You wouldn’t think the question of which is the tallest building in the United States needed to be answered by a Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. Yet there is the matter of the spire on top of One World Trade Center in New York City. Is it or isn’t it a permanent part of the building? The Council decided this week that it is permanent, and so at 1,776 feet, the building that replaces the Twin Towers destroyed twelve years ago by terrorists is now officially the tallest US building.
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“We are perishing for want of wonder, not for want of wonders,” said G.K. Chesterton. Indeed, there are wonders everywhere, if we would only stop and take notice. Even the lowly pencil is a wonder, as Drew Tidwell shows us in his six-minute video I, Pencil: The Movie, which deservedly took home the top Reason Video Prize last week. Turns out, being poor is not only less fun than being rich, it’s also bad for your health. According to an article in today’s Globe and Mail, poor Canadians are more likely to develop diabetes, more likely to suffer a heart attack, and more likely to die of cancer within five years of diagnosis. And being healthier, the rich tend to live longer. Life expectancy at age 25 for men in the highest income group is 7.1 years longer than for men in the lowest income group. Hardly seems fair, does it? One hundred years ago, humanity was on the verge of global war. Hitler’s Germany had already annexed Austria, and Hirohito’s Japan had invaded China, Mongolia, and the USSR. Tens of millions of people would die in the ensuing Second World War, the deadliest conflict in human history. Today, we remember the fallen, both military and civilian, in this and other wars. We remember, and we give thanks for the current peace, which we have good grounds for believing will be an enduring one. In the latest issue of The Nation, historian Jackson Lears takes the “happiness industry” to task for believing, with Margaret Thatcher, that there is no such thing as society. Lears disdains the notion of happiness and the array of self-help books out there aiming to help you pursue it. The focus on individual well-being, he thinks, distracts us from more worthwhile goals like reducing the unnecessary suffering of others. But is pursuing your own happiness really antisocial? I love the idea of getting energy directly from the sun. Not that I hate the idea of getting it from other sources, even from much-vilified fossil fuels. But other things being equal, solar power is better because it doesn’t pollute, and pollution is bad by definition. So I very much look forward to the day when other things are, in fact, equal. “Boy, the press is really going to town over this.”
“Yes, sir.” “That punk kid admits to smoking pot and they’re measuring his head for a crown, but I take a hit off a crack pipe and they can barely contain their glee as they crucify me. It’s all about the hair, right?” “No, no, it’s not about the hair. Well, maybe it’s a little bit about the hair. But crack and marijuana are very different animals.” I have yet to see the film adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game, which opened this weekend, but the novel is one of my favourites—and its sequel, Speaker for the Dead, is even better. Both novels deservedly won the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award. Yet in addition to having created these much-loved works of art, Card is also a Mormon who believes homosexuality is unnatural and who opposes same-sex marriage. I think Mormonism is laughable, and I strongly disagree with Card’s views on homosexuality. Does this mean I should boycott the film, as some have called for? Should I stop recommending these books to people?
Last night, Denis Coderre, former Liberal Member of Canada’s Parliament, became the new mayor of Montreal, but he did so with the support of just 13% of the city’s eligible voters. In what was basically a four-person race, he won 32% of the votes of the roughly 40% of eligible voters who actually voted. That works out to 13% of those who could have voted—not exactly a shining example of democracy in action.
You may or may not have heard, but the people of Denmark are the happiest people in the world. Out of 156 countries ranked in the World Happiness Report, Denmark came in first with a score of 7.693 out of 10. Canada (7.477) was sixth while the United States (7.082) came in 17th. Cue the Huffington Post to editorialize about the many splendours of the Danish welfare state. But is that really what makes Danes (somewhat) happier than Americans?
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Who Writes ThisBradley Doucet is a Montreal writer and the English Editor of Le Québécois Libre. More of This
June 2016
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