Sometimes without thinking about it much you stumble on a problem and a solution within seconds.  Here's an example.

My friend Dave has to go to a conference in Washington, D.C.   He has a government expense account.  He called a hotel in Washington and told them… Read full post »

I've been baking bread with my bread machine for about two years now.  It's not bad, it tastes good and it saves money.  But I could never dream that I might someday be able to bake a loaf which tasted like a French baguette.  But it just happened.  Here's the… Read full post »

Vancouver has vowed to be the greenest city in the world by 2020.  http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/100815/national/greener_cities.  That's less than 10 years from now.  Time to get to work.

 If you want to get green, you need to cut down on the use of cars.  In 10 years it… Read full post »

There are several interesting points in Judge Vaughn Walker's decision that California's Proposition 8 violates  the federal constitution.   The most compelling one is the judge's careful and complete use of fact-finding, in which he reviews and finds wanting every conceivable argument… Read full post »

The Republicans are at it again.  Although they hold themselves out as conservatives and staunch protectors of the Constitution, they now want to eliminate one of the most important guarantees of the rights of US citizens--the provision that makes all persons born in the US citizens thereof.&nbs… Read full post »

 http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100721/bs_yblog_upshot/oil-cleanup-workers-protest-flotel-housing

The latest news on the BP front and the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is BP's use of floating hotels to house its workers.  This, coupled with BP's failure to pay many of the cleanup… Read full post »

As a relatively recent immigrant to Canada, with plenty of experience with the health care systems in the U.S. and France, I have a strong opinion about the Canadian health care system, which is: notwithstanding all the complaints, it works well and we're fortunate to have it.

In 1974 I moved… Read full post »

In McDonald v. City of Chicago, the Roberts court has once again turned the constitution on its head and -- even as its majority disclaims judicial activism and claims to be seeking the "original purpose" of the Constitution -- winds up with a result that emasculates the document.

Dissentin… Read full post »

 Here's the latest news: " Reusable grocery bags may cause food poisoning".  It's all over the news -- see, e.g., http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/theappetizer/archive/2009/05/20/back-to-plastic-reusable-grocery-bags-may-pose-public-health-risk.aspx, http://thetvrealist.com/g… Read full post »

 No less an authority than Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, stated that the issue of "energy independence" is one of the nation’s major needs. In a letter dated October 17, 2008, she called for cooperation in Congress to "promote American innovation, energ… Read full post »