I Love Canadians

There's a special place in hell for the Canadian prime minister said Peter Navarro, a key Trump advisor and special sycophant.  Trudeau stood up to Trump against the president imposing consumer-wrecking tariffs against Canadian steel and aluminum, even as he warned that American consumers would pay the price of the new taxes, perhaps even more so than Canadians would, at the G-7 summit in Canada to which Trump wanted to bring his discredited Russian master, Putin, to be the special spoiler of the party.

Navarro has apologized, sort of, for his choice of words because, he said, it diminished the force of his message. A leader of our friends to the north whose military watches over our undefended border from any approach of a threat to us over the top of the world, and whose sons stormed ashore alongside our boys against Hitler's Fortress Europa on D-Day, perhaps ensuring our success in that risky venture, and now Trump condemns our closest allies through his despicable surrogates.

Recently I encountered a car full of Canadians which was stopped at the lowered crossbar of a Metro parking lot after a Capitals hockey game, trying to pay with their Canadian currency the fare at the automated kiosk which only accepted a Metro fare card for payment.  As I walked past they asked if I could release their car from its detention at the gate, and I applied my fare card to the payment box so they could exit the lot and return to the home they were visiting.

They tried to bestow me with Canadian dollars for my deed and my minor expense but I turned them down and said, "I have done you a small favor and I want only for you to return the favor someday to an American who needs help."  I am sure they will somehow, and I love Canadians.

A Christmas tree run...

…is fun; (Police Officer's Tree)

To do it twice, (the tree at Union Station)

is yet more nice; (at the Botanical Gardens, with Thomas the Engine chugging around a track at its base)

But thrice is best, (the National Tree)

of all the rest. (the Capitol Tree, and below, O Canada!)

The Canadian Woman

She seemed so unapproachable. A beautiful woman wearing headphones passing by us on the Mount Vernon Trail as John and I ran our weekend 10K, she ignored our salutary comments and slightly outdistanced us.

She was run/walking so we passed her back on the wicked uphill switchback leading to the hilly Custis Trail near where the Key Bridge connects Arlington to Georgetown. John urged her on as we went by, and she broke out of her desultory walk to join our trotting run up the steep incline.

Noticing my Garmin, she asked how fast we were running to which I answered, "9:40s." She seemed stunned and, one earbud out, evinced that she had been hoping that she had been running at a 5:30 pace.

It turned out that she was Canadian and had taken my pace retort to mean minutes per kilometer instead of minutes per mile. Apparently 9:40s would be just-shoot-me slow north of the border.

And now, a word from the North

I have a family member whom I respect and admire who left the US to live in Canada. Here is this relative's report on Obamacare, with some non-substantive editing.

I think what was passed is a great start, but I am shocked that the vote was that close. I think it's disgusting those Tea Baggers think health care does not rank alongside the rights they take for granted--like the ability to spew racial epithets and express their hateful beliefs. The view that people without health care are lazy and just need to work harder is ridiculous. Nothing is black and white.

Canadians are mystified why people in the US consider this bill a victory. I have to explain how compared to what Americans have now, it's quite an improvement. But when you compare it to the system here, it still looks rather barbaric. People are also shocked at the level of lobbying that goes on. Here lobbyists are on a shorter leash and no one thinks of the MPs as being in the pocket of some corporation. Until the US elects representatives of the people and not corporations, real change is unlikely, and with the recent Supreme Court decision, things will get worse not better.

I love how the Tea Baggers call health care Socialism but forget about all the other socialized services that make their lives better. They don't listen when you talk to them but just spew talking points prepared by the propagandists at Fox News. When disputed, they just raise their voice and try to drown you out. Or they become silly and say, "Move to Canada," which is easy to say but hard to do (I know!).

Anyway, I hope this means real change for you all and that it hasn't doomed Obama's presidency.

You go, relative! The viewpoint from the Northlands. Who doesn't think that Canadians aren't great? Elsewhere, the industrialized world apparently thinks the US has finally been dragged into the 20th century (not the 21st century yet). I can't wait for November to see the Americans reveal their true selves.

Uh, whatever

I got in a little family hot water last fall when I received an email from one of my sisters saying that my nephew had become engaged to some woman he'd met on some trip he'd taken. I didn't know the woman but that sounded nice. When they set a wedding date, I supposed I'd focus on it and see if I could go.

My sister was outraged. None of her siblings sent her son a congratulatory email. She definitely had a check list going. I asked when the wedding was taking place so that I could circle the date on my calendar.

She said that it was going to be sometime during the summer. Of 2009. In Canada.

Ahh! I don't have a 2009 calendar yet, but I sure do have plenty of time to get a passport.

More recently I received a call from my sister inquiring whether I was likely to attend. For a week. In Canada. On some indeterminate date in the summer of 2009. And would I be bringing a S.O?

I'm not even dating currently. But at least my sister didn't ask if any of my three estranged sons, who haven't spoken to anybody on my side of the family for five years, would be coming.

It sounded like some list was being created. Some talk was evidently underfoot about renting a family compound so that all of the future in-laws from the states could gather together to bond or commune on the celebrated union or something. For a week. In Canada. On some indeterminate date in the summer of 2009.

Without hesitation I said to put me down as a yes on all counts.

What would you have done?