Destroying Alberta

There is a recent interview of two experts (one of whom I know, since we both serve as advisors to the same company) on the subject of American interests conspiring to destroy Alberta’s oil industry. It’s a worthwhile listen for anyone even peripherally interested in such things.

https://omny.fm/shows/danielle-smith/capital-markets-impact-of-oilsands-reserves-strand?in_playlist=danielle-smith!podcast

Happiness

Most of us would like a change in our lives. We are unhappy about something. This unhappiness presents as a variety of unpleasant symptoms such as anger, anxiety, boredom, fear, frustration, hatred, headaches, high blood pressure, jealousy, loneliness, resentment, restlessness, ulcers --- an unease about something or maybe many things ranging from credit to climate. We blame others; we blame ourselves; we even blame God. Yet maybe somewhere in you lies the suspicion that your thought patterns set you up for unhappiness. If so, you are right. Over at https://gordon-feil-theology.blogspot.com/2019/09/producing-happiness.html  I posted a short essay about becoming aware of what you are doing to yourself and how to stop it.

Gay Gene?

On my CBC news app, I saw an article this evening about a large study that failed to find a “gay gene”, but when I wanted to find the article at the CBC website and used Google to do so, the Google link is:

'gay gene' contributes to same-sex behaviour, study finds - CBC.ca

Google’s description of the CBC article, that plainly states that the study failed to find a gene that predisposes a person to being gay, starts with “The largest study of its kind found new evidence that genes contribute to same-sex sexual behaviour…” as though Google is determined to verify the antiquated opinion that people inherit homosexuality.

I’m not a biologist, but I know how to read, and I think we will eventually find that Yes, people are born with a predisposition to being gay, but that the trait is triggered into behavior by social influences and experiences. Someone without that predisposition, but with the same external influences, will not be gay. Further, I think we will find out, and in fact, I think we already have found out from studies involving identical twins, that predisposition is not genetic but is related to the hormonal environment of the womb.

Pros and Cons of Multi-National Business

I just finished reading a blog at https://godcannotbecontained.blogspot.com/2019/08/is-god-ready-to-punish-globalists.html. It is a discussion of one man’s view of what some call Globalists.  I am not a fan of much of what international businesses and their political supporters and protectors (such as the USA military) have done around the world, but I have to admit that international trade and co-operation has surely improved the lot in life of huge numbers of people. Only about 10% of the world’s people live in extreme poverty compared to about 35% thirty years ago. Basically, famine only happens for political and military reasons now.  Infectious diseases seem on the wane, and life expectancy has gone up almost radically in many countries. A lot less people are dying in wars than in the last century, and education has opened doors to the masses. The world is, in many ways, getting to be a much better place to live than it used to be.

Nonetheless, I do think that the unbridled power associated with the advent of multi-national business protected by the enforcement tactics of the military has occasioned a lot of needless pain. I think at the heart of it is the adherence to the concept of limited liability for owners of corporations. If we did not have corporate shields for individual’s assets, power would not concentrate so readily and dangerously as it does now.