Fragile Bird

Just a point of clarification here - which smoking ban are you referring to? I looked up the law in the UK and that’s the first I’d seen about the “raise the legal age every year” law being proposed by the PM. Presumably you don’t want the 2007 law reversed? I think the idea of raising the legal age for smoking every year is actually a pretty good idea. The argument against is the usual “it won’t work”.

Can you imagine how badly the US would lose its shit if Canada announced it was starting a bomb project? Or Mexico? This made me look up the population numbers, 2.5 M in the US in 1776, 13.78 M in Rwanda in 1994, and Rwanda was a targeted genocide. But yes, once a nation has genocide on their mind the slaughter can be fast and ruthless.

Not fun but really important, and something you’ll regret in the future as a needless bit of stupidity or even cruelty if you don’t do it. This comes under the category of being the better person. Be generous, it’s in you.

The limitation period in the province where the matter arises is the limitation period that applies. The law does not put any limitation on the treaty itself, the court ruled that once the band realized they had a claim they had to make the claim within the limitation period. eta: however, the judge used very strong language about the way the federal government acted, and that could go a long way to pushing the feds into making restitution.

I looked up his name for news about him “absconding” but there’s nothing that I can find except news of his resignation, and some stories about the investigations going on that are a couple of years old. Has he actually absconded?

What the actual hell is going on? Why would the debt be “nullified”? Who is this guy?

“Finally OJ can rest knowing his wife’s killer is dead” The internet produces some great memes.

Where else does a person mention OJ Simpson died? Rest in hell.

Hah! It was more about people wanting to jump the gun and open up before legislation was passed. People opened up shops while it was still illegal, and then bitterly complained when they got charged and shut down. eta: it was like the attitude was “it’s going to be legal in a few months, why are you bugging us?”

This discussion about pot shops (we call them “dispensaries” here) made me look up the numbers in Toronto. There are 212, but it feels like there are shops on every block. There are at least five on the main road at the bottom of my block and another at the local mall. I guess I just live in the right neighborhood. There were recent stories in the local press (on-line blogs) about American tourists complimenting us on the prices and availability. Funnily enough, the police report there’s still a thriving underground market, that 80% of the pot sold in Canada is still the illegal stuff.

Exactly the case with the big grocery chains in Canada.

Wow, Lany, I can’t imagine hail the size of baseballs! Glad you didn’t suffer damage!

Did the UK have police stations thick on the ground or something, that so many are getting closed? Are the public complaining?

Friends of mine decided to drive to the totality zone and they had a great experience and took fantastic pictures!

I’m curious about that. I’ve been listening to the Hamish Macbeth mysteries, all 35 or 36 of them, they’re short and consuming them is like eating candy, and the constant theme of the books is the shutting down of police stations. I looked up “police stations shut down in Scotland” out of curiosity and was surprised to see that it’s continuing even now. I think it said 19 stations to be closed. A person wonders how the country gets policed. Is this going on in England as well?

Thanks, Mother Nature!

It got dark here, the streetlights came on and automatic headlights on cars came on as well!

It was cloudy all morning but I just got home after doing some running around and, mirabile dictu, there’s a partly sunny sky above my house! I may get to see that 99.8% eclipse after all!

Is anyone actually going to recognize that person as Donald Trump? I think we should all start a rumor that Donald Trump is dead and that’s an actor pretending to be him. Worked for Kate, right?

Didn’t have any chocolate until Easter. And now the stuff tastes too too sweet! I also gave up Westeros for the balance of the time left, and didn’t miss it. I may give up coffee for a while, or dramatically reduce consumption. Sounds like you made great progress! I swear I can look at something fattening and gain weight.

The eclipse in Toronto is supposed to be 99.8%, not total, but I don’t think I’m going to risk the traffic to Niagara Falls.

Seriously? There are myriads of articles out there talking about the experiments that are going to be done that can only be done during a solar eclipse. It’s even been pointed out that Einstein used the solar eclipse of 1919 to prove his theory of relativity.

What the hell was that?

RIP Brian Mulroney, dead today at the age of 84. As much as I loathed him, he did good things for the environment, he led the world wide fight against apartheid, continuing even in the face of the threats of the Americans and their anti-boycott laws, and then there was the free trade agreement and the GST. And the most debt in the history of Canada, which brought us the pain of the 1990s. My dad was dying in hospital in 1997, I still remember the fact that there were only two nurses on staff overnight for the entire damn floor.

Very nice!