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?

‘Tis the season for the automobile industry sellouts to attack bicycle infrastructure in our Canadian cities once again. Usually, they lay in wait until the coldest days of winter when ridership dips. Inevitably, there is always someone who brings up the issue of bicycle licensing. Here’s a screenshot of something that showed up in my news feed the other day.

First of all, I would like to express my appreciation for the transparency of the Edmonton Journal for covering half of my screen with an advertisement that shows me precisely who they have sold their charter right of freedom of the press to; the automobile industry. It’s not every day a conservative leaning media sellout is this blatantly transparent about their motivations for publishing a letter. This letter, written by Rick Neen, is surprisingly well penned; I suspect the editors at the Journal edited the letter to bring it up to this standard, because it’s quite rare for someone to achieve this level of penmanship while remaining uncritical in repeating automobile industry lies and propaganda. However, no amount of penmanship can cover up the cognitive dissonance of someone who starts out by stating, “I am not against promoting bike use” in the first sentence, then in the very next sentence states, “I think the city should justify their insane planned expenditure on bike lanes in these times.” Seriously, if you’re not against promoting bike use, then how would the expenditure on bike lanes be considered insane? Of course the city should justify any expenditure, as this is a cornerstone of good governance, but to consider it insane without first understanding the justification tells us straight away that Rick is not being very honest when he tells us he is not against promoting bike use, fortunately making him as transparant as the paper that published his letter.

Why this site exists #

When I was a child, I learned in our public school system what it meant to be a Canadian citizen. It had nothing to do with snow, maple syrup, or back bacon; it had to do with our Charter of Rights and Freedoms . This Charter is the very foundation of our democracy that keeps us free from tyranny and corruption, but this freedom isn’t free; it comes at a price: Each of us must do our part to exercise our rights each and every day, or else we could lose them, and along with them our freedoms. The Charter starts out with our fundamental freedoms, and section two states:

This is the transcript of my podcast by the same name hosted at Hacker Public Radio .

Good day, good listener of Hacker Public Radio, and welcome back to the Paul Quirk show. I’m Paul, and I will be your host. It’s been a while since my last podcast on HPR, but I’m thankful to all of the contributors who have kept it going for nerds like me.

Today, I’d like to talk to you about my journey with pain. I’m in my 50’s now, and having been diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome in my 20’s, and osteoarthritis in my 30’s, I’d like to share with you how I managed to overcome these naturally and without surgery so that today, I live free of physical pain.

Welcome to the new year. Welcome to my new web site.

This web site idea of mine isn’t a new one. What is new will be the ideas, thoughts, and journals I share here. Ideas that a polarized world might not be ready for. But that’s okay, because in this world that we share, we all get to say what matters to us, and learn from one another.

I’m not going to tell anyone how to live. I’m going to tell you how I live, and you can take from that what you will. So let’s start with some new year’s resolutions of mine.