Uncivil Behaviour in Canada

English: Parliament Hill, viewed from east, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We can't say Canadians have had an easy time of it then it comes to protecting themselves from suspected terrorists since 9/11/2001.  Like the United States, the Land of the Maple Leaf has its share of people who want to do harm to its fellow citizens in the name of a twisted version of their religion, or in behalf of a Middle East terrorist organization, or both.

What happened in the national capitol of Ottawa Wednesday has given Canadians a sense of what Americans have been going through for years.  You could call it their 9/11, but it was more like Columbine or Sandy Hook than the collapse of the World Trade Center.

A man police identified as Michael Zehaf-Bibeau shot a soldier who was standing guard at the Canadian war memorial, then proceeded to enter the Parliament building while it was in session.  It was there that Zehaf-Bibeau was gunned down by Keith Vickers, the Sergeant-at-arms of the House of Commons (a ceremonial position), who had previously served 29 years with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.  Police have ruled out any other suspects.

Canada, if you choose to believe the stereotype, is considered a mild-mannered country.  Its citizens tend to shake their heads every time some crazy American shoots up a school, a movie theater, or a military base.  Then they wonder why nothing is ever done about it, because guns are better-regulated there than in the States.

The Canadian government has joined the United States' new war on ISIL/ISIS, which has so far proved that airstrikes have only made them stronger.  Or that the Islamic state is getting pretty good at recruiting volunteers to convince them to commit jihad against their own countries.

If nothing else, the shootings at Parliament Hill have become a wakeup call to Canadians.  Like Americans, they will slowly become used to living in a security state with the freedoms they used to take for granted replaced by checkpoints everywhere they go, and suspicions about every one they meet.  The border between the two countries will become a little more fortified. 

As Prime Minister Stephen Harper so brilliantly put it while he channeled his inner Winston Churchill, he told his nation that Canadians will not be intimidated.

Canada, welcome to the real world.

Outbreak of Fear

English: Ebola virus virion. Created by CDC microbiologist Cynthia Goldsmith, this colorized transmission electron micrograph (TEM) revealed some of the ultrastructural morphology displayed by an Ebola virus virion. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Every few years, there have been worldwide epidemics of diseases that governments and modern medical science have been slow to get a handle on before it's too late.  AIDS.  SARS.  H1N1.  You get the picture.

Now it's Ebola, a disease that was discovered a few years ago and has no cure.  To date, nearly 4500 deaths have been reported in west Africa (where it all began), Spain and the United States out of nearly 8000 cases.  By the end of 2014, according to the World Health Organization, there could be as many as 10,000 new cases per week.  Repeat--per week.

The Obama administration and the Centers for Disease Control (Centers?) have been telling us that the chances of an Ebola epidemic in this country are almost nonexistent, that it is very difficult to contract.   

So how was it possible for a Liberian named Thomas Eric Duncan to die in a Dallas hospital of Ebola, infecting two nurses and possibly more?  Or having several other Americans flown from Africa to be treated here, and are currently recovering?  Simple.  It's that modern-day carrier called the airplane, carrying infected patients from one place to another without anyone knowing it.

President Obama has reacted to the crisis by sending thousands of American soldiers to west Africa to help fight the disease, and has so far designated five airports along the Eastern Seaboard to check flights from that area for infected passengers and possibly quarantining them.  Which is all well and good, unless those soldiers bring home the Ebola and charges of racial profiling becomes a problem every time a TSA screener sticks a thermometer down someone's mouth.

Besides, what's to stop somebody from ISIL/ISIS, al Qaeda or another terrorist from deliberately coming into the country and spreading the virus?  There's no defense against that.

Despite all the reassurances from the government and the CDC, are we really ready to take on Ebola or any other kind of killer disease?  Some nursing organizations don't think so.  They have complained that their members have not received adequate training and equipment from their hospitals to protect themselves.  Other medical officials are concerned by the slowness of the U.S. government's response to the epidemic.

So about all any of us can do is to hope that the authorities are right about controlling the spread of Ebola, and that we shouldn't lay too much of the blame on those who chose to emigrate here from Africa.  Because then we'd be creating a whole new epidemic of something that's all too common in America.  It's called fear.

Just Asking . . . The Sequel

English: Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Is Vice President Joe Biden warming up for 2016?  Or did he just talk his way out of it?

Now that an Ebola patient has died in a Dallas hospital, will sending U.S. soldiers to west Africa and screening passengers coming into our airports really stop the spread of the disease?  Doesn't this border on racial profiling?  And can we really trust those who say there won't be an Ebola epidemic in this country?

Will same-sex marriage join abortion rights as issues we'll still be arguing about 40 years from now?

Will North Dakota's population boom last as long as the oil does?

Does it surprise anyone that China wants to bring Hong Kong into their fold?  Or that students are protesting over it?

Is Ben Affeck as liberal as he thinks he is?

Is Jennifer Lawrence getting more attention for calling the hacking of her nude photos a sex crime than for the photos themselves?

October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month.  It is also Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  What sells better, purple or pink?  And will we be more or less aware of these causes on November 1?

Does the limited appearances of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell indicate that the league just wants all this domestic violence stuff to go away, and we can all get back to football?

If an American company moves to a foreign country for tax purposes, is it still an American company?

Stephen Harper is the Prime Minister of Canada.  So why is he less well-known on this side of the border than Toronto mayor Rob Ford?

Does anyone still care about network TV's fall schedule?