The right to bare arms

The right to bear arms

In the US, the right to bear arms is probably more vehemently defended than the right to potable water.  It's a shame, because there are so many instances where stupid/unstable people do serious damage with their guns.

So, should I be surprised at the report of a man who fatally shot another man in a movie theatre just because he was texting?  Apparently, the texting occurred during the pre-movie advertising, and the situation escalated when the person doing the texting ignored a request from the person sitting behind him to stop.

The victim, a 43 year old man, was shot and killed by a 71-year-old retired police captain (!).  The retired policeman actually shot THROUGH the hand of the victim's wife (who had been trying to shield her husband from the shooter).  The retired cop is being charged with second-degree murder.

Here's the full story.

Just how cold was it?

Just how cold was it today?

I had no idea before I checked the papers.  What I did know is this... removing the cap from a plastic bottle of water caused the water to freeze while trying to pour it out.

Going outside without proper layered clothing was an invitation to almost instant frostbite.

According to our local newspaper, our temperature today was COLDER than the temperature at the freaking SOUTH POLE!!!  Our low temperature of the day was -25.2 degrees Celcius (that's -13.6 Fahrenheit in the US).  That's not the coldest day on record here (that was -32.8 degrees Celsius in 1973), but it's still damned cold!

You know, if I lived in Calgary, Edmonton, North Bay, Winnipeg, or any of the other Canadian cities that are known for their unbelievably cold winters, this wouldn't be such a big deal.

But my home is in Southern Ontario, where the latitude is the same as Northern California.

It's not supposed to be that cold here!  In fact, our record HIGH temperature came in 1988, when the temperature reached 40.2 C (that's 104.36 Fahrenheit), not counting the effects of humidity.

Not exactly your "typical" Canadian weather, eh?

You don't say!

You don't say!

I personally believe that we, as humans, are not alone in the vast universe.  With billions upon billions of stars, why would it not be possible for some of them to support intelligent life in their own planetary systems.

Having said that, however, I also believe it's very unlikely that in such a vast universe, intelligent lifeforms have been able to locate little-old-Earth in the midst of all the chaos of the cosmos.

So, in that context, I just learned that one of Canada's retired Defense Ministers (Paul Hellyer) believes in UFOs!  I'm sure glad I didn't know this during my years in the Canadian Armed Forces Reserve... it would have made me nervous to know that the man in charge of the army believed in aliens.