Brian Gongol
The dumbest statement published this week: "China has proven that birth restriction is smart policy"
Rising prosperity begets a lower birthrate; a lower birthrate does not necessarily create greater prosperity. And to suggest, as one columnist has done, that a one-child-per-family policy should be imposed on the entire world -- in the name of combating global warming -- is perhaps one of the most absurd recommendations in history. With so much fervor over the consequences of global warming and the uncertainty over whether it is caused by human activity or simply accelerated by it, anything we do as a species to counteract it ought to derive from other benefits as well. So, for instance, cutting back on the use of carbon-based fuels may very well make sense not only from the global-warming angle, but also from the consequential reductions in local pollution and the increased national security it will bring to the majority of the world's nations that aren't petroleum exporters. But to insist that the only way to "save the planet" is essentially to "prohibit the children" is such twisted, dubious thinking it doesn't even rise to the standard of logic.
One way to combat binge drinking: Wine-tasting clubs at school
A British all-girls school has decided to "make binge drinking seem like the 'poorer sister'" to wine-tasting by allowing pupils to drink (legally) under supervision. It makes a whole lot more sense than prohibition, which only ever seems to cause the forbidden-fruit effect.
Website for cheating spouses won't get to advertise on Toronto buses
Clear snow from fire hydrants
