Two years ago, Google offered a free workspace account for personal use. This allowed me to use their GMail services for my own personal domain name e-mail. Since my Android phone was already tied into their services, this seemed like a sensible thing to do to simplify things.

Two days ago, and without any notice, my e-mail suddenly stopped working, as though it was never there. When I went into my Google e-mail app on my phone, the account wasn’t there; only my backup account could be seen. Thinking it to be a problem with the Android app, I decided to use my web browser to visit gmail.com, and was presented with this.

If you watch television or Youtube in Ontario, you’ve probably seen the advertisement of a frozen woman with a pained look on her face, bundled up huddling next to her furnace pleading for it to not break down. Then as her furnace breaks down, she puts her head down in defeat and collapses, and as the screen fades to black, they flash the message: “Don’t let your home own you.” Some pretty good advertising by G&C advertising, sticking with what works: Selling fear of a highly exaggerated problem, and then selling the solution. As a homeowner for over a quarter of a century, I want to laugh when I see this advertisement, except I can’t, because I believe the tactics being used are inherently dishonest, so it’s not funny to me.

I grew up on television. Starting with Romper Room, Captain Kangaroo, The Flintstones, and Mr. Rogers, by far my favourite childhood shows were Sesame Street and The Electric Company. Our television programming came into our home from an antenna mounted on a mast that ran up alongside the house, and came into a black and white television set. Eventually we did get a second television, a Zenith colour set, which I attribute to the peer pressure from our neighbours and friends. We never had Cable TV growing up, but as I grew up, my most favourite shows were Polka dot door, Gilligans Island, Happy Days, Threes Company, Laverne and Shirley, the Six Million Dollar Man, Dr. Who (in particular the Tom Baker years), The Twilight Zone, all of the Saturday Morning and after school cartoons ( GI Joe, Smurfs, Transformers, Thundercats, Voltron, The Mighty Hercules ), the Greatest American Hero, Knight Rider, and Family Ties to name but a few. Due to the nature of the antenna signal and the geography of our location, the American content was the weakest, though PBS put out a fairly strong signal. I tended to favour shows like Vision On, but shows that I really connected with and engaged my thinking were so rare and I never really understood why back then. Today, I understand completely.

The Canadian government has released new guidelines when it comes to alcohol consumption: No more than two drinks per week, and preferably none. Some argue this is an example of the government behaving too much like a “Nanny,” but I see this as the government protecting itself from potential litigation. If you are a Canadian who enjoys drinking alcoholic beverages, this should concern you.

According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, alcohol is a group 1 carcinogen. This puts it in the same group as Benzene, Asbestos, and Vinyl chloride, among a number of other nasty substances such as radioactive material. I believe the reason why our government is making this announcement now is because our government is responsible for both the distribution and sale of all alcoholic beverages, as well as for our taxpayer funded healthcare system.

Go anywhere you want, any time you want, with whomever you want. This is the promise the automobile industry has been selling since the 1950’s. But does anyone really question this? After all, the automobile industry only exists to make money for themselves; do they really care about our freedoms? Or are they trying to appeal to our emotions in order to enrich themselves at our expense? But the real question we should be asking is, does the car take away more freedom than it gives?