Rebuttals

If you’re new to this blog, I should reaffirm my social media status: ain’t gonna happen. My participating in the back and forth dialogue, I mean. That’s what the comment box below is for if you’d like to debate or comment on any thoughts you’ll find here.
“But wait a minute,” you say, “you post on social media all the time.” (Yeah, like maybe once a week). Yup, I do, but full confession: I do so only because publishers say an author like me has to. Facebook seems to me to be an unending litany of folks desperate to share what they had for lunch, or the fact that their cat does a great Justin Bieber impression, or the need we must all have to pay to take their course, or… Sorry! Not this guy.
When I do post a link to my blog on social media (yup, another concoction to amuse publishers), it doesn’t mean I’ll be coming back anytime soon to learn about reactions.
Now, I’m quite aware, as a long time iconoclast, that my views aren’t shared by everyone. And I have no need to tally up supporters and detractors to make my day. That being said, my spies report my recent blog entry about a sad new condo development in Toronto elicited response. Great! Hey, the mavens at The Star even thought they'd better weigh in by giving some ink to an advertiser prepared to pay their way. Under the Homefinder section of recent edition of the  Saturday Toronto Star, we find the headline “T.O. condo a first for Pharrell” showcasing a story wherein we are supposed to believe that a singer/rapper from Virginia is suddenly reborn as a Toronto architect. Shazam!! Just like that, with no architecture education to support it!
Sorry folks, but I’ve got a lot of respect for the profession of architecture (was gonna try to become one myself back in the day, before another vocation called). And trust me, you don’t become an architect by talking about “zen components” and the like. You earn your way into architecture by studying at the university level.
Hey, I’ve got nothin’ against Mr. Williams. I’m sure he’s a swell fellah, one who’s happy to have been lured by $$s to front an embarrassingly negligent condo development that is so derived of substance they can’t even invent a name for it (resulting in the “untitled” branding. Yeah, right! Such unprofessional nonsense!)
 
Next, apparently we have the royalist crowd up in arms because of my entry bidding a fare-thee-well to the royal family (although I gather there were supporters of my screed too: thanks). Wonderful. All spirited ideas need debate. And I’m sure there is good reason to support folks like prince Andy who sees nothing wrong in having sex with under-age girls and then finds value in cavorting about with jailed pimps and sex offenders like the late Jeff Epstein. But for the life of me, try as I might, I just don’t see the value there.
For the record, I’ll just add a fact for our side: despite the support of the current queen, Angus Reid’s new poll reveals most Canucks don’t think the English monarchy is relevant to their lives anymore. That’s the point I was making, and it’s reassuring to see most of you agree. Half of the poll’s respondents also said they couldn’t give a fig if Hank’ n Meg move here to our cherished home and native land. And a bigger group said, “Let ‘em come, but we ain’t paying!” Whew! Glad to know there’s still common sense abounding in the land.
And there is this from former prime ministerial director of communications Peter Donolo who, in an extensive Globe and Mail report headed "We've outgrown the monarchy", says, "When all the nostalgia and cynical fairy-tail marketing is scraped away, what we have is just another privileged family dealing with their own problems." He adds, "Insult No. 1 is the notion that public office - indeed the highest public office in the land - is a hereditary right to be passed down within a single family from one generation to another. This is fundamentally at odds with democratic values."
You royalists are, of course, welcome to your support of an increasingly irrelevant class structure, but you’re fading quicker than a tattoo at midnight. Thanks for the debate, however: always a healthy way to expose ideas. And as an “evolution, not revolution” kinda guy, I say let’s indeed support good queen Liz while she hangs in, unwilling to re-visit that shameful disgrace of her uncle deciding he too had endured enough of the pomp and circumstance and would rather spend time with that horrible “woman he loved” as Wallis was called: perish the thought! Yupper, let dear Liz live out her days and enjoy her privilege. But then... we’ll, you know...

---