Opinion

Some people are concerned about genetically modified food, with good reason, but I’m more concerned about genetically modified kids. One of the aims of the science of genetics is to help us be more healthy and resistant to disease.

Golf is a game in which a series of successive failures, interspersed with the occasional success, may lead the realist to a sense of personal victory.

A well-managed, steady population increase over the next 40 years can position Canada among the world’s most important countries. Throughout history, a growing population has been a key factor in the rise of economic and political power.

Cabo Real, Mexico Some reflections at the end of 2012 — as I watch a Mexican sunrise. • My favourite newspaper headline at year end is “Past Imperfect, Future Tense.

Her Majesty, after her morning sherry, pins a new corgi calendar next to the Gainsborough and purses her lips. Endless reign is in her forecast.

Bling is in the air and here in Victoria, it isn’t frost crystals. Nor has it anything to do with Monday’s New Year festivities.

There’s a reason the term “starving student” has staying power and is a tired cliché — and it’s not just because of alliteration. It’s because “starving student” is a very real stage in many of our lives.

After a punch to the heart, the realization of an apocalyptic tragedy, there is time for shock, grieving, for prayer and, eventually, time for reflection and expressions of remorse, despair, hope and deliberation.

I cut through the Bay Centre last Friday on my way to meet a friend for lunch. It was busier than I’d expected, crowded with what I first took to be Christmas shoppers.

A friend and his wife were at a movie recently, saving three seats for friends, in the usual way — an umbrella on one seat and hats on the others.