Little Known Facts...

...about Sir John A.:

10 things you didn’t know about Canada’s first prime minister

Some of these are downright hilarious. For example:

"The 1864 Charlottetown Conference that founded Canada was only supposed to include representatives of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, who were gathering to discuss forming a Maritime union. Sensing an opportunity to build a nation, Macdonald and his pro-Confederation allies sailed the steamship Queen Victoria from Quebec to P.E.I. and crashed the conference. Aided by $13,000 worth of champagne that he brought along to the party, Macdonald sweet-talked the Maritimers into expanding the union to become Canada in 1867."

So that's how Canada came into being. I wonder what would have happened had Sir John been a sober sort?

And this:

"With his rugged face and wild hair, Macdonald was a dead ringer for British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881). The resemblance was so uncanny, one official at Disraeli’s funeral in London mistook Macdonald for Disraeli’s ghost."

Islam, Barack Obama And The Crusades

Rex Murphy hits it out of the park:

In Obama’s impulse to absolve Islam, he offers a rebuke to Christianity

"The President of the United States is an interesting theologian. He has taken to declaring that Islamic terrorists, who by their own emphatic insistence are Islamic, and who conduct their merciless operations in Nigeria, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq and fitfully in many countries around the world explicitly and defiantly under the banner of Islam, are not what or whom they say they are.

His purpose can been seen as vaguely worthy — making the point that not all Muslims subscribe to the violent actions and tenets of the numerous radical factions, but saying “not all” does not erase a worryingly large “some.” Some, in these dreadful cases, is very, very many. But who really blames, or has been blaming, “all Muslims” ever? Western world leaders to a person have been insisting it is not all Muslims since the morning of the 9/11 attacks. This is a tired, and by now needless, rhetorical gambit."

[---]

"My first qualification here would be to point the obvious, that in those times of the Crusades, Muslims were committing terrible deeds in the name of Allah. This was not a one-sided clash of blades and bludgeons. This is hardly a trivial point."

Interesting Take On...

...addictions: The Likely Cause of Addiction Has Been Discovered, and It Is Not What You Think

"-addiction is an adaptation. It's not you. It's your cage."

From the CBC...

...Destiny Nahanni-Hope, 20, found dead in Wrigley, N.W.T.

"Her body was found frozen behind a house in the small community.

RCMP say an autopsy will be performed to determine the cause of death. Police say there is no evidence so far of foul play.

Police and the N.WT. coroner's office are investigating."

Drugs? Alcohol? But will the CBC report it if it's found to be so?

Oh Dear...

...whatever will they do now?

Alcoholism IS genetic: Scientists identify key DNA which makes some people more vulnerable to the addiction

Excessive alcohol consumption triggered by gene mutation

Is Alcoholism Genetic? Scientists Discover Link to a Network of Genes In the Brain

A gene mutation for excessive alcohol drinking found

Alcohol Abuse Linked to Newly Identified Gene Network

Study finds gene network associated with alcoholism

The Genetics of Alcohol Metabolism

I remember years ago someone suggested the rate of alcohol addiction amongst Indians was at least partly genetic. There was a big hue and cry from native organizations, suggesting that articulating any such link was "raaaacist". Perhaps this new research will actually help, though.

Just a week or two ago, it was announced a link had been found between homosexuality and genes. Now this. Old memes are set on their heads every day, but it takes a long time for the new findings to become well known and new medical techniques to be implemented. You just never know what science is going to uncover next week. Let's hope this one isn't of the "wait five minutes" variety.