Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a pure Canadian? Then you gotta get it into the press whether it wants to go or not, and then the little bugger jams the works with a peavey and it takes forever to repair the damage!

Ay! Oy!

Tell you what: if you really think it matters, then by all means, make it your mission. But our problem isn’t Canadians not knowing the truth, is it – hell, astonishing as it may be, the Canadian media have done a pretty good job of refuting the egregious BS coming up on the southern wind. Our problem is that we are outnumbered and outgunned by lunatics willing to blow up the world just so they can rule the ruins, and I am no longer willing to waste my breathe on being reasonable.

While I would agree with you and Voroxpete under the old rules of US politics, they no longer apply. Seems to me the average Representative either lies through his/her teeth (assuming they have any), or votes performatively, and then does something completely different, or nothing at all. I have come to really, really dislike this kind of performative vote, seeing my fellow Canadians mislead into believing it actually means that there are folks in the House, outside of two or three, who would actually do diddly-squat to prevent their country from overrunning its neighbours to achieve hegemony. Please don’t tell me how your system works, because it stopped working somewhere around Mission Accomplished.

Last I looked, any vote in Congress was foreordained unless a few Republicans were suddenly to come down with the measles, and even then, they’d probably drag themselves through DC, infecting everyone they passed, to prove their loyalty to their God Emperor.

I think we have bigger things to worry about.

We could prove decisively in front of the world that there is much, much more fentanyl coming in to Canada from the US than the other way around (we have), we could broadcast films of guns confiscated with both Canadian and US border guards testifying to the reality (we’ve done that, too), we could counter every single lie with proof of the truth and it would not matter one bit, because those who are going to believe us already do, and those who say they don’t really mean that whatever the Emperor says he’s wearing, he is wearing, whether I can see it or not.

Mr. Trump and his rich sponsors want our resources, our water, our surrender and our country for their own. They will keep at this until either they are overthrown or we beat them in a genuine war, or climate change makes the whole point moot by killing so many of us off that the survivors are left to eat each other.

Read up on Joseph Goebbels’ principles of propaganda. You will recognise them all.

Don’t think it’s a climb down – I think he just gets a kick out of keeping everyone else running around in circles and trying to second guess him. Makes him feel powerful and in command. Guy’s a Guinness Book All-Time Record Jerk.

It seems to take more keywords to home in on the kind of speciality items I look for, and does not always appear to detect connections between those keywords, for example in trying to find certain kind of veterinary support devices made to national specifications. One of the other commentors says Kagi is okay for shopping, so maybe I’ll give it a whirl because I’d love to be free of Google once and for all.

I’m interested, but a bit reluctant. I find DuckDuckGo quite adequate for most things, except shopping online, something that I have to rely on for certain categories of items. How is Kagi on shopping?

That’s definitely good to know, as there’s a BIG Dollarama just 4 blocks from here!

Thanks for the tip. We tried Opti-rinse, also recommended at our dental clinic and sold there. However, we really didn’t need it, as floridation is already covered by our toothpaste. Our clinic was recently bought by one of the investment companies that are taking over the dental and veterinary industries in Canada, and upselling is part of their business model. The mouthwash recommended by the previous commentor looks more like what we need.

Fastest turn around in Canadian history! Already ordered and paid for, and it is very competitively priced, too. Thank you so much!

You were born into a highly social species. The basis of human society (and that of many other social species) is co-operation and mutual aid to increase the individual’s chance of survival and reproduction, make life for group members easier and, at least since Neanderthals and Denisovians, longer, rather than, as Thomas Hobbes opined “nasty, brutish and short”. While it is quite true that there are those who game the system to reap more than their share of the benefits while giving less or nothing back, overall, those who give more are more likely to ‘earn’ the respect of their fellows and gain the help they need to live as well as possible within whatever circumstances they find themselves.

Don’t be too sure that the evil face no consequences. Until their book is finished and closed, you cannot know they will not wish once more to ride down the slope on Rosebud. I knew a woman who was the head nurse on a terminal ward for years – to this day, I don’t know how she did it. She told me one evening that, in all those years, no one had ever died wishing they’d made more money or achieved greater power, but many of the elite that passed through her ward died alone.

Alone: separate, apart, isolated from others; solo, without company; exclusively, uniquely; without aid or help. I don’t see anywhere in the definitions in the OED, Merriam-Webster, or at Dictionary.com where it says your allies and/or companions have to be capable of winning the war alone. Most of the countries in the Empire declared war within 24 hours to one week after Britain did. The fact we lost tons of materiel and human lives to German submarines suggests rather strongly that, far from being alone, Britain was receiving materiel and soldiers well; before D-Day, The reality is that the partisans and resistance fighters, the colonial soldiers, the other nations also fighting on their fronts were all part of the same anti-Nazi alliance: Britain was emphatically not alone. It simply had the best orator and propagandist at the head of its government.

And, yes, you are right about the majority of Indian deaths being civilian. I admit I have always considered them with the soldiers because so many of them died of starvation when Britain confiscated their food for its own people.

At the moment, we are using Attitude. I miss the nuclear explosion mint in Sensodyne, but this protects the nerve endings well, which is critical, believe me. It’s also vegan, which I am not, but that might appeal to others.

Out of curiosity, which toothpaste and mouthwash have you found? I got a Canadian toothpaste, but am not thrilled with it, and am still looking for a mouthwash that does the job.

How are you doing on personal hygiene items like toothpaste, mouthwash, soap, shampoo, et alia?

I do wish people would stop with the “Britian stood alone.” stuff. Even before Hitler attacked the Soviet Union, there were Allies fighting all over the world, resistance movements in every single continental European country, famously France, but also the Nederlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, Norway, Denmark, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. The entire British Empire was at war, either based in Britain, as saboteurs on the continent, on fronts from east Asia to the Sahara – Canada, Newfoundland, Nepal, Australia, New Zealand – India alone lost 2 million fighters (look it up!), Burma, Malta, South Africa, Egypt, and southern Rhodesia. China did not just surrender blindly: before 1941, both Mao and Sun Yat-sen had armies fighting the Japanese which kept them from attacking the Soviet Union after Hitler turned. Mongolia and Korea never stopped fighting, either. Britain endured the Blitz, it is true, and Churchill certainly made some great speeches about ‘standing alone’ while he was sacrificing literally millions of ‘colonials’ to preserve his European troops. But it was, and is, propaganda.

True or not, one can avoid the whole issue by using your phone as a phone, maybe to send texts, with location, mike, and camera switched off permanently, and all the other apps deleted or disabled. Sure, Google will still know you called your SO daily and your Mom once a week (NOT ENOUGH!), and that you were supposed to pick up the dry cleaning last night (did you?). Meh. If that’s what floats the Surveillance Society’s boat, I am not too worried.

Thanks for clarifying that.