Aug. 30, 2016 "We are overly sensitive as a country, survey finds": I found this article by Laura Hensley in the National Post section of the Edmonton Journal:
Canadians may be notoriously polite, but many think we are becoming too sensitive.
Seventy-six per cent of respondents said political correctness has “gone too far,” while 72 per cent said they censor themselves to avoid offending others, according to a survey released Monday by the Angus Reid Institute.
It found people over 55 are most likely to agree with this sentiment, 82 per cent, while almost the same number — 80 per cent — think it “seems like you can’t say anything” without upsetting someone these days.
When it comes to language, millennials (aged 18 to 34) are the most likely to be impatient with being political corrected: 71 per cent say too many people are easily offended by word choice.
“We might be inclined to make assumptions that younger Canadians are more politically correct or more sensitive to these issues,” said Shachi Kurl, Angus Reid’s executive director.
“In fact, they are the most likely to say people are too easily offended by what others say, and by the language that others use.”
The youngest cohort is also least likely to say people need to be more careful about their language to avoid offending those from different backgrounds. Twenty-nine per cent agreed, compared with 39 per cent of the 55-plus group.
When it comes to political beliefs, Conservative voters are also less likely to think people need to watch their words.
Only about 20 per cent agree people should be more sensitive, compared with about 40 per cent of Liberals and 38 per cent of New Democrats.
“I think what’s really interesting about the results there is that our views north of the border on political correctness are much more uniform across the political spectrum than south of the border,” Kurl said.
U.S. leaders like Donald Trump can create divisions among their supporters when it comes to political correctness. The issue can be “one that sort of pulls voters apart across party lines.”
“Here, in Canada, majorities across the political spectrum — whether you’re left, or centrist, or to the right — everyone seems to think that political correctness has gone too far,” she said.
But even though most Canadians think correctness has got out of hand, more than half “hold their tongue” daily to avoid upsetting people around them. Almost 90 per cent of those who self-censor say they do so to be polite.
“It’s just such a typical Canadian finding,” Kurl said. “On one hand, we feel that people are too easily offended, we feel that political correctness has gone too far as a country, and those same majorities then turn around and say that they are choosing to censor … and they are doing it to be polite.
“Because they don’t want to offend.”
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Canadians may be notoriously polite, but we might also b...
Seventy-six per cent of respondents said political correctness has 'gone too far'
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My opinion: I don't think we are too sensitive. I don't think anyone wants to start fights, drama, conflict, and tension over their words. I'll see that on my fictional TV shows.
The main rule is to not say anything about race, religion, gender, sexual orientation. If I want to be offended, then I will watch MadTV, Tosh. O, and Family Guy among other shows.
When you're at work or at school, you have to be professional.
Oct. 22, 2016 "Crime so awful even a juror felt victimized": I found this article by Christie Blatchford in the Edmonton Journal on Oct. 21, 2016. This should be the counter argument to the above article. It's a about a juror who experienced vicarious PTSD.
That changed this week with the story, broken by Jane Sims of Postmedia in London, that one of the Rafferty jurors, a single mother of two, is claiming she suffered vicarious Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder from the trial, thus is an indirect victim of crime herself and is seeking compensation.
The 57-year-old woman — her identify is forever protected, as jurors are to remain anonymous — first applied to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board but was denied, and her first appeal of that order, at the Ontario Divisional Court, also failed.
Her case at the Court of Appeal will be heard next month.
In essence, she claims “jurors are effectively ordered to participate in the process” and are indistinguishable from bystanders who witness violent crimes.
As her lawyers wrote, “The involuntariness of jurors equates with others who are victims of crime — those who are involved, not by choice, but by circumstance.”
Yet that involuntariness is the norm in the criminal courts, and the very reason that jury duty is so often called the highest civic service a citizen can perform.
No one asks to serve on a jury; one is asked to do it, and even then, only the least wily and with the best-protected jobs (which means they won’t suffer financial hardship while serving) do not evade it.
The only thanks ever comes from the trial judge. The pay is terrible. The working conditions — when not actually in court and sitting on hard chairs, you are routinely trapped with 11 of your fellows in a small room, watched over by a court officer, urged to keep your opinions to yourself and warned not to discuss the trial with anyone else — are almost as bad.
Yet from all I’ve seen in dozens of courtrooms, most people rise magnificently to the task. They take it seriously; they follow the judge’s instructions; they listen to the lawyers and weigh the evidence, however terrible, and are fair.
A former colleague, Kirk Makin, once said that you can actually physically see how jurors change: On the first day, they come to court with the posture and clothes of the schlubs that most of us are; by the third, they’re standing tall, ignoring if not overtly glaring at the TV reporters they were thrilled to have recognized on day one, and magically have acquired from God knows where a dignified mien.
One of the legal tests for what’s still called “nervous shock” in courts and tribunals goes like this: “Was it reasonably foreseeable that a person of ordinary fortitude would suffer mental injury in the circumstances?”
The answer, in the Rafferty trial, is probably “Yes — and also that this person of ordinary fortitude would be able to carry on, certainly sadder, perhaps not without difficulty, but yes.”
Hundreds of them do it every year actually, emerge from the metaphorical darkness of courthouses into the bright light of real life, forever changed, but not broken.
Oct. 30, 2016 Blind boy tears up after seeing mom's face for first time: This made me say "Awww..."
Benny Francey, 10, is living with a rare disease called Leber congenital amaurosis. It has prevented the boy and his brother, Ashton, age eight, from seeing anything but silhouettes.
But all that changed for Benny last Wednesday, when the Selkirk family took a trip to Toronto to try on a pair of eSight glasses they've bought after months spent fundraising the $15,000 US cost of the glasses.
"When he put on the glasses we could tell that he could see because his first word was 'wow,'" said Benny's mom Jenna Cason.
Cason said there were tears, Benny smiled and then "he told me I had a big nose," she said laughing.
"Then we giggled and it kind of changed the mood."
"It was amazing. I mean he sat there and stared for a very long time and so you could tell I guess that he was taking it all in."
"It was very emotional."
Amanda Vitt is the boys' aunt. She started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for the glasses and for horseback riding lessons for Ashton, who has no chance of seeing.
She said she was nervous when Benny put on the glasses because the family knew there was no guarantee her nephew would be able to see.
"We were really, really scared about that," Vitt said.
"We prepared him for that, you know. We still wanted to be hopeful and excited for him, but he needed to know the reality that there was a chance that they couldn't work."
Vitt said after the emotional encounter, Benny watched Kung Fu Panda and looked at photos from a past family vacation to Mexico. In the photos were palm trees the boy hadn't been able to see.
It was in that moment Saucedo was consumed with guilt but she knew she didn’t lay or roll over him and that there was nothing blocking Ben’s airway when she slept. Yet somehow after she fell asleep, Ben stopped breathing.
Weeks went by before Saucedo received Ben’s final cause of death — Sudden Unexpected Infant Death Syndrom (SUID). Although the autopsy wasn’t able to prove Ben suffocated, his death was ruled an accidental asphyxiation.
“I was one of the unlucky mothers who got a coroner that refused to rule a death as SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) because of his sleeping conditions. Naturally, I was angry and consumed with guilt,” she says.
My opinion: This is a sad story. She didn't roll over on him, it was a SIDS. She should get counseling.
My week:
Dec. 17, 2016 Subscription boxes: I was reading the comics, and in the comic strip Betty, they were talking about subscription boxes. I wrote about it before in a Sept. 2014 post:
phone interview/ homeless to law school graduate
For the Quarterly business: biohack, literary, culinary or maker.
Literary Box
FICTION
- Receive three books a quarter, including a brand new release annotated by the author with hand-written notes, two more curated titles and delightful bookish goods—all delivered to your doorstep.
My opinion: I have mentioned this before in the 2014 post. I don't want more stuff and clutter; things I don't really need or want. I'm sure some of you would like to get a box of surprises of things you're interested in. A box of books, there maybe something really good to read.
I get that from the newspaper everyday. The Edmonton Journal and the Globe and Mail are good and they do have interesting articles. I'm sure you can tell by reading my blog on how much I like it because I cut out and write a lot about it. However, as soon as I cut it out, I put it in an envelope to give to my friend and co-worker Je. Now it has turned to co-worker and friend S.
Dec. 20, 2016: This is like a gift basket, but you put things in a basket and you can see what's in it. As for this box, you don't know what's in it.
Dec. 19, 2016 Ashley Stahl: I woke up this morning, and it was a slow start. I was sending/ posting 2 of my weekly emails/ blog posts up.
I went to work and I got home. I listed to this 1hr 30min webinar by Ashley Stahl, who is a career coach. I wrote down notes.
Planogram: As I was listening to her, I was also looking for a job. I learned this new word from a job ad:
"A diagram or model that indicates the placement of retail products on shelves in order to maximize sales."
Then I send/ posted one more of my weekly email/ blog post up.
Dec. 20, 2016 Adler University: Yesterday I found this ad on Facebook about careers for social change. They were all Masters degrees.
Work-Sharing Temporary Special Measures: I found this "Be proactive with minimum wage hike" by Alison McMahon in the Edmonton Journal. It was in my box of articles. It mentioned "Work-sharing provider"):
The Government of Canada has put in place Work-Sharing ( WS ) temporary special measures to assist employers directly or indirectly affected by the downturn in the commodities sector.
- For WS agreements that begin or end between April 1, 2016, and March 31, 2017, we are extending the maximum duration from 38 weeks to 76 weeks.
- If you are an employer whose WS agreement ended between July 12, 2015 and March 31, 2016, you can immediately enter into a new agreement with a maximum duration of 76 weeks. You do not have to wait between applications.
Marijuana business: I've been reading a lot about this in the newspaper. I see there is still laws about it being medicinal and what the age should be.
Opening a bookstore: I read this article "Pushing paper" by Mark Medley in the Globe and Mail on Dec. 17, 2016. I have read an article in the G&M business section about a couple opening a bookstore and selling a lot of their books online. I read an article in the Edmonton Journal about a retired couple who opened one too. It's very hard to be run a bookstore. You can read this article, and you have to find a place, buy bookshelves, and learn about inventory, etc.
When I was a kid and teen, I read a lot of books. Now when I got to my 20s, I read the newspaper. It's rare that I read books. I have never worked at a bookstore before. I have applied to some before, and I did one interview for one. There is so much competition:
1. The big bookstores like Chapters.
2. Amazon.
3. ebooks.
Should I get a driver's license?: My friend Sherry was the only one who emailed me back on this. She did mention that I can drive to jobs that are farther away. I know that. I have mentioned this before on the post, but I would rather sit on the bus for 1 hr, then drive for 30 min.
"Does your job make the world a worse place?"/ Should I get a driver's license?
"What the spy film Manchurian Candidate says about the era of Trump": I found this article by Barry Hertz in the Globe and Mail on Dec. 17, 2016:
The YouTube comments compare Trump to the Manchurian Candidate. Maybe I will watch this movie when it comes on TV.
Here's how the White House staff pranked President Obama for the holidays: This is a light and fun holiday pictures and news:
Dec. 21, 2016 Feng shui consultant master course: This is a 3 day event run by Kathryn Weber who has the Red Lotus feng shui website. This is not a scam.
Start Date: I found out about this when HireGround emailed me:
Faster, more flexible and more secure, our ATS makes the most of today's technology. With more than 10 years of experience in the industry, HireGround's StartDate is uniquely designed to reduce your cost to hire and simplify the recruiting process. And unlike many other HR systems, StartDate is set up and ready to use in days (not months).
Dec. 22, 2016 "Millennials are shaping the future of charitable giving": Today I found this article by Brenda Bouw in the Globe and Mail. I'm going to put the whole article up in another blog post.
Charity apps: That did lead me to think of charity apps. There is a lot of them, like this:
Charity Miles is a run, bike and walk tracker app that tells you how many miles you've covered during your workout. Plus, Charity Miles also earns money for charity on your behalf for every mile you move, via brand workout sponsors like Humana, Johnson & Johnson and Chobani!
We're proud to say that, so far our members have earned over $2 million for charity by recording over 40 million miles, just by using our app as their running, biking and walking distance tracker!
Or you can go to Click every day to give food for the hungry. and click and donate for free:
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