Finally, a sign of hope

On Tuesday evening, I glanced at the polling in Alabama, and my wife and I went to bed expecting a Roy Moore win.

On Wednesday morning we opened the National Post to the opposite — fantastic — result. My wife immediately burst into tears — happy ones.

Recently, Conrad Black raged about the Canadian media and their persistent anti-Trump bias, claiming that the (questionable) successes Trump has had were being drowned out by negative commentary and a focus on his personal shortcomings. But Mr. Black is missing the point. The Canadian media are simply reflecting the immense sadness that Canadians are experiencing at the loss of stability, reliability and moral compass hitherto generally attributable to the U.S.A. In spite of the weird stuff they often do, that anchor of Western values was there. Until Trump.

No better evidence than my wife’s tears, on hearing good news, of how depressed we have become watching the loathsome circus next door.

To speak up against this practice and suggest that we support these children in any way except with hormonal treatment until they are 19 — the age society deems them safe to make decisions about alcohol — runs the risk of being labelled an oppressor of rights.

How this situation has come to be defies understanding. behaviour. Unhealthy food is but one of the principal causes of childhood obesity. Less screen time and increased physical activity may well overcome the detrimental health affects of a few “happy meals.”

Has the government examined the correlation between the onset of childhood obesity and the widespread introduction of cellphones, chat lines and mobile entertainment services, and helicopter parents banning improvised child’s play?

I am reluctant to support “nanny-state” activism. Although well-intentioned, it often misses the mark. Kids in the burgeoning underclass don’t need Senator Greene Raine’s nannystate legislation preventing their seeing ads for junk food. She should devote effort to bringing sports and recreation to kids lacking the opportunities she had when growing up.

When I was standing in for a parent who was travelling, her son in Grade 6 got into trouble at his school. I told the principal it would be better to send him on a run instead of suspension. He said he couldn’t do that because his students didn’t get any exercise and a run could cause a deathly heart attack!