Arsenic

Sometimes I will pop in on toxic podcasts warning of the big bad transgender agenda.

They are all highly predictable and usually include a detransitioner who swears that they were guided by a bad gender therapist. It is the equivalent of saying I got a bad nose job (a much higher regret rate) and now no one should. No one can make you do anything.

In other words, it's all breathtakingly stupid and full of malice.

Blanchard is still making the rounds saying that the transgender legions refuse to acknowledge the reality of a term he invented. It would be comical if it weren't so badly intentioned but at least it allows them to high-five in their echo chamber.

I always go back to one point which is that their efforts are like putting drops of arsenic into a huge city's water supply. Their aim to do harm is insufficient to stem a tide that can't be stopped.

Do people sometimes make decisions in life they later regret? Every day and for the foreseeable future that we are on this planet. Besides, not all transgender people transition nor should they by default.

However not everyone is the same and lumping them all together for the sake of an agenda is beyond disingenuous and just plain evil.

If only

A FOX News reporter on perenially smug Jesse Waters' program, was featured visiting a homeless encampment in New York city for the purposes of attacking Zohran Mamdani. 

The propaganda network of America was seen belittling people on the presumption that they want to live in squalor. The reporter after touching the belongings of the people who lived there, proceeded to push a microphone into the faces of those sleeping on the pavement asking "why are you sleeping here?" 

The smugness was deliciously punch worthy. 

The exploding global crisis of inequality is getting ready for payback and blaming the victims as lazy is not going to fare well. 

The world is in crisis and the desperation is growing among people who used to be able to keep up. As the middle class dwindles down to a nice idea that once existed, we are ending up with a scenario that is untenable. 

The relative economic stability a large swath of North Americans experienced growing up is now increasingly reserved for people who have much more money than they know what to do with. 

At one point the reporter pushes his luck and asks a homeless man "Sir what do you do for a living?" 

The man responds sarcastically 

"I hold up news reporters at gun point" 

If only.

Calculated risk

Personal growth isn't measured by how safe we were in life but by how willing we were to step outside our comfort zone. 

This I have learned in spades and I am now finishing a cleanup stage that is resulting in what I feel is the best version of me yet. 

I am never going to be perfect but the little steps taken always in a forward direction have moved me closer than ever to the most authentic version of myself. 

If I hadn't taken calculated risks I wouldn't be where I am.

Into the void

There's an early episode of Futurama where professor Farnsworth invents a hat which gives a monkey superior intelligence including the ability to speak. It's one of the funniest of the series because of the dislike between Frye and the monkey leading to some hilarious exchanges. 

Larer, the monkey becomes disappointed with his situation. His parents are brought into a social function where they proceed to engage in mayhem. Some poop may have also been flung. 

Near the end of the episode the hat is damaged just enough to reduce the monkey's superior intelligence by half. He is happy beyond words and asks the professor not to repair it. 

He wants just enough intelligence but not more. 

The philosophy behind here is spot on. We can spend time analyzing everything to death but then not live. There is a balance to be had between instinct and introspective thought such that we can enjoy the best of both human capabilities. 

As a serial over-analyzer it was a bit of a touche reminder. 

At the end of the episode the monkey is asked by Farnsworth what he will do now. 

"I think I'll study business" he says gleefully. 

Farnsworth, shocked from disappointment, screams into the void. 

"Noooooo!"

Cut to black.

Asshat

Alberta is getting set to build a data center which will consume the equivalent power needed to service the entire city of Edmonton. 

The problem is that Alberta already pays the highest electricity utility rates in the country and in a largely unregulated province, premier Danielle Smith is telling her citizenry not to worry about increasing electricity bills. 

If you believe rates won't go up after the center's completion then I have swamp land to sell you. 

The Alberta government is our MAGA light province meaning that they have the same penchant for conservative hard-headedness and acting before properly thinking things through as Texas. Smith made the announcement wearing a cowboy hat perhaps thinking it would carry more gravitas. 

My province of Quebec has its power generation governed and operated by the province (hydro Quebec) and any data center built here will be paying the highest price per kwh of any facility to make sure that citizens are not burdened. 

As a general rule we aren't overly keen on having any built here.

When asked by the media if Alberta would ever push for any forms of renewable energy, Danielle Smith emphatically said no making sure that at some point in the future it will come back to haunt the province. 

Needless to say, climate change was duly unimpressed by Smith's certainty.

 

Not controversial

I watched part of a talk by Julia Serano which dealt with the accusation that transsexuals were deliberately reinforcing the gender binary. This is actually true but then it's inadvertent since transsexuals are all about identity. 

Once they transition their expression is as varied as anyone else's. In other words, some are ultra-feminine while others live perennially in a T-shirt and jeans and don't wear a stitch of makeup unless they absolutely have to. 

The fact that this should spark any controversy especially within the world of gender variance is surprising because if we understand the differences between identity and expression, the question should be immediately settled. 

Plenty of people who don't have core identity questioning can have a wide range of expression. However, settling a disconnect of core identity is something else entirely. 

I understand the general public being confused, but gender variant people should know better.

There are politics everywhere. It's unavoidable.

Outcome

When we look back on our lives we remember incidents where we might rethink the way we acted or failed to act. 

They can stay burned in the memory without knowledge of how a different action from us might have altered the outcome. 

This is the could've should've we humans love to indulge in our attempt to second guess. 

Two things come to mind here. One is that we are imperfect beings and the other is that the better outcome we imagine (had our input been different) might not have come to pass. 

We like to think we are to blame for much but sometimes forget to factor in that we had no ill will or malice when we reacted. 

We let our judgement of a hair trigger human response stew in the brain sometimes for years without a satisfactory conclusion. 

The English poet Alexander Pope coined the phrase "to err is human, to forgive divine" and I try to remember that when I fall into the trap of trying to go down conceptual rabbit holes.

Forgiving also includes ourselves.

Hoopla

Christopher Nolan's new film "The Odyssey" has got the MAGAverse's panties in a bunch. 

Not only did Nolan have the audacity to cast a black woman (Lupita Nyong'o) as Helen of Troy but he also put Eliott Page (a trans man) in his movie. This was of course a bridge too far for right wing pundits but also for the incels typing nasty comments from the safety of their basements. 

Blaire White, one of the right wing's token trans persons, was of course also amongst the horrified as she fumed through her video using her artificially injected lips.

Both the critics and audiences are giving the Nolan film rave reviews which is even more infuriating for people who love to stew in grievance as their primary pastime. 

The "woke agenda" backlash is what helped get Kankles McTaco tits elected (thank you Jennifer Welch!) except now the shine is big time off the apple. Things are going very badly for a regime that promised to get the country on track while simultaneously pissing in the corn flakes of the most disenfranchised minorities. 

That hasn't turned out too well.

People are getting tired of the whining and the moaning from people who for years now have made a living from spewing negativity. 

All this hoopla over a movie about an 8th century BC fictional epic by Homer prompts me to kindly invite the naysayers to go get a life.

Tonic

I do feel empathy for people standing at Jehovah's witnesses kiosks. They believe earnestly that they are doing the right thing. 

Religion for many works as a pacifier. It provides them community and a dogma regardless of its veracity. 

This is the way it has always been. 

The problem is that it also breeds a type of vulnerability which is ripe for abuse by the powerful. Prosperity gospels arise which contort an essential message of peace and love into something more earthly and even sinister. 

Cults are built where people will do anything to avoid thinking critically (assuming they are able). 

For centuries the powerful used faith as a way to keep the masses from seeing how much of their misery and enslavement were man-made. They were told to hope for salvation as tonic for what ailed them and to keep praying while they were being bamboozled. 

We haven't changed one bit.

There is only one truth, except that no one here is fully privy to it.

On the head of a pin

In more intellectual circles, the argumentation around transgender issues is equivalent to "how many angels can dance on the head of a pin"; an ecclesiastical pondering which the common folk has no interest in or any need for.

In other words, the discussions become necessarily laden with talk of gametes, reproductive issues and chromosomes because it suits the detractors as key differentiators. 

The problem with this is that real life doesn't operate this way. A completely stealth transgender woman lives her life on a pragmatic level based on interactions that don't involve these things. Most people don't even understand them. 

To the public she is a woman and possibly to most of the people she calls acquaintances. Perhaps only her close friends know she wasn't born genetically female. 

Sex and gender are lived out in the world and not in a laboratory. Men and women are also born and raised with traits that bleed into each other. Meaning that the behaviour and habits that we term masculine and feminine are not the exclusive property of each birth sex. 

The general public is not versed in the kinds of issues I sometimes read about or watch on podcasts. They determine who they are dealing with based on a subjective assessment which in the end has more to do with whether they are facing a nice person or an unpleasant one. 

Regretably human intolerance and stupidity often offer up their strongest presence in circles where we ignore lived experience in favour of more esoteric leanings meant to discredit the legitimacy of people; people whose sex or gender are secondary to the more important question of their character.

It's one of the specialties and qualities I find most distasteful in the odious gender critical movement which sees danger everywhere and operates in spreading fear instead of bathing in intelligence.

Regretably, human stupidity can be and often is contagious.

Comeuppance

The man who asked Brad Raffensperger in Georgia to find him 11,870 votes slurred his way through a speech last night which reeked of sheer panic. 

Trump knows that if the GOP loses the house and senate in November, he is most definitely cooked. Impeachment and consequences will most assuredly follow. The most corrupt president in US history will hopefully finally face justice. 

This means that he will do anything to try and cheat but will ultimately fail once again. 

A lady MAGA voter recently posted: 

"I voted for Donald Trump to piss off liberals. It was really funny. I am worried that I will lose my Medicaid now. 

I have type II diabetes with diabetic retinopathy. If I lose my healthcare, I won't be able to afford my meds and will lose my vision. 

I'm in tears. Please help me" 

These two situations are related of course. Both the lying saviour who takes advantage of people who fall for propaganda and his willing disciples will face a comeuppance. 

One of them deserves it much more than the other.

Anything goes

Those of you who are a little older like me, grew up in a world where you were observed under a magnifying glass. 

You were taught manners and that people were watching which affected the way you lived your life. 

That has completely changed. 

Many people are rude, self-centered and comport themselves as they like in public. This has turned a negative into a positive for gender variant people since no one cares how one presents. These characters have desensitized the general public.

You are liable to see someone grocery shopping in pajama pants. Some people who look positively atrocious are superbly confident in their atrociousness. 

Do I care what these idiots think of me? Take a wild guess.

It takes some rewiring of your brain but if you are still scared today to present in public, perhaps it's because you haven't been paying attention at all. 

I've just about seen it all.

Go live your life.

Advice

Taking advice from another transgender person can often be problematic. 

We are such unique beings that what worked well for someone else could be completely wrong for us. We have different psychologies, family histories, religious beliefs, etc which will greatly colour our decision making process. 

The best advice to take is probably regarding the pragmatic things like skin care, clothing, etc. This is relatively harmless. 

However, issues dealing with personal psychology are another matter entirely. 

Everyone has a highly personal journey of discovery and I made sure to very carefully weigh what I was taking in as information from others with a healthy degree of skepticism; never negativity. 

What worked for them was great. 

Some transgender people make the mistake of jumping the gun when their egg cracks. I can completely understand this and yet everything built to date is then put into jeopardy. 

The older we are when we discover ourselves the more we are invested somewhere.

I have sat on that precarious edge since my early 40's always trying to weigh what to do. Copying someone else's path wouldn't have helped me in the least and wouldn't have been wise.

There is no perfect age to transition nor is there an obligation to do so. 

It is your life and no one else's.

Model stranger

 

Blunt

Over the years, my bluntness has got me in trouble more times than I can count with just about every shade of the spectrum. My examining, prodding and questioning seemed to get some people's backs up. 

My dry analytical approach doesn't suit everyone but then I hold no malice against anyone. My aim is to uphold the rights of all while trying to understand where the priorities should lie. 

In this world, the weakest and most vulnerable are always the easiest target. 

Right now in the US and the UK's gender critical movement in particular, there is a concerted push to eradicate transgender people. They are to be so persecuted to the point where they desist and detransition. 

They are to disappear from view. 

I live in a city and country where transgender people generally feel safe and are supported. Is it perfect here? far from it but I lived far too long in the shadows and I have the nasty temper to show for it (working on it ;)). 

Youth don't yet have that confidence or life resources and inside countries where they are actively persecuted, it can be scary beyond words. 

I have nothing against people who bend gender for pleasure, for fun, for relaxation or for the joy of expression. But then, they have more choices. 

Conversely, transgender people trying to live their truth openly every day in the world aren't quite so lucky.

Time's up

The top 10% of US earners are spending the same total money on discretionary things (ie. excluding mortgages, etc) as those in the bottom 70%. 

Let that sink in for a minute. 

Within that bottom group there are people who have trouble with surprise expenses exceeding $400 and are skipping meals or buying medicine to keep up with rising costs. Some of them are living in their cars while they hold 2 jobs. 

This is a bomb waiting to go off and it will. 

The American economy is cratering as the regime spends money on a war of choice while it tries to keep up with interest payments on its crippling debt. Something has to give somewhere. 

Tomorrow night Trump will take to the airwaves to moan once again about the 2020 election. 

I think it's time to finally put grandpa to bed before he does any more damage.

"I don't see it"

 

A book by its cover

Whenever I use a public restroom (which is daily) I don't normally look up from the mirror. I wash my hands, then dry them and leave unless I am spoken to. 

When I walked into one this morning there were two women looking after their appearance. Later, upon exiting my stall after finishing my business, both were still there. 

"Purple is a nice color. It suits you" 

"Thank you very much!" I said looking at her as i finished washing up. She was maybe early 30's and sufficiently bohemian and tattooed to potentially have her be dismissed by some people. 

The other woman who was far more conventional, ignored both of us and applied her lip colour.

The younger of the two had been referring to my simple lavender day dress. 

"I really appreciate the compliment have a nice day!" I said smiling as I exited. 

"You too"

We are always better to never judge people by appearances which is a lesson reinforced to me almost daily.

We are all books with covers that don't necessarily accurately represent what's inside.

For no good reason

ICE agents these days seem to have a tendency to shoot people while the victims are driving their cars. 

The latest one involved a 26 year old man named Joan Sebastian Guerrero in sleepy Biddeford Maine who was in the US legally. He was then pulled out of his car and handcuffed never mind providing him medical assistance as he bled out on the pavement. 

He wasn't the target of the warrant but now he's dead before succumbing to his injuries saying "I tried to stop" 

Interesting that there is a lack of bodycam footage which makes it easier to use the excuse that the driver was using their car as a weapon. 

The propaganda channel known as FOX News will play up the illegal alien angle for their cult which is a shame because a 3 year old girl (who was also in the car) no longer has a father. 

All for no good reason.

Energy

The public feeds off the energy we provide to them. They can detect if we are tense, joyful, sad, etc. by what we project. 

If you are looking out for who is looking at you (which many trans people fall prey to) they will detect that also. 

What they want to see most is someone who knows who they are and is self-assured enough in their own skin to not care what about what others think. 

Easier said than done but once there we feel it.

Shadows

I think that Lindsey Graham almost perfectly personified the self-hating boomer. Feeling forced to live a lie, his frustration was then channeled into a cynical and hypocritical conservatism that said: 

"If I can't live in authenticity, I will make sure you don't either" 

He certainly wasn't the only one and many people of his generation lived in the shadows only to slowly see subsequent generations begin to free themselves as things progressed. 

Conservatism in its most distasteful cultural guise is about frustration and grievance. It isn't joyful or advancing society but instead dour and whiny. 

It is about making sure others know their place especially if one is particularly unhappy with their own life.

Hope to be wrong

My son asked my opinion about femboys yesterday. He had them summarized rather well as young men who enjoy feminization but don't necessarily have core gender identity questioning or conflicts. 

I told him that many of the older people today who identify as "crossdressers" would likely be femboys and thus live far more openly than they felt allowed to at the same age. 

The femboy aesthetic is generally an ultra feminine and sexualized one; short skirts and all.

I only have one underlying concern regarding some of them which is that the euphoria (or trans joy as they use) that they seem intoxicated with could lead down paths they may potentially regret. 

I hope this isn't the case but I have seen a number of them go down the HRT and body modification path that, by age 40, they may in retrospect look back upon as not their best decision. 

Your twenties are an interesting phase of life but not one necessarily known to be replete with deep personal insight and wisdom. 

Nevertheless, I sincerely and genuinely hope to be proven wrong and will gleefully eat crow if need be.

If I'm still around

Pete Hoekstra is the American ambassador to Canada and a generally reprehensible human being. 

His latest lie was that the recently completed Gordie Howe bridge was not entirely paid for by Canada which of course it was. The plan was for Canada to foot the bill and then to split the collected tolls evenly between Michigan and Ontario. 

Hoekstra wouldn't be in that role were he not MAGA and thus be able to lie as readily as you breathe like his puppet master. You would need to be like Trump to be found acceptable by the regime. 

Even the former Stephen Harper communication director was aghast by the fabrication. Harper led a conservative government which thankfully did not tip into criminality. 

Trump has squandered all of the capital and goodwill that Canadians had for the US. I won't be going back even long after the wicked witch is dead and I am far from being the only one. 

We just don't trust a healthy portion of your electorate.

Maybe I will change my mind after the US get their house in order again if I'm still around.

It takes generations to build trust but far less than that to destroy it.

The Traveller

 

Robby Hoffman on gender dysphoria

Explaining what should be obvious but confuses so many people. The bridges and intersections of sex, gender expression and identity have never been neat and tidy.

Well worth the watch...

Characters

Humans can be at once both deeply complex and deceptively simple beings. I am a keen observer of not only others but of my own behaviour. 

Some people seem to be themselves more readily than others with the risk that their frankness spills over into the blunt and distasteful. 

Conversely, some are so steeped in affectation that they give off an inauthentic air. 

After dealing with so many people over the years, I learned to recognize patterns and could sometimes even see hints of the wounded child we all have underneath. 

For example, the person who constantly dabbles in one upmanship gives away that they are insecure and perhaps weren't listened to as a child. 

The hardest thing about my career wasn't the work itself but instead dealing with the cast of characters and their psychologies as well as my own.

  Coffee house which used to be bank in 1910

Monologue

Studies show that 30 to 50% of people have an inner monologue running through their heads while the rest do not. Instead, the remainder use imagery or concepts they can turn to when they need to access higher cognition. 

Once again we are shown about the neurodiversity that exists in people and how each of us processes thoughts and ideas differently. 

I used to think everyone had a running monologue which has led me to think "lucky for those who don't" because I can't seem to shut mine up :)

Me, myself and I

If we all thought more in terms of "I am myself" we would be better off. 

Regretably, most of us measure ourselves through comparison which means we always fall short of some standard. This happens in every area of human affairs we can think of and is universal. 

Comparison is almost inevitable since we are taught, virtually from birth, how to assimilate. We must then spend decades unlearning this programming so we can become fully ourselves. 

Human insecurity is what drives this thirst to measure up; that and the fear of being alone. We want to be accepted for who we are but are also afraid to stray too far from acceptability of the herd.

In other words, we just can't win.

Par for the course

White Christian nationalism is currently the most dangerous movement in America. It is the US version of the Taliban and if given the chance it would set the country back at least a century. 

Every bit of progress made since the US Civil War would be wiped out. 

Eliminating the right of women to vote is only one of the draconian aims of these people who are capitalizing on end of empire woes to gain converts. 

This is yet another clear sign we are headed for a painful end of cycle to the post WW2 era. As usual, with human idiocy at the forefront. 

Every 80 to 100 years we do something astronomically stupid and then start another cycle of relative prosperity which keeps stupid people quiet and distracted for a while. 

As the US empire continues its inevitable decline, strange things will continue to happen and this one is just par for the course.

The fascinating thing about humanity is that the biggest victims for its sins are usually the ones who least deserve to be.

Collective unconcious

Carl Jung describes the collective unconscious as the whole of inherent universal traits that form part of the human experience.

They are so engrained that we cannot explain them. They simply exist during every era and every culture almost as an archetypal baseline. 

It's as if this unconscious forms part of our DNA. 

Our job is then to distinguish between and arrive at some understanding between personal consciousness and this baked-in portion such that we can achieve life balance.

Enemies

The more we disarm the better. 

Over my life I learned I needed weapons to survive but I am slowly laying them down just enough. I can still possess a bite but I only need one sufficient for means of self-protection. 

I see young transgender people almost daily (at least the ones I am able to detect) with loose and carefree energy which makes complete sense. They've had a less steep hill to climb; something I am extremely glad about. It means that the world has radically changed since I was their age. 

Thus I have slowly realized that advocacy for transgender people need not contain venom I slowly fomented over decades.

I need to drop indignation which just ends up harming only myself. In my deep dive exploration over the years I allowed anger to seep into the process. Yes, I was gaining confidence but at the same time letting some negativity in. 

The world isn't ever going to be completely repairable, but that doesn't mean we should allow our hope or empathy to be affected. 

We can even feel sympathy for people we were certain should be our enemies; especially when we realize they are just as flawed as everyone else if not more.

Progress

Life can often be uncertain and so we tread carefully looking for steady ground where we can find it. Knowing how to proceed isn't always obvious and our choices often unclear. 

However one thing stands out for me in that if we feel we wouldn't go back to a previous stage, we have done the right thing. Even if we aren't perfectly comfortable where we are right now, we are satisfied with the progress made. 

If we can say that about our lives then that iterative process has paid off. 

We may have been a little scared at each step, but we never felt completely stuck because we kept searching for answers and slowly progressed.

Islamic Japan

Idiot...

Time spoken for

The people I know who are not retired operate on a different frequency than mine. Their time is spoken for in advance and many tell me I am fortunate. 

I always say to be careful what they wish for. 

Retirement is not easy if you have been accustomed to action for decades. Suddenly you need to define what your life means outside of all that tumult plus potentially deal with any unresolved personal issues. 

When you get here you permit yourself to be in retrospective mode. You look back on your life and marvel at how you were able to get through all that. 

It's a testament to human perseverance. 

Many people can't wait to get where I am only to realize it's not what they expected. Like everything else, one gets used to it and the novelty eventually wears off. 

Am I aching to return to career? like I need a hole in the head.

However when we stop, meaning and purpose are placed on the table and examined which is why I tell people to think about their change of life in advance.

Ebullient

"How are you darling!" 

She approaches me with a fierce confidence and energy as I stood aimlessly for a moment in the Sephora downtown branch. 

This transgender woman isn't even 30 which helps explain that ebullient attitude. She isn't small as when we are face to face, we are of similar height. 

"Don't mess with my colour" I joke recalling how she helped me find a new shade when their product line had changed. 

"Haha don't you worry" she says as she breezes by me briefly resting a hand on my shoulder.

Then she is off to another customer never dropping her smile.

Emily's last game

One of those scary atheletes...

To an 11

Being transgender involves a life full of second guessing yourself. There is almost no way around it. 

Was I read? Do I "pass"? (a term I hate) Is my voice ok? Should I medically transition? What will my family and friends think? 

The list goes on and on. 

It is the usual human existential angst ramped up to an 11 and no matter your age or life situation there will be plenty of obstacles in the way. 

I wish I could say there was a shortcut but there isn't. The only way is to slowly build a resolve made of steel that has you move forward because stagnating is the scarier of the two options. 

I struggled like everyone else existing within this tiny fraction of humanity but I wouldn't trade climbing uphill for anything. It made me stronger, more resilient and less easily derailed by people whose opinions don't matter. Sometimes that ends up including family and people you thought were your true friends. 

In the end no one can take care of you like yourself. You can hope to get assistance but you cannot count on it as a guarantee. 

I've learned a lot about humanity in my life; enough to know that the general public is far more short-sighted and far less intelligent than I thought. It's helped me to let many of them go and to choose more wisely. 

It's also taught me to be kinder to myself.

Justice

Belgium did the world a favour yesterday. 

By defeating the United States at the world cup they eliminated the possibility of having that team's victory be stained by corruption. It also gave the rest of us the chance to enjoy a little satisfaction in witnessing yet again that whatever Trump touches turns rancid. 

FIFA's nefarious shenanigans are well documented and seeing Infantino handing the criminal Trump a fake peace prize made us all more than a little queazy. It made the US elimination yesterday feel all the more just. 

The striker Balogun is of Nigerian extraction and holds 3 citizenships. He was born in the US which is what qualified him for the team. The irony is that the very same birthright citizenship granted by the 14th ammendment is what Trump wanted the supreme court to overturn. 

You can't make this stuff up.

"Help me"

In a sense, having all gender variant behaviour today fall under the banner of 'trans' is a bit unfortunate if only because we can lose track of where our focus should be. 

No one argues against diversity and letting people be who they are. What we want is an open society where people can be authentic which regretably is still an unattained target. 

We should want primarily to help those who need assistance. This means the focus should be on people who are struggling with identity issues who don't know or have access to how to address them. 

The other day at the thrift store my daughter saw a very confident gender variant person of approximately her age who wasn't disguising their birth sex. They were simply expressing themselves in a feminine manner including sporting traditional women's clothing. 

From her vantage point this young person didn't seem to need help. They were self-assured; certainly as much as anyone else in the store which I love to see as does my daughter.

I have a retired friend who I consider to be representative of the public. The nuance of the topic is lost on him because he hasn't had to think about it much over his life. I've had to patiently explain things to him which he then forgets. I find most people are like this and certainly my 90 year old mother (who is sympathetic) also is. 

Gender criticals pounce on this confusion on every case which suits their cause to point out the folly of playing with a rigid binary which only existed because it was so strictly enforced. 

However, I always go back to the most important and fundamental issue here which is: do you need help determining who you are?

I certainly did. Now I'm just old and cranky.

A thousand words

The photo below should win a Pulitzer prize. 

It is of a young black woman in the subway surrounded by cowardly white nationalists sporting masks. It makes one think about the US south in the 1950's when black students were spit on for daring to sit at lunch counters reserved for whites. 

The current climate has encouraged all this ugliness such that on the nation's 250th birthday there are racists marching in Washington. The only solace being that at least they know they don't have the majority's backing; hence the masks. 

No doubt, however, that they have plenty of backers at home cheering them on. 

The racism problem in America never went away but was sufficiently swept under the rug until the timing for surfacing was once again right. 

It just took someone to give them permission.

Angine de Poitrine

Cultural divisiveness seems to power our world. It's to the point where facts will be ignored if they favor the side you hate. It's no longer about advancing ideas to help the most people but to make sure your team wins and to denigrate those who don't hold your views.

This is very destabilizing and has been encouraged by political leaders to control the masses. 

The musical duo Angine de Poitrine recently played a free show to over 150,000 people at the Montréal Jazz festival. I don't care for them that much plus being crammed in with that size of crowd on a hot night, doesn't do it for me. 

However it got me thinking about what draws so many people to this group and decided that a big part is their quirky and novel originality. They wear strange costumes and speak to each other in an alien language plus use invented hand gestures which their fans copy at their shows. 

Another aspect for me is that they are as apolitical as they come and thus can be adopted by anyone. You can be one of their groupies and be one of the ones who gets it. They don't come with a message other than to infect you with their grooves 

Sure, there are better musicians out there with more interesting compositions but they aren't as uniquely weird as this band from rural Quebec who has gone viral. In the era of AI they seem to have come out as a rebellious antidote to prepackaged pap from a computer. This despite the fact that their music relies heavily on rhythmic tempo and repetitive lines you might find in middle eastern music. 

There is something about this strange timeline which has people hungry for something that hasn't chosen a side; something that isn't branded yet by anyone and just wants you to vibrate to what they are presenting. 

Maybe that's where the appeal lies in this time of echo chambers. They can be for you who you want them to.

Right versus wrong

 

Solutions

There's a hair solution for everyone. 

Mine is growing in nicely but the crown area is thinner than I would like. Thus I have been watching videos featuring women with thinning hair or alopecia and seeing what they do. 

I now have the answer. 

Even as I continue to work on my scalp I will be ordering what is called a hair topper. It clips into your natural hair and mixes with the rest of it (assuming the colors match). Since I will be coloring my hair and the topper can also be colored (human hair), it will eventually and permanently eliminate my need for wigs. 

Many women who don't have hair loss issues wear toppers just to add volume to their own hair.

I have never colored my hair but I did my homework and will opt for demi permanent dye with no ammonia. After 30 shampoos it washes out naturally. 

I want to have relatively short hair (like my current wigs) because as women age it is more complementary plus it's easier to take care of.

I occurred to me yesterday that I have been transitioning since my mid 40's. It's just that it has been the most carefully crafted and hesitant of transitions. You could almost say I came to it kicking and screaming.

It will only have taken me almost 20 years :)

                           Topper

Happy 250

Happy 250th to my American friends who saw the current fiasco coming a mile away. Starting in 2016 they knew it would be bad even if they didn't imagine how much worse it would be. 

I want them to take solace in the reality that you can only properly repair things from scratch. You cannot do things half way which is why the damage needs to be felt by as many as possible. 

What arises from the solutions to this current mess can only be better. 

People who fall for cruelty will always form part of every society. Their personal troubles are strangely assuaged by seeing others suffer. As America continued its slide under the weight of oligarchy, many fell under the spell of a lazy populism from an idiot who promised to remove their ills. Regrettably many people are simple creatures who easily fall for slogans. 

The damage from this second term is much worse than the first and the cleanup will take decades. However, if at the other end comes a wholesale reform, future generations of US citizens will enjoy a system which renews the dream of a free and prosperous society for not just the tiny few.

Realizations

If we could get a handle on our psychology fully, most of our problems would fall away. 

Think about it. Much of our suffering comes at our own hands; what happened yesterday, the anxiety of what's coming tomorrow plus the magnification of our current challenges into major dramas. 

We are the cause. 

Solving this problem takes living. We begin to develop perspective over time and then we place the proper amounts of energy on things. No more, no less. 

One of our best tactics is to observe the lives of people who are challenged in a way we do not comprehend. We look at them and wonder how they do it day after day. 

Then we realize that it is because they must.

Frayed edges

At first blush the man sitting at the other side of the metro platform from me seems fine. Then suddenly he squawks like some prehistoric bird at the top of his lungs. 

No one reacts. 

We have a mental health epidemic in the world; one brought on by the insecurity and the broken human ties which are not visibly improving. 

When times are stable people feel reassured. When systems break down we end up with societal frayed edges. 

There is never a perfect era because when I was growing up diversity was an unthinkable thing. Conversely we had financial and societal harmony that kept more people from feeling despair. 

No such thing as perfect.

It's the little things

My neighbor came back from Barcelona a couple of months ago and brought me back a little God send. It is a USB rechargeable mini fan that I can carry in my purse and help with relief from the current heat. 

I don't leave the house without it in the morning and I use it judiciously lest it leave me high and dry at the worst possible moment. 

Often it's the little things in life that bring us the most joy; the little details that a friend imparts and tells you they appreciate your place in their life.

51st state

 

Curbing your enthusiasm

When gender variant people talk about curbing their behaviour they are primarily referring to expression. After all, your identity cannot be altered because you are who you are. It simply is. 

Curbing identity could instead be better referred to as repression. 

For example, many older gender variant and transgender people want to stay married and will limit their expression to within the confines established by their union. 

The problem arises when identity is ramped up as the governing factor and choice is steadily removed from the equation. Then we start talking about potential episodes of depression and anxiety over the long haul.

Therefore when we refer to self control we first need to try to understand as much as possible where our motivation originates. Otherwise we cannot know whether control is even warranted or desirable without there being consequences which could include health repercussions. 

Younger people are fortunate enough to be able to solve this problem by eliminating secrecy from the outset irrespective of where they lie on the expression-identity axis. 

However, for older people who may have gotten accustomed to repression and self-rejecting behaviour over decades, the answer becomes considerably more complex.

Oh boy, do I know this firsthand.

King Midas

Democratic socialists of America are starting to make in roads in US primaries. Endorsed by NYC mayor Zohran Mamdani who is putting all politicians to shame, people are realizing that the word socialism doesn't mean communism. 

As a result Mamdani is turning into King Midas by showing everyone how to truly help your constituents. He is making the establishment nervous.

Most of the top industrialized nations in the world (aside from the US) operate on some version of social democratic principles. You tax the wealthy sufficiently and then set up a safety net structure which tries to help the growing number of the working poor. 

Globalization propelled via a neoliberal philosophy didn't help matters for any nation, but we are going to have to work this back if we want to close a global wealth gap that is increasingly creating marginalized masses. 

For their part, Americans are starting to see that the system which prompted them to vote against their own interests for decades, has helped accelerate the affordability crisis. Centrist politicians fed through corporate and special interest donors are slowly becoming pariahs and for good reason. 

All hail King Midas.

On a hot day

I wasn't sitting far away from the spot where she stood in the metro car as I headed home for lunch.

The young trans woman was tall and thin with the only giveaway being her voice. Maybe she was at most mid twenties and adorned with a nose ring and tattoos. A flimsy top with spaghetti straps and a loose skirt were probably the most clothing she wanted to wear in this heat. On her feet she wore sandals. 

She was quite self-assured as she laughed heartily with her two young female friends as if no one was around. 

I love to see the confidence and a body language which ignores everyone around. Not that anyone paid her any mind as she enjoyed the attention of her friends. 

People are used to diversity these days and whether she or I were identified as transgender people on that metro car was irrelevant. As far as I could tell, no one took particular notice of either of us. 

It was just a metro car full of people on a hot day.

How to kill a fly

The recent supreme court ruling on trans atheletes is an example of how to kill a fly with a machine gun. 

In most states, transgender atheletes are either non-existant or represent a tiny sliver (much smaller than the trans population of the state) 

However this is red meat for right wingers because nothing enrages like the image of a transgender weight lifter dressed in a pink leotard sporting facial hair when the reality is more likely a lone spindly trans girl running high school track. 

Meanwhile, Mac Beggs who is a trans man wrestler has been largely ignored because he is going in the opposite direction. If after taking testosterone he beats a weaker and less adept genetic male, that doesn't matter because it doesn't fuel enough outrage. 

Needless to say that everyone wants fairness in sport but that's not what this is about. This is about finding an issue that inflames passion in the ignorant and the bigoted. 

Since human stupidity is a gift that keeps on giving, it will forever remain a primary feature and not a bug.

Like they say, "you can't fix stupid".

Winner take all

Trade deficits are not inherently bad things especially when one considers economies of scale. For example a country like Canada which is roughly 9 times smaller than the US in terms of population, is not going to consume at the same rate. 

Therefore trying to eliminate all trade imbalances shows a lack of understanding of economics which is what Trumpism is all about. The idea is to crush and to see trade partners as adversaries rather than as allies. Mutually beneficial arrangements are not the goal.

The point is to win and gloat which comes from the psychopathy of the man-child president. 

As example, the Kentucky bourbon industry has taken a massive hit because, as retaliation for tariffs and the 51st state rhetoric, Canadians stopped buying US alcohol. Who is the largest consumer of their product outside the US? we are. 

The Trump regime is using a clumsy sledgehammer approach to trade that will ultimately leave them isolated. 

US farmers voted heavily in favor of Trump who has been doing everything but help them. They fell for the rhetoric and many are going bankrupt as rising cost of fertilizer (Hormuz closure), rising cost of farm equipment (tariffs) and markets for their crops (like soy beans) decrease. 

When Trump leaves office he will have left everything worse than when he entered it. But many will never allow reality get in the way of dogma which is a real shame.

Happy Canada day :)