Possible Alien Invasion:

This week's collection of scary stories on the web features Stephen Hawking's warning that there may be unfriendly aliens lurking out there in the cosmos.

Let's look at the possibilities.

The nearest star outside the Solar system is variously estimated to be about four light years away. That means that if it were possible for solid objects (ETs) determined enough to come here at light speed, they would have to be in transit for more than four years. 

Since our science has established that light speed is the speed limit of the universe, interstellar travel for biological beings is unlikely if not impossible. 

So, aliens arriving here would have to be robots like our Mars probes or androids specifically designed to survive in the vacuum and radiation levels of interstellar space.

First evidence of intelligent life out there in the void would be gathered by the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) group, who are scanning the cosmos for coherent electromagnetic signals and, so far, not finding any.

Those signals can travel at the speed of light and until we detect them, it is correct for us to go on believing that as an intelligent species, we are pretty much alone, at least in our sector of the galaxy, and out of reach of marauders from space.

Sorry, Stephen, but unless and until we detect alien electromagnetic probes trying to monitor our environment, it ought to be okay for us to continue sleeping peacefully at night.

Problems with Stoners:

Young Trudeau's election triggered furious activity among stoners in the core of the city that elected him--Toronto.

And why not? He promised the legalization of weed when elected. Now we know the source of the rather heavy majorities he got in Toronto's city Core.

Now the stoners who jumped the gun on marijuana's availability are being shut down because it is not yet legally approved by the Liberals in Ottawa. They have to cool their jets if and until the process is done with.

Of course, it would be reckless for our politicians to jump the gun on this one. The fact that some US administrations have legalized pot is not necessarily a good example to follow. They are well aware that it might be smart to wait and see what happens to crime, traffic and survival statistics over a suitable time frame before making it legal for Canadians to indulge in this form of substance abuse.

Having sampled pot on a couple of rare occasions in my misspent youth, I am of the opinion that it can impair the ability to operate motor vehicles every bit as efficiently as Alcohol, and much quicker. The problem is, alcohol can be detected and evaluated at the traffic stop, while a cannabis high cannot.

So here's what they do. We had young neighbors whose faith forbade them to partake of alcohol, so they toked up on pot or whatever else they smoke for their jollies in the far east and topped that with one bottle of beer before staggering off on a Friday nite Rape and Pillage.

If they're stopped in traffic, the cop administers the breathalyzer and lo and behold, it comes up with only a small trace of inebriation. The cop shrugs his shoulders, turns around, and walks away.

That is probably why the cops have been raiding and shutting down all of the illegal joints that sprung up in Toronto like toadstools following a spring rain right after the election.

They should continue doing that until a foolproof roadside detection gizmo is perfected.

How Canada Elects Leaders:

My indirect participation in electing Canada's leaders happened back in the late '60s shortly after I joined the staff at Mississauga News.

Publisher Eric Watt learned the Liberals were presenting a new leader at a private do in Oakville, ON.

We drew straws and Mike Solomon, our Fleet Street-trained reporter (complete with shorthand) drew the short straw. Grabbing an office camera, a 35mm Beseler Topcon SLR with 1/1,000 sec. shutter and 1:1.4 lens, loaded with Tri-X film, Solly scooted off to the address.

There, he was lucky enough to have the camera at the ready when the leadership candidate took a dive off the high board at the private pool and Solly caught him doing a somersault, legs tucked in neatly in true Olympic form on his way down.

It was a good shot. Canadian Press immediately latched onto it and offered it to every newspaper across the whole country. It appeared in at least 40 papers and got a lot of people talking about it.

Wow! a leader who could do a somersault off a high board! Who could match that?

The Liberal spin doctors followed that up with society blurbs of the candidate dating then popular songbird Barbara Streisand, and topped that off with a date with Classical Guitar queen Leona Boyd just to make sure they had the whole social spectrum of the Canadian electorate covered.

Following a suitable pause, the clever handlers followed up with an announcement that this French Canadian candidate was courting the daughter of a prominent English Liberal from the other end of the country (BC). How convenient is that?

Since these were the days of Renee Levesque and other Quebecers who were agitating to get Quebec out of confederation and into their own clutches, this potential blending of the two solitudes looked good, too. A politically correct union was in the making.

Since those days also were the wild days of the Hippies with chaotic youth movements chasing psychedelic (chemical) highs everywhere, someone among the clever spin doctors took the first letters of the new leadership candidate's name and came up with P.E.T--PET. What can be more meaningful to the young voters who couldn't get enough of the shaggy-haired Beatles?

All of these carefully-scripted elements came together to get Pierre Elliott Trudeau elected.

The Liberal handlers were clever enough to make use of available demographics to determine the average mental age level of the electorate to secure a win.

I didn't check to see if Solly ever got over it, but since I was lucky enough to draw the long straw, I don't have to feel guilty.

Last year, they went ahead and did it again, this time courting young stoners with the promise to legalize pot. Only time will tell if that will be of any long-term advantage to Canada.

Trump the Grump:

Obviously, Trump is displeased with the way his image is being dissected in the media.

It may be that he doesn't understand media hype.

Media is in the business of dressing up every news item to grab the attention of a maximum number of viewers.

The electronic media in particular, is in the business of selling mouthwash, super-absorbent diapers and hair club products for men. Their aim is to hold the viewer's attention long enough to imprint these ad images in as many viewers' brains as possible and provoke them to rush right out and buy things. This is not an easy task.

Think news. It begins with the local burnings, killings and crack-ups. When they run out of those, they move on to the manufactured news--the antics of aggressive activist mobs for the sexually indeterminate, the Black Lives Matter, the irretrievably P.O'd feminists, the latest aboriginal demands complete with much thumping and stomping, and such.

When those run out, they move on to political no-nos--things Trump and Clinton had better not be caught doing.

Finally, when they've exhausted all of the above, they begin interviewing the mothers of kids that have gone astray and got themselves killed. The more tears, the better. When an innocent bystander gets shot on bad news days, she may be elevated to sainthood by the media faster than Mother Theresa.

For these and other nightmare scenarios, smart viewers will have an alternate channel dialed in for quick switch and their thumb poised at the ready. I recommend channels 265 and 284 for quick change. If you're a history buff, Channel 631 is a good bet.

On the really bad news days, they proceed to canonize cops who were killed in the performance of their duties. Everybody becomes a hero. 

Since it is impossible to have nothing but newsworthy events all the time, Trump has to accept the fact that he can get targeted for the smallest social infractions, and he's had some whoppers. Clinton somehow escapes the same microscopic scrutiny.

Sun columnist Thomas Sowell summed up the US presidential campaign brilliantly when he suggested that only Hillary can get Trump elected.

Early Programming:

Featured in the electronic media this week were a bunch of noisy rabble rousers busily bent on programming kindergarten level kids to become activists like their mommies when they grow up.

Lucky kids. They will not have to wait until they are teenagers before they can begin stealing bicycles and thumbing their noses at the cops.

These activists appear to see our society as not chaotic enough. What they need is total anarchy and disrespect for the law. Chipping away at police authority will do that.

If there are enough activists clamoring for reduced police authority in our current social consciousness, it won't be long before opportunistic politicians see it as a cornucopia of votes and jump in to sponsor it.

World Leaders

As predicted, this week the electronic media was full of Hillary good, Trump bad items, complete with pictures. 

The leader of France was pondering which mosques should be shut down to reduce home-grown terror.

The British leader was busy trying to sort out how to ease their way out of the European huddle as painlessly as possible.

The US leader was busy telling Americans what a fantastic leader Hillary would make.

Our Canadian leader was highlighted three days in a row as being the first leader ever to march in the Vancouver Gay Pride parade. 

Wow!

Not so Nice:

The latest chapter of Islam's war on the West delivered by a trucker named Mohammed reminds me of the last time I was in Nice.

It was in the early '80s. I was with a group of automotive writers from Canada and the US. We were preparing to rally cars to the International Auto show in Paris.

We were surprised to learn that people were blowing things up in the City of Light. Some automotive dealerships were being sent sky-high. Terrorism was not yet a daily media news event, but Arabs were suspected. At the time, it was news to us.

We were informed that it would be quite safe since we were accompanied by some tough looking guys from Interpol carrying suspicious-looking briefcases and featuring bulges in their tweed sports coats.

We thought this was perhaps unnecessarily dramatic, but figured, Oh, well. If that's the way they do things in France, who are we to question it?

But the process through customs was slow. The guy in charge either couldn't read English or was hired under some kind of a quota system that ignored actual qualifications. He was almost painful to watch.

And while this process was crawling along, we noted other passengers, wearing desert garb--hooded white sheets straight out of the Sahara--were waved on through, apparently no questions asked.

Naturally, we were quite mystified. Here we were, citizens of two countries which had made it possible for France to re-claim its sovereignty from the Nazi conquerors, being minutely scrutinized. Thousands of our boys gave up their lives to make it possible for Charles DeGaulle to posture as the liberating hero when they got to Paris. Yet, here we were being interrogated like criminals while people from the middle East were waved on through.

What crosses my mind now as I sit here writing this is that it is possible the French were practicing hyper inclusivity 40 years ago before it ever became the order of the day among the lefties here. No doubt they were world leaders with all that politically correct nonsense, too.

And now they are harvesting the results, and in the process, validating Donald Trump's chances for getting elected in the US. Let us hope the American electorate are paying attention to what's happening around the world.

In Canada, where we have been saddled with Pierre Trudeau's Charter of Rights and Privileges and those ridiculous Human Rights Tribunals looking over everybody's shoulder, it will take a little longer.