sera opposé à la toujours très rationelle Françoise David, ainsi qu'à l'ostracisé Yves Michaud, qui lobbye en faveur du bien-être des actionnaires Québécois (!) .

Le sujet : Faut-il limiter la rémunération des chefs d'entreprise?

À ne pas manquer vendredi le 26 à 19:30

En passant, suis-je le seul à trouver ironique que mademoiselle David, une socialiste accomplie, soit alliée au fondateur du Mouvement d'éducation et de défense des actionnaires sur un tel sujet? Prédiction : M. Michaud risque de s'allier au camp adverse pour contrer les poussées nationalisantes de sa partenaire. Ça promet!