My mom used to say that to describe anything that spilled over the guardrails of usualness in 1960s Edmonton – like Pierre Trudeau, or exercise, or drinking gin while playing bridge.

She would die of shock if she were alive today.

Here are three examples. None of them is about the U.S. election, the Israel-Hamas conflict, or Pierre Trudeau’s son. All reveal how extreme life is in the world today, especially when it comes to freedom.

First, two North Korean table-tennis players who won the silver medal at the Paris Olympics, are being investigated by Kim Jong Un’s government  — not for posing for a selfie that went viral with the gold (from China) and bronze (from South Korea) medal winners, but for smiling when they were posing for that selfie. The smiles were deemed unpatriotic.

Read on…