Author: Flash
Blevkog: Stretched Thin, Part 1
As some of you may be aware, during my more prolific days on the ‘Kog, I decried the decline in the quality of journalism, a trend which I directly attributed to the establishment of the 24-hour cable news stations. The need to fill airtime has superseded the need to inform,
Continue readingBlevkog: From the Blevkog Archives – April 21, 2006: Cultural Relativism: An Example
Note to readers: I’m not entirely sure why, but this has always stood out for me as one of my favorite pieces of writing that I’ve done on Blevkog. This particular frivolous item comes from the prior incarnation of the blog. I may have written better entries since then, but
Continue readingBlevkog: The Ultimate Responsibility
I am not a parent. It’s not that I didn’t want to be, I love children, and they seem to tolerate me well enough; events in my life have thus far prevented me from being a father. Which, of course, does not preclude it from happening in the future, and
Continue readingBlevkog: The Sound of… Silent?
It occurs to me that the use of the phrase “silent majority” implies some sort of misguided supposition that the person using the phrase is correct and others who constitute the more vocal (and generally ‘liberal’) constituents are really uninformed and in reality only have small numbers behind them despite
Continue readingBlevkog: Human vs. Nature vs. Human Nature
There’s nothing like nature to provide a clear reminder that all the political scandals in the world are irrelevant in the face of human suffering in the wake of natural disaster. The death toll from Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda is already nearing 2,000, and the official toll is expected to be somewhere in
Continue readingBlevkog: Unwise Crack
Mayor Rob Ford, according to multiple media outlets, has now admitted, for the record, that he smoked crack cocaine while he was Mayor. This, by definition, is an illegal act, so this should actually be the beginning of the end. You have to give the guy credit in that he
Continue readingBlevkog: Full Esteem Ahead
This morning, as I was making my way through my email, I caught a short news item in Academica Top Ten about a school in Calgary discontinuing awards and competitions based on the work of Alfie Kohn, an author who writes about child behaviour and parenting. The theory is that, “awards eventually lose
Continue readingBlevkog: The Press Releases Begin to Fly…
The following just arrived in my inbox. The battle lines are being drawn… Friends, This is a sad day for the City of Toronto. As a Torontonian, and as a City Councillor for more than 20 years, it pains me to see the City of Toronto in the situation we
Continue readingBlevkog: The Ford Follies
As most people in the free world are by now aware, the Mayor of our beloved T’ranna, Rob (Are You Gonna Finish That?) Ford has been bullying his way through scandal after potential scandal on pure bluster and the careful construction of a facade of fiscal responsibility. While I will
Continue readingBlevkog: It’s Not the End of the World
His mind slid away into the labyrinthine world of doublethink. To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against
Continue readingBlevkog: Longest Nap Ever…
Whew! Feels like forever since I was here last. Did I miss anything? Guys? Guys? I kid, of course. When Fearless Leader Kevvyd sent me a note the other day to let me know we were starting the blog up again, I was in immediately. I am approaching my second year here
Continue readingBlevkog: Kony 2012
From Wikipedia: “Joseph Rao Kony (born 1961 in Odek, Uganda) is a Ugandan guerrilla group leader, head of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a group engaged in a violent campaign to establish theocratic government based on the Ten Commandments throughout Uganda. The LRA say that God has sent spirits to
Continue readingBlevkog: The Urban Transit Blues
I was made aware a few days ago that HRM is enduring a transit strike – a few people I know don’t own vehicles and have some level of dependence on mass transit to get to work, which makes it particularly painful. Even with its limitations, it was, in my
Continue readingBlevkog: Greetings from the Centre of the Universe
Since my last post a dog’s age ago, I have moved to the City that Never Shuts the Hell Up – Toronto, Ontario. I’m not exactly on the coast, or even near the coast anymore (Lake? Pffft.), but I thought I’d poke my head up, gopher-like, to say hello to
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