Glasstry news

Be glad that the confederation makers wisely made the upper house appointive (hence weak) and not elective.  It was a crucial blow for representative democracy. Both the Canadian and American Senates are wildly unrepresentative, but the American one holds vast and illegitimate authority.  17% of the population: 50% of the Senate. Remember the Dominion Elections Act of 1920? It may have been Robert Borden's  mea culpa for the atrocious gerrymandering of the wartime election of 1917. But it means that for almost a century Canadian elections have been run by an independent commission. Compare the horror show across the border. If it is still this close after two years of Trump in office, Trump is not an aberration or a fluke.  He's the true voice of a vast proportion of the American people.  Stay home.

In a funny and furious twitter-storm republished by History News Network , American historian Kevin Gannon explains that they can be impeached, and even have been. While it was a long time ago, it might again be possible. HNN often has too much of historical takes on contemporary politics and too little of history in general, but sometimes it comes through for us.

Asked about his membership in his high school "ralph club," this guy Brett Kavanaugh admitted it referred to vomiting , but said for him it was because he had a sensitive stomach easily upset by spicy foods. So every beer drinker in North America in the last fifty years knows he is a liar. Perjurer too, I guess.  (If you didn't already.)

The Atlantic   has a story by Laura Spinney on a mass anthropology study of the role of human sacrifice in human societies throughout history: Were human societies able to grow so large and complex because cruel practices like human sacrifice shored them up, or because human sacrifice was abandoned in favor of other forms of social glue�notably, major religions like Christianity? The study tries to get beyond merely anecdotal evidence by pooling historical data about large numbers of societies into substantial databases. It suggests the theory that human sacrifice can be a unifying force in societies of up to 100,000 people, but is actually socially disruptive in larger ones. I wonder if they are forcing the data a bit, but what really struck me was the definition and assertion about human sacrifice. Human sacrifice is defined as the ritualized, religiously motivated killing of a human being. It is no longer sanctioned by any state I don't know about the "no longer sanctioned...

A Canadian woman and her American sister are each striken with breast cancer . Happily both get essential treatments and survive.  But the costs.... And she had to contend with American-style billing. �Just as I was getting ready to head to the operating room, a tall man in a nice suit came in and told us he had to have a cheque before they would go ahead. �It�s our new policy because people aren�t paying their bills.� We paid him, of course, but it seemed absolutely outrageous � especially when you�re frightened and sick.� The story is in the United Church Observer , and it's by Catherine Wilson.