When Michael Ignatief was the leader of the Liberal Party, I lamented that someone whose pre-politics life was as an expert on foreign affairs and had written several books on the subject that I read – even if I agreed only in part – was unable to articulate a clear
Continue readingAuthor: bazie
Progressive Proselytizing: Anarchist right vs anarchist left ideologies
I don’t much care for the ideologies of either the so called anarchist right (libertarianism) or the anarchist left (a hodgepodge of post- and proto-communist, syndicalist, participatory economic, and other ideologies more common in Europe today). More generally, I don’t much care for ideologies period, especially those determined by a
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: The God particle, and what it has to do with God
Oh how I wish the recently demonstrated Higgs Boson, which bestows mass on particles, had never acquired the moniker the ‘God Particle’. I suppose there is one benefit: it increases the attention and coverage about a very cool and significant question, just solved, in particle physics. But it does so
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Bev Oda’s luxurious, tax payer funded lifestyle comes to an end
After months of continued pressure, Minister of International Development, Bev Oda’s ridiculously obscene, tax payer funded lifestyle has come to an end: she has resigned. I won’t say more here than I said previously, but it is worth marking the occasion by noting that continued public outrage does indeed result in
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: The messy divorce of horse racing and slots in Ontario
I play online poker regularly. My wife loves to watch horse racing on TV. Given this, one might think I would be sympathetic to the long running slots-at-racetrack program which sees government run slots available at racetracks around Ontario in a revenue sharing agreement where the racetracks get 20%, or $345 million a
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Religion and Language: Quasi-Religious Terminology
There are a host of commonly used words in the English language which I like to call quasi-religious. Words like soul, spiritual, fate, mother nature, energy, and the like. These are words which have two sets of connotations, one which is spiritual and one which is largely secular, whose different
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Roberts’ Obamacare decision was not about legitimacy
With the US Supreme Court’s historic decision to let the Affordable Care Act stand has come much speculation on the motives and rationale behind Chief Justice Roberts’ decision to side with the four liberals on the court and uphold the law. Much of that speculation seems to be outright bad,
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Uncompromising Freedom of Speech
A German Salafist Muslim Group (Salafists generally considered an extremist variant of Islam) is causing controversy with a plan to distribute some 25 million German language Korans. That something specific could even be done about this is not clear given the strength of German freedom of expression laws, but this
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: On Christopher Hitchens
When asked, several years back, what he thought of fellow leftish dissident Noam Chomsky, Christopher Hitchens made the point that while he respected much of Chomsky’s work, Chomsky was overvaluing his core issue – criticism of principally US imperialism – and thus saw the Balkans conflict entirely through this lens,
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: The Obama Question [book review]
Gary Dorrien’s book, The Obama Question, makes, as its central thesis, the following point: From a progressive perspective, much of Obama’s presidency has been a failure for which he has received ample criticism for his centrism, for his capitulations, and for his lack of leadership. Despite this, he argues, Obama’s
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Is there a need for a centrist party in Canada?
There have been times in history when there is a wide political space between the right most and left most parties. On the far left, one had advocates of something in the communist/socialist spectrum, and on the right one had not just Milton Friedman-esque free market advocates but perhaps more
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Executive First Class
On the plane to Peru, cut off from my usually endless sources of news which perennially gives me causes to vent frustration at, I am reduced to unleashing my criticism upon smaller and more benign foes. In this case, the rather nauseating, if largely unimportant, nomenclature of “Executive First Class”
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Obama comes out in support of same sex marriage
Years back, when Barack Obama first told us that his views on gay marriage were “evolving”, I predicted that he would support gay marriage before the next election. That day has now come, and Obama has evolved to join his supposedly progressive base by supporting gay marriage. Good. For the
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Solidarity with Quebec Student Protesters
Quebec students, outraged over a 75% tuition increase, have sparked the largest protests in Quebec’s history and have already managed the rare achievement of achieving genuine, if minor, concessions that would have almost certainly not happened were it not for the protests. As is common when protests rise up, there
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: On the compatibility of science and religion
Most people accept, at least tacitly, the majority of scientific claims: general relativity, quantum mechanics, pharmaceuticals; people accept that these work more or less the way the scientists say they do. Indeed, in almost all aspects of our lives people accept that a reasoned, evidential basis for knowledge is paramount.
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: On Feminism
I am proud to call myself a feminist. I take it as a first principle needing no further derivation that all people deserve equality of freedom and opportunity, and that it is both morally right and morally obligatory to fight for this in society. Feminism, to me, is simply the
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Wildrose defeat shows the limits of social conservatism in Canada
Alberta is Canada’s most right leaning province. The Wildrose party is a further right splitting of the long dominant right leaning party in Alberta. If there is anywhere that the most extreme socially conservative positions are going to be uttered, it is from the Wildrose party. However, if we look
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Bev Oda’s luxurious, tax payer funded life
Bev Oda, the Minister of International Development, has done it again. In 2006 she was forced to return $2200 to taxpayers for a $5500 dollar limo bill. In 2008 she was accused of hiding a whopping $17,000 in limo expenses. Now she has had to return money to tax payers
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Lessons from Iran for North Korea
North Korea became the biggest international story of last week when it decided to launch a satellite into space (ostensibly a weather satellite) that ultimately broke down shortly after being launched. This episode puts into peril the nascent moves towards genuine talks regarding food aid in exchange for abandoning nuclear
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: On unnecessarily codifying specific freedoms such as the freedom of religion
Should there be explicit protection for the freedom of religion in the founding documents of society? This question may at first seem to be an obvious ‘yes’ since almost everyone – including most atheists such as myself – consider it to be abundantly clear that people should have the freedom
Continue reading