The Tea Party in the States got a huge slap in the face in yesterday’s off-year elections in the States. Among the biggest ones:
Voters in Ohio rejected by a huge margin a law that effectively placed public servants in a "right to work state" situation.
Maine voters approved same day voting registration, making it a "normal" democracy like Canada (this principle is opposed by Tea Partiers
Continue readingAfter sticking around what seemed like forever, and beating off one sleaze scandal after another, the world’s most powerful womanizer, Silvio Berlusconi, has finally said he’s going to resign after bond markets pushed up the yield of Italy’s 10 year bo…
Continue readingAmong the most commonly held misconceptions about immigrants: They don’t pay taxes, they steal jobs, they are criminals, they’re a burden on our social safety net. All four are demonstrably false — they do pay taxes at the same rates as the …
Continue readingIt is truly unbelievable the game of chicken we’ve seen played this week in Europe. Just one week ago, Greece’s PM George Papandreou, was handed the deal of the millennium – a write off of 50% of his country’s debts — and he caused havoc when he w…
Continue readingIt is just me, or has the Royal Canadian Legion become a laughing stock for calling in the trademark lawyers to go after — ready for this — a group of veteran bikers who raise awareness about the sacrifices the men and uniform make for those of us wh…
Continue readingFrankly, Rick says it way better than most of us. The crap that leads 300 students in this country to commit suicide every year because they can’t stand the bullying over their being LGBT has got to stop.(Transcript here, thanks Rick …
Continue readingThe ongoing between Quebecor Media and the CBC has gotten really intense this week, if the Toronto Star is to be believed. I agree that the CBC has some issues with transparency and that it would be wise to answer at least some, if not nece…
Continue readingThe Supreme Court of Canada has handed the blog world a big victory. Writing for a unanimous Court in Crookes v. Newton, Justice Rosalie Abella wrote that merely providing a hyperlink to a definitively or potentially defamatory websit…
Continue readingA week after his half-hearted “apology” Don Cherry tried Take Two. This time he actually said, “I was wrong.” He also attacked a current player for doing a mocking “nighty-night” pantomine after taking out an opposing play…
Continue readingFinally, after more than a quarter of a century, a Roman Catholic bishop in North America may finally be held to account in the courts — the legal courts, not the canonical ones. The sex abuse scandal that has plagued the Catholic Church has had a rel…
Continue readingIt’s been a little over 24 hours since the United States announced it had arrested an Iranian operative who was picked up in Mexico for wanting to try to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the US. If even half of it is true then it s…
Continue readingTo follow up on my last post about “Grapes”:The three NHL players that Don Cherry criticized last Thursday night — that three retired NHL players, namely Stu Grimsom, Chris Nilan and Jim Thomson were “pukes,” “turncoats,” and “hypocrites” for saying…
Continue readingLooks like there may be finally trouble in the self-built paradise that Don Cherry has constructed all these years. At long last the CBC actually disagrees with something he said, openly. This is in reference to opening ni…
Continue readingHard to imagine a world without Steve Jobs … I’ll always be a “PC” (personal computer) but I love iTunes ™ — which made possible the podcast and the ability to download a lot of favourite radio and TV shows as well as discovering new ones, all for…
Continue readingQuick whip of two items so let’s go:Good on the Supreme Court of Canada for ruling the Insite clinic in Vancouver does not run afoul of drug control policies; more technically that it does but to deny it a “constitutional exemption” would be a far wors…
Continue readingIt would be nice if we did it as the States do — schedule all federal, state and local elections and by-elections such that they all happen on the same day (except in the case of death). Would save a ton on multiple manual revisions of th…
Continue readingAn interesting suggested compromise to the “Palestinian question” came out during the week past. It would be to recognize the Palestinian state without granting it a seat at the United Nations General Assembly. The quirk would b…
Continue readingWe’re all used to the concept of “shock therapy” when it comes to finances. Canada went through that process a decade and a half ago in an unpopular but successful attempt to balance the budget and start paying down our debt. We…
Continue readingNo surprise that the Cons reintroduced, yet again, their “omnibus” crime bill. And no surprise, again, that the Cons refused to say how much it will cost to implement — much less if there will be any commensurate transfers to the provinces…
Continue readingYesterday morning’s explosive (pardon the expression) allegations by a former Mountie that the Swiss Air 111 crash in 1998 may have been a terrorist act and not an entertainment system gone haywire is something that absolutely has to be taken seriously…
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