Bad pedestrians are driving me crazy!

We've all heard complaints about bad drivers and bad cyclists. But there's another group of people we hear about a lot less. Bad pedestrians. And nowadays, they've been driving me nuts. I live in a very busy neighbourhood in Toronto, so of course I see plenty of traffic every day, both on wheels and on foot. What's driving me to the wall is that a lot of the folks pounding the pavement with their feet think they're invincible, so they'll do pretty much any stupid thing in the book while they're walking about. It's like they're oblivious to the world around them.

As you might expect, most of my issues with bad pedestrians come up when I've driving. Jaywalking is the most common infraction that I see among people walking in my area, but I have a bigger problem with the idiots who think it's okay to cross the street when the light is red and believe they're guaranteed not to be struck by a vehicle. I also get really pissed off at the morons who have their heads in their cellphones or are talking and/or texting when they're crossing the street. Hell, I've even seen people jaywalking while using their cellphones. How dangerous and stupid can you be!? Then there's the people who cross the street at the last moment before the light turns red yet don't even have the decency to hurry up so that they're not in the intersection when the cars get a green light. Okay, if you're old or disabled and you can't get across in time, I'll give you a pass. As for the rest of you, MOVE YOUR ASSES!

Now in the interests of fairness, I don't make myself out to be a perfect pedestrian any more than I could pretend to be the perfect driver. I jaywalk every now and then. It's hard to blame people for doing it when the nearest crosswalk is ten blocks away, although if you must jaywalk, at least don't do it while using a cellphone and not paying attention. I've even crossed the street while using my cellphone a couple of times, though I certainly don't make a habit of it like a lot of other people do. Yes, we've all done stupid things while walking in busy neighbourhoods. The problem is that too many people are making a habit of not being responsible while navigating on foot. I just wish that bad pedestrians were as accountable for their actions as motorists are expected to be.

Mayor John Tory has to go

Four years ago, I and many other Torontonians elected John Tory as mayor of our great city. I supported him because I wanted someone who wasn't divisive, like late former mayor Rob Ford was. John Tory seemed to fit the bill. But over the years, he has gone from simply wanting to reach a consensus with other city politicians to basically giving them everything they want. For example, he's let the city's would-be social engineers run wild, installing bicycle lanes where they shouldn't be and making it harder and harder for anyone who dares to drive an automobile in this city to get from point A to point B. The social engineers wanted bike lanes on Bloor. He let it happen. They wanted bike lanes on Woodbine. He let it happen. They wanted a streetcar right-of-way on King St. between Bathurst and Jarvis. He let it happen. And what are the results of these social engineering projects? More traffic chaos and a significant hit to the bottom lines of many businesses.

Tory has also spent much of his time and effort trying to appease the folks on the militant left. Groups like Black Lives Matter, which to me is nothing but a hate group. The police have had their hands tied by the mayor and the rest of the stooges of political correctness. As a result, gun crime has soared, the latest incidence of which was yesterday's shooting near Danforth and Logan in Greektown that killed two people and injured fourteen others. Drug dealers and other criminals are taking over the city's downtown core, while the mayor and the rest of the incompetents on Council refuse to clean up the mess left by users of the safe-injection sites and homeless shelters that the city has set up. As a result, folks who live near these homeless shelters and safe-injection sites have to deal with things like dirty needles, human feces and the fear of being accosted by some of the people using these services.

Clearly, Mayor John Tory lacks a backbone. He doesn't have the courage to stand up to the city's social engineers and militant, cop-hating groups like Black Lives Matter. Hence, I can no longer support him. I want someone who's going to clean up this city and stand up to the folks who are making it worse. What I would really like is a Torontonian version of Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, who made that vast metropolis livable again. He got rid of much of the city's criminal elements, despite the overwhelming opposition he faced for his methods. We need someone like him in Toronto. Someone who will put fear into criminals and give power back to our police force. Someone who will get this city moving, instead of making war on the car and making it harder for the vast majority of this city's residents to get from place to place. If such a person exists, would that person please stand up and run for Toronto's mayoralty this fall? I and many other Torontonians would really appreciate it.

Bibi, do the right thing and allow Israel's LGBTQ community to access surrogacy services

Today, members of Israel's LGBTQ community took to the streets to protest the recently passed Surrogacy Law, which mandates the use of surrogacy services to Israelis unable to conceive children, but which excludes the LGBTQ community from accessing those services. They have the support of several well-known Israeli businesses, who allowed their employees to skip work to take part in the protests. As a fellow Israeli citizen, I would also like to give my wholehearted support to these people in their ongoing struggle for equality.

Now just to be fair, Israel is light years ahead of other countries in the Middle East in terms of its tolerance for people who are gay, bisexual, transgender, etc. In fact, it's the only country in the region where a person who is a member of the LGBTQ community can live without the constant fear of persecution and even death for the lifestyle they have chosen. Nevertheless, members of this community still significant discrimination in the country's laws and are still victims of persecution and hate in various sectors of Israeli society. Having children and raising a family is a fundamental human right, so not allowing Israelis in the LGBTQ community to access services of surrogate mothers is a clear violation of this right. Therefore, I call on Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government to amend the Surrogacy Law to allow members of the LGBTQ community to access these services and take another step towards equal rights in Israel.

Israel's new Basic Law wastes time and changes nothing

The Knesset recently passed the new Basic Law: Israel - The Nation-state of the Jewish People and everyone's making a fuss about it. The usual folks who want to see Israel destroyed and its Jewish population thrown into the sea are predictably calling the new law racist and equating it with apartheid. Some are simply calling it provocative. But the adjective I would use to describe the new Basic Law is redundant. It doesn't say anything that hasn't already been said in other pieces of the state's legislation, nor does it change anything.

Contrary to what Israel's enemies say, the law does not mandate Jewish-only settlements, nor does it compromise the status of Arabic as an official language. In fact, when I look at the text of the new Basic Law, I can't help but say to myself, "Tell me something I don't already know." The people who drafted this law might as well have written down, the sky is blue and the grass is green. Now if you folks who were elected by the Israeli people to govern could stop wasting your time trying to determine who is the most Zionist among you and focus on the country's real problems, that would be great.