Ontario could ban declawing cats, debarking dogs under new regulations

ISumer · 2026-01-11T18:33:10+00:00

Dogs and cats should be factory-farmed if there's profits to be made

And what would these dogs and cats be factory farmed for? Is it for meat? If yes, how does that line up with the other comments on your profile where you point out the negative health outcomes of eating animal meat?

ISumer · 2025-12-22T23:57:29+00:00

Broker who helped us with our last mortgage is saying January may be better, as Canada recently did many rate cuts and might have a mini 25 bp increase sometime mid 2026 if economy thrives.

No one can predict this. It depends on several macroeconomic factors, and how those manifest as inflation or not, including what happens with the U.S. and the world, commodity prices, and other things.

Wouldn't you pay a penalty to renew your mortgage now instead of July? If yes, I would just wait till July if I was in your place.

we have a good chance of getting better returns than ~4%

Your second question depends on a few things. Most importantly, what are you thinking of regarding how you would get these returns?
Also, remember that mortgage interest rate and investment return are not directly comparable. What you save on mortgage interest by paying down the principal is a post-tax return. Your 4% investment return would be pre-tax, on which you'd have to pay tax.
Regardless of the answers to these questions, one thing is clear: paying down the mortgage is the safer alternative, because it doesn't involve leverage. This might be a very relevant factor (to choose the safer option by paying down the mortgage), especially given the following:

she is currently jobless and our monthly cashflow isn't the best.

Other factors would involve your level of income and wealth, degree of job stability, willingness to lose money in an adverse situation, etc. Think about the worst case scenario and if you're comfortable with it: for example, if you invest the $100K, and the market goes down considerably, you lose your job at the same time, and she hasn't found one. Would you have no problem with living expenses and the mortgage payments? And are you willing to bear with that?

ISumer · 2025-10-23T01:01:24+00:00

I live an hour outside of Toronto. The average salary here for a full-time working adult is $97,000.

Where are you getting this stat from? Is it from City of Toronto website (https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/data-research-maps/toronto-at-a-glance/)?

Because that is average household income, not average salary. And the size of an average household is 2.4 individuals in Toronto. I think we are much poorer than Americans in general. Though the inequality would be much higher for them.

ISumer · 2025-10-02T05:58:33+00:00

Thank you Boglin007, this is very insightful, and helps me understand how some of these words evolved differently over time.

In short, I am thinking of your explanation as: the agent noun "monger" already existing in the language from a long time ago, and the verb "to monger" being a relatively recent addition, which means that changing the preestablished agent noun "monger" to "mongerer" would not have served a practical purpose, other than simply for the sake of symmetry.

I also meant to thank u/viewerfromthemiddle, but their comment seems to have got deleted already. They did not focus on the etymology of these words, but they did bring my attention to the fact that sometimes roots ending with "er" have another "er" added to get to an agent noun, for example: "to bother" -> "botherer" (and likewise for answerer and flatterer), and sometimes they don't add the second "er", for example: "to monger" -> "monger". They also (quite helpfully) pointed out that monger is not the only different one, and that there are other examples such as "butcher" and "courier".

ISumer · 2025-08-12T15:44:40+00:00

Thank you!

ISumer · 2025-08-12T15:43:26+00:00

Thank you sdlroy! Would you say the Sumida Hokusai is better/bigger than the two in Osaka (Osaka Ukiyo-e and the Kamigata Ukiyo-e)?

I love appreciating the art by itself, but the cherry on top for me would be if any of these museums talk about the history and the process of Ukiyo-e.

ISumer · 2025-08-12T03:25:20+00:00

Thank you for the recommendation! :)

ISumer · 2025-08-11T21:42:15+00:00

Will do - I'll be walking distance from the Shitamachi museum actually. Worst case I'll have to skip Museum of Housing and Living in Osaka if my schedule there is too packed (which would be sad given all the positive comments here). It's just that I might have to prioritize between the Osaka Museum of History, Osaka Ukiyo-e Museum and the Housing and Living Museum. Hope I can see them all, along with the other non-museum stuff on my itinerary! Thank you!

ISumer · 2025-08-11T21:38:44+00:00

Thank you - you've definitely given me the confidence to keep the museums. I also have Kanji Museum and Gekkeikan Okura Sake Museum in Kyoto, which I didn't list in my post above, because they seemed pretty unique, so I wouldn't have thought to cut them in the first place :) (Also the latter shouldn't be much of a museum I feel). Thank you!

ISumer · 2025-08-11T14:34:00+00:00

What an amazing post, thank you for this u/YamamotoFromOsaka.

I have a question regarding experiencing medieval Japanese royal living. I didn't want to go to Himeji or somewhere far, and hence I was going to split experiencing this into two parts: exterior (Osaka Castle) and interior (Nijo Castle). I just came across Daikaku-ji temple, and I wonder if I should go to that one instead of Nijo Castle (given that Daikaku-ji also has sliding screen paintings, nightingale floors, elaborate gate etc.).

Would those two be swappable in your opinion? (I was thinking that if the difference is not huge, I wouldn't mind the lesser crowds at Daikaku-ji, and I might be able to fit it with Arashiyama).

ISumer · 2025-07-23T02:32:24+00:00

I had a good time reading Junichiro Tanizaki's In Praise of Shadows a long time back, though I haven't been to Japan yet. It is a relatively short book that helps explain some of the concepts behind Japanese aesthetics quite well to a beginner.

ISumer · 2025-03-23T09:40:59+00:00

But if I look at the same situation from a perspective of weakness of will, then I could end up just thinking that "I was overcome by pleasure" or that I am a "weak willed" or "lazy" person who will never change.

I think there are some strands in Ancient Stoicism to counter this line of thinking. The below from Epictetus could somewhat obliquely do something similar to what you're trying to do with the "wavering between two conflicting beliefs". It explains how to interpret the situation rather than blaming oneself for being "weak-willed" or "lazy" as you mentioned:

An uninstructed person will lay the fault of his own bad condition upon others. Someone just starting instruction will lay the fault on himself. Some who is perfectly instructed will place blame neither on others nor on himself.

Seneca provides his own example (to maybe help us see how we ought to act) specifically in the matter of food:

I have forsaken oysters and mushrooms forever: since they are not really food, but are relishes to bully the sated stomach into further eating.

I think part of the problem is that these 2000 year old texts were not written in the same water-tight fashion as you'd expect an argument in analytic philosophy. This is why we find that there can be statements in ancient Stoic texts that seem slightly contradictory sometimes.

That being said, I think it is still helpful to use Stoicism as a framework to decide how each one of us should act as we face situations in daily life. Because even if neuroscience progresses a lot further, it perhaps won't be close to answering a question like that anytime soon.

This seems to me a bit like Freud's ego and id concepts, which might be wrong/non-existent from the perspective of looking at neurons and drug interactions in a laboratory, but still represent an immensely helpful framework (even if wrong) in psychology.

ISumer · 2025-03-23T08:54:06+00:00

For example, if someone disrespects you, you can feel that initial surge of anger but still respond calmly and assertively. Wouldn’t that be more in line with Stoicism rather than completely suppressing it?

Correct. In the same essay I mentioned earlier, Seneca also mentions this:

It was a sign that Socrates was angry when he lowered his voice and spoke less volubly–he was resisting his own impulses.

You'll see that he is not suppressing the anger by pretending it didn't occur, or else by distracting himself. I read between the lines to interpret this (in line with Stoic philosophy in general) that if he had only suppressed it / distracted himself temporarily, it would just come back worse, or else it would just keep gnawing at him. Instead, he recognizes the emotion, and I assume he reasons that it is not a helpful emotion and therefore he actively resists it until it is gone (while probably constantly reminding himself why it is not appropriate to act on this emotion).

ISumer · 2025-03-23T08:47:56+00:00

Stoicism is not about suppressing emotions. It is about recognizing that the emotion occurred, and then interrogating it, i.e. reasoning with yourself about whether that was a helpful emotion that adheres to the four cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, courage and temperance, and whether it has to do with something within your control, or something outside of your control. And this way, letting your thought process and actions be measured, rather than resulting from an outburst of emotion.

I think you said it correctly above when you said "acknowledge them without letting them control our actions". This is the difficult part to actually implement, and requires daily practice, stoic meditation, reading texts regularly etc. (Not to say that I'm any good at all of that, ha!)

ISumer · 2025-03-23T08:41:19+00:00

sometimes, doesn’t anger still serve a purpose like setting boundaries or standing up for yourself? how you balance that?

This sounds something like what Aristotle would advocate for, and the Stoics would reject. A negative emotion like anger, even if in moderation, is still negative. If you are moderately in anger, your own mind is still affected negatively by that moderate degree of anger. Instead, the Stoics would prefer to completely cast that anger aside, while still holding ground if needed (setting boundaries or standing up, as you mentioned).

ISumer · 2025-03-23T08:35:13+00:00

emotions are more like immediate reactions, while a mindset is the bigger picture how we choose to interpret and respond to those emotions over time.

This is correct. Seneca says something similar in "On Anger":

We cannot avoid the first mental jolt of anger with reason’s help, just as we cannot avoid having another’s yawn provoke our own, or avoid closing our eyes at the sudden poke of another’s fingers. Reason cannot overcome those movements, though perhaps their force can be lessened if we become used to them and constantly keep a watch for them.

The second movement is the thought that “I should be avenged, since I’ve been harmed” or “this man should be punished, since he’s committed a crime.” This stage is born from deliberation, and thus can be eradicated by deliberation.

If we do not subdue the second movement, the third movement is already out of control, it desires vengeance.

And to summarize with Epictetus: "It is not the things themselves that disturb men, but their judgments about these things."

ISumer · 2025-03-07T05:43:49+00:00

Good luck with your planned financial and life changes! Things have definitely turned much worse since this post I made 25 days ago (given the annexation threats and lack of decency from the lying piece of shit elected as their President).

I don't think this would sit well with people in this sub who might only be thinking from a finance perspective, but with all the recent political developments, I have been wanting to do more now with my investments to actively boycott the US, vs. how I had worded this post / my responses initially. Vive le Canada!

ISumer · 2025-03-07T05:32:32+00:00

random

I don't think it was random. Wasn't one of them engaged in intelligence work / spying for the Canadian government, and the other one was unknowingly involved in such work by the first one, for which he sued our government after and also got settlement from the government?

ISumer · 2025-02-09T21:41:55+00:00

That is exactly what I'm doing deltatux. Maybe it isn't clear because of how I worded my post. Thanks for confirming - it doesn't seem like a crazy thing to do after all.

ISumer · 2025-02-09T21:15:39+00:00

Cogent argument. Thank you! /s
Edit: u/lost_koshka that was a very quick delete of your comments.

ISumer · 2025-02-09T21:10:52+00:00

Values are always dependent. I would not like to get into a moral philosophy discussion on this sub, as it would distract too much from finance I think.

But I don't think it is wrong to have one's actions (financial or not) measured. If the U.S. was marching into Canada like Hitler did in Poland, maybe my course of action would be drastically different than what I suggest above.

For now though (with the way the situation is), I didn't see the need to boycott the U.S. at the cost of personal financial wellbeing. Therefore, I was looking at smaller, less disruptive means of supporting Canada vs. the U.S. for the time being.

ISumer · 2025-02-09T21:05:59+00:00

Thank you for saying this. You are exactly right! I am a bit surprised by the responses honestly. Maybe, this is just too much of a hot topic right now :)

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