++ relapsed catholic ++ religion politics culture blog

Yeah, I'm citing him a lot; he's been on a roll. I was just thinking of making a list like this, but he beat me to it and said most of what I'd say anyhow:

9. Quebec -- Although I find the effect of Quebec on Canadian politics fascinating, I don't care whether Quebec remains part of Canada or not.

8. Aboriginals -- I think they got a bum deal. Get over it. It's time to join the larger society.

6. Space exploration -- The issue is not at all interesting to me. I understand that there is important research (military and civilian) associated with the space program. Let me know when they find something.

3. AIDS in North America & Europe -- My heart goes out to women and children in the developing world who contract AIDS/HIV; the socio-legal realities in many countries make them innocent victims of not just a deadly disease but the injustices (abusive and philandering husbands, the devaluing of females, the helplessness of children, etc...) that permit the disease to spread wildly and indiscriminately. But for almost all North American adults suffering from the disease, it is a result of lifestyle choices and I'd rather see society's time and energy used to curb the social pathologies that lead to the spread of AIDS than wasting one second fretting about not-so-innocent victims.

I'd add: The Environment. It's green and brown -- two ugly colours that don't even match. Also it smells. I'm moving from indifference to all-out hatred the more I have to hear about Nature. What good are 5,000 extra polar bears unless we can train them to fight terrorists? Swiping them with their big paws or something...