Cyril O

Nov

2013

Ontario Beer Monopoly

I recently spent a month in Ontario. I had lived in Ontario until about 20 years ago. I like beer. I don’t drink tons of it but I like the taste and like to vary the

types of beer that I drink. My heart goes out to beer drinkers in Ontario. There is a monopoly of the beer market there(more on that in a minute) and this makes it very difficult for craft and micro breweries to market their wares.

While at the Royal Winter Fair last week I had a chance to speak to a representative of McAuslan Brewing based in the GTA(Greater Toronto Area). It was a great conversation. They were serving and promoting their beer at one of the licensed areas at the Royal. To serve the customers properly she would, as any good server, ask what kind of beer they liked so that she could choose one that would suit the person’s tastes. The problem was that many of the people that came there to have a beer were only familiar with the North American swill that is called beer. The stuff that needs to be ‘ice-cold’ to be able to drink it. Most of the time she would get blank stares even when she tried to reword the question. She soon realized that many were only interested in cold and clean and not flavour.
(check out their product: McAuslan Brewing)

I’m sure if you surveyed, most Canadians would believe that The Beer Store in Ontario is owned by the Ontario government.

This taken from CBCNews Toronto(CBC News):
“‘The Beer Store’ in Ontario is owned by the U.S.-based Molson Coors Brewing Company, Sapporo of Japan and Anheuser-Busch InBev of Belgium which are all foreign based companies. “

So, if you like to try different beers with some real flavour or want beer that is brewed without additives you pretty much have to buy it in restaurants. Often smaller craft beer companies are purchased by one of the above conglomerates and they can then alter the product.

I might not have noticed this but for having lived in Alberta for the past four years. It is quite easy to purchase a much greater variety of beer and wine than in Ontario. So come visit.

Oct

2013

Mostly Decent People

I must be terribly bored sometimes. I get most of my news from news that I have ‘liked’ on Facebook. I don’t read them all but do sometimes. And then I make the mistake of reading the comments. Some of the subjects that I read about are pretty inflammatory. So, the comments can draw people from very differing backgrounds and views. If these comments are intelligent and informative, I enjoy them. When they resort to name calling I get very suspicious. I figure these people are probably paid hacks.

For example, although I do not own a gun, I’m pretty much pro gun. I figure that the USA is a gun culture and there is no getting away from that. I’ve worked at gun shows and spent time talking to people in parts of the USofA and Canada where people own a lot of guns. By and large the people I have met are intelligent and well spoken. All of them friendly and giving. So, when I see many of the comments just name calling some anti-gun person, I suspect that these people are there just to make the pro gun faction look bad. Works for both sides. Happens the other way as well. Or when the winner of the recent Miss America pageant is attacked viciously on the internet. I would be very surprised if the majority of people making these nasty comments are not paid to stir up trouble. It could very easily be a handful of people trying to create friction. Create distractions and upset. That make more sense to me than that many stupid, ignorant people.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about here…the recent winner of Miss America is of (East) Indian heritage and was attacked for be a Muslim and whatever goes with that. Really, who cares but the silly thing is that she is from India and a Hindu not a Muslim. A lot of Americans may not know the difference but I’m sure that someone started the whole name calling thing just to create conflict where there was none.

I have met a lot of people. I talk to a lot of people. I get in communication with many people. I find out about them. And most are really, really decent. They have their problems and ups and downs but all feel bad when they do something wrong and most, by far, are willing to see another point of view.

Oct

2013

Are You Passionate About Your Views or Just Critical?

I get passionate about things and sometimes I write articles or post things that are not always 100% perfectly accurate factually in every way. And sometimes it is just a passionate view on things based on my research and view of life and/or the subject I’m talking about. I honestly appreciate those friends, Facebook
or otherwise that have different and educated views. Maybe I should have put educated in caps. For example, I have some political views. Which right off the bat is a bit stupid as I really think that the majority of people in major political positions of either party are idiots. That said it is possible that some of the actions they take are not completely stupid.

I was reading a comment that one Friend on Facebook posted about some ‘political’ activity and their view on it. I had a similar view. Another friend posted something in the comments that was an intelligent rebuttal. She did not attack the speaker but pointed out something that I had not looked at before that made me look at the overall picture more closely. Honestly, the whole issue is far to complex for me to bother researching just to ‘know’ and not be able to affect one way or the other but what this pointed out to me was that I did not have all the data and it was not realistic to have a valid ‘opinion’.

There are subjects that I do know enough about to have an ‘view’ on. And I do write and sometimes pontificate on these subjects. Occasionally, the way I state things is not correct but the underlying ‘truth’ of the article is still valid. I recently wrote an article on a subject I was quite passionate about. There were several comments. One was critical of some minor point. Well, I thought it was minor anyway(smile). Another person had a valid question which I answered with a reference which she took to reading as she was willing to look at the ‘other side’ of the argument. I don’t expect this person to have to change their view of life but I’m excited when someone will take a look at my view. And I’m even more excited when I’m ‘awake’ enough to step back and take a look at someone else’s view.

And I stress that looking at some information about a subject that you are passionate about that is contrary to what you believe does not mean you have to have to change your mind.

Because someone has a different view on life does not mean they are a bad person. I have friends that have very different views on certain subjects. We don’t go there. And as a result we get along just fine.

Oh, if you disagree with the point about my view on most political leaders, it does not mean that you have to disagree with this article. (smile)

– Martin

Sep

2013

Do you blame religion?

It kinda ticks me off when people blame ‘religion’ for the ills of the world. They start to generalize and often become as prejudiced and bigoted as those they are blaming. The winner of the Miss America pageant this year was of East Indian descent. Twitter had to delete entire accounts because of some of the hateful comments. The hate coming entirely as a response to the colour of her skin. I could generalize as well and say that ‘Americans’ have a very narrow bigoted view of the world. There are many idiots, true, but not everyone. I know more Americans that would treat the person next to them decently no matter colour or race than I know who would do the opposite.

Most people are decent. But corporate run media likes to keep people too upset to make sane decisions and judgments. And it generally works. The new Miss America is probably a Hindu not a Muslim but the few idiots that like to hate and stir up trouble don’t bother with facts. There is a difference between the Muslim faith and Hinduism. If the winner had been ‘white’ and Muslim the issue would not have even come up. Not that it should matter what her race or religion is. The First Amendment of the United States Constitution allows for freedom of religion. Although mainstream media could quash rumours that start like this they would prefer to stir things up – more newsy – more money that way.

It is pretty simple to see here that someone is benefiting from this conflict – in this case minimally the newspaper or whatever media outlet. If one looks there will invariably be some hidden or at least unknown influence causing the conflict. Someone stands to gain. So, in these ‘religious’ conflicts it is likely best to follow the money. Or at least look for who benefits from the conflict. If the two parties are trying to sort it out but can’t then there is going to be someone ‘stirring the pot’.

These hateful conflicts would often be easier resolved by showing both parties who is behind the scenes spreading lies.

Sep

2013

A favourite quote

“Any person that you feel very closely drawn to, concerned about, terribly interested about and that sort of thing falls into either of these two – either you’ve got a close, close wavelength harmonic going, or you’ve known them before.”
—from L Ron Hubbbard lecture 19 May 1964