In the statement “keep your religion outta my government”, the line between ‘keep your religious beliefs from influencing governmental decision making’ and ‘people belonging to a religion should be restricted from participating in the running of government’ is quite fine, which is why I asked.

I appreciate your answering.

Are you suggesting only agnostics should govern?

Talarico said in the interview he wants the separation of church and state to return as the current blend diminishes both.

You’re preaching to the choir here.

The chart is for people that have never tried to sing.

I watched this last week and the moment where he breaks the panels by touching them is priceless.

From the United States perspective, less blood in reserve drives up prices for the population, so it seems to jive with healthcare as a whole there. I know Canada was buying plasma from them as well in the before times, but I’m not sure about that any more.

Several new plasma donation clinics have opened up to collect from people with more common blood types. It’s interesting to hear the UK ships blood in from the west at all. I would have figured there would be closer options available. Unless Brexit also made that more difficult too.

I understand the necessity of shipping blood around, but it sure would be nice if everywhere had enough donors to keep the blood in country. Though I suppose even in such a utopia, gold blood would still be sent around the world when necessary.

You’ve reminded me some years ago I donated at a pop up clinic, and it was across the street from a carnival that came to town. They went and got a bunch of ride and games tickets and gave them to blood donors. Big sign over at the carnival, and the clinic was packed.

That’s a random way to get people in, but it worked, and it was fun. Now if only they could take the donation while people wait in line for a ride haha.

Most appointments are to have something done to a person’s own benefit. Chiropractic, dental, accountant, that sort of thing. Making an appointment to donate blood to a person you’ll never meet is a type of selflessness that surprises me when I hear of people missing those appointments.

Someone at the clinic I go to once mentioned they had two or three missed appointments every day. I don’t know, I suppose I take it more seriously than most, but it strikes me as an odd thing to miss. Especially when the service here calls two days before an appointment to confirm.

I wonder if it was a mechanical horse being controlled by a rabbit under the hat. Hmm.

Thinking back now, it was collecting carrots and apples from a bunch of donkeys, so you may well be correct.

I beg to differ. Last year I happened across a horse wearing a top hat. Looked pretty smart to me.

To further this, the negative and positive value also matters. Someone with a negative type can only take negative blood, whereas a positive type can accept both.

I wish it were easier to get people to donate. Just this morning I heard a radio advertisement for the blood service that included the line ‘please schedule and attend an appointment’, which seems wild that so many people book a time then don’t show up.

To cheer you up a bit, here is Tom Scott talking about another ridiculous bridge, albeit quite a bit smaller.

He also allocated 15 million to the project back in 2020.

Manuel Moroun ran a television commercial years ago explicitly addressed to Trump begging him to help stop this new bridge.

The Moroun family owns the Ambassador Bridge, collecting a $50 toll from each of a few hundred trucks that cross it daily. They also own the duty free shops on either side I believe. Of course they have opposed a publicly owned bridge since the day it was proposed.

It’s not surprising Trump would be stoking the flames here. Support an old billionaire buddy’s family while simultaneously distracting from both the Epstein files and ICE? Three birds with one stone. Unfortunately for him, the time to stop the Gordie Howe was before it was built, not after billions have been spent.

This might result in delays, but the only thing coming from that is more resentment from the people that paid for it.

Okay, you right, I wrong, Merry Christmas.

I didn’t pretend marriage is universally innocent. I said it’s a tradition just like hanging colourful lights on a tree within a home in December, and that it’s just as aggressive to state everyone be rid of their decorations as that the concept of marriage should be abolished.

I didn’t say I thought you were wrong - I said the initial comment read a bit hot off the stove.

With any luck this will lead to small cars with small price tags being made available in Canada.

There are less hyperbolic ways to say marriage shouldn’t carry various legal benefits over civil unions just because it’s more or less become a tradition.

This reads like someone showing up for Christmas dinner with the family and tearing down the decorations because they don’t like how commercialized the holiday has become.

The chocolate is melted and poured in the French region of Europe.

Why do you think baskets should be required? To prevent theft? This has been implemented for a decade now, evidently thievery isn’t much of a concern.

There are no doubt multiple factors at play, but when things are easy and quality of life is decent, the honour system works.