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For brunch, go east
Nice article by Steven Davey on where to eat brunch (NOW, July 18-24). Looks like a great opener for a first date. But there were few establishments listed east of Yonge.
Ya gotta get out more, Steven.
Jim Snow
Sherbourne and Front
Adorable Idris Elba
Thank you NOW Magazine for the gorgeous Idris Elba cover (NOW, July 11-17)! It now adorns my drab cubicle at work for my daily eye candy fix. Sigh. Oh, and the piece was good too.
Robyn Naylor
Toronto
Costly nukes no match for renewables
Letter-writer John Farmer is correct that “our world is detrimentally impacted by the exponential increase in the use of fossil fuels” (NOW, July 18-24).
However, when lifetime GHG emissions of nuclear generation are considered – including plant construction, uranium mining, transport and processing, and waste storage – it is only somewhat less carbon intensive than natural gas, and certainly more than renewables such as solar and wind.
By building new large-capacity nuclear reactors, we will be limiting the growth of truly low-carbon energy sources.
As demonstrated in the joint WWF-Pembina Institute report Renewable Is Doable, Ontario’s baseload and peak energy demand can be met without coal and without investing in costly new nuclear.
Tamara Brownstone
Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment
Toronto
Ontario at a nuclear crossroads
Letter writer John Farmer heralds a “nuclear renaissance.” But the reality shows a renaissance in reverse.
The World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2013 reports that global electricity generation from nuclear plants dropped by 7 per cent in 2012, adding to the 4 per cent drop in 2011. The reasons listed for the nuclear decline include: competition from lower-cost energy sources, falling demand, safety retrofit expenses, costly repairs and rising operating costs.
Most of Ontario’s reactors are now coming to the end of their design life. The Ontario Clean Air Alliance is asking the Ontario government to replace them with lower-cost, quicker to deploy and greener options including conservation, hydro imports from Quebec, and made-in-Ontario renewables.
Ontario is at a crossroads. Let’s join the rest of the world in choosing conservation and green energy over costly and risky nuclear boondoggles.
Angela Bischoff
Ontario Clean Air Alliance
Toronto
Critics of fems acting like anti-abortionists
I know Jonathan Goldsbie does not actually believe that radical feminists and their transgender and “feminist” opponents have equally convincing arguments (NOW, July 18-24).
It would have been more honest to write what he surely really believes: that women lose their right to meet in private the minute they call themselves radical feminists.
But I have a copy of the flyer for Pleasure Palace, the wymmynz bathhouse night held June 18, which clearly says “No cis men, please,” then defines the term.
Less than two weeks ago, the Toronto Public Library held a Women & Trans Music-Production Workshop. “because the music industry is cis-male-dominated.” Where were the infiltrations of those groups by transgenders and feminists, the protests, the harassment of venues, the threats?
I’d also draw a parallel with the endless picketing and disruption of events held by the Canadian Association of Equality, accused (also by feminists) of enabling “rape culture.”
Groups have a right to assemble. Groups have a right to decide who is and is not part of their number. MTF transsexuals are not female, and females do not have to associate with them.
Transgenders and women can keep men out of bathhouses or away from mixing boards, but the minute radical feminists try to gather without a penis in their midst their opponents conveniently forget their principles and start acting a lot like anti-abortion activists.
Goldsbie knows better than to portray a false equivalency as real.
Joe Clark
Toronto
Trayvon Martin and black-on-black crime
NOW uses words like “murder” and “electrifying acquittal” to build the story of Trayvon Martin like any biased media outlet does (NOW, July 18-24).
A person in a hoodie at night cannot be distinguished as black or white. White people wear hoodies, too. A suspicious-looking person at night is a suspicious-looking person at night.
Maybe it was just a bad series of events that led to this tragedy.
The same weekend and every weekend all over the U.S., dozens of black kids kill other black kids, and I do not see one black politician or high-end black political preacher or group saying a word about this much bigger issue.
The race card is always pulled out too easily and is often misused for political gain.
Scotty Robinson
Toronto
Adam Giambrone a long shot in Scarberia?
As far as I know, there aren’t any indications that Adam Giambrone will be able to win in Scarborough-Guildwood, let alone field a team of canvassers there (NOW, July 11-17).
I’m sure he’ll take the loss and perhaps try to parlay this into securing the federal NDP nomination in Trinity-Spadina should Olivia Chow resign to take a stab at the Toronto mayoralty.
The NDP’s best chances will actually lie in Windsor-Tecumseh, where NDP standard-bearer Percy Hatfield is a more credible, palatable, and dare I say it, viable candidate. Look him up.
Philip Yu
Markham
Pandering to the hipster crowd
I was reading your latest issue while eating lunch. I am agonized to see that NOW has become a disappointing limousine liberal rag whose editors are picking issues that can be classified as low-lying fruit (read pandering to a target audience) rather than thought-provoking journalism.
I guess hipsters hanging in Trinity Bellwoods Park with their homies expect nothing more. Or maybe I’m just getting old and grumpy.
Blair Martin
Toronto
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