I readily admit that I find it difficult, if not impossible, to fathom the extreme right-wing mind. To me, it is a mind mired in a world of fantasy, willful ignorance, and intractable denial. Magical thinking seems to be a substitute for cogitation. Name-calling in lieu of discussion. Denunciation instead
Continue readingAuthor: Lorne
Politics and its Discontents: Perhaps He Should Try Thinking Before Speaking?
Last week I wrote a post on two inane ideas uttered by young Tim Hudak, the hapless leader of Ontario’s Progressive Conservative Party. He proposed tying post-secondary funding to rates of employment upon graduation, along with the idea that only those who achieve a certain mark shuld be elegible for
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: On Corporate Propaganda and Tax Avoidance
It is the fashion among our corporate overlords and their rabid right-wing courtesans to utter a trite phrase that, because it is repeated so frequently, is taken as truth by many: We don’t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem. Like the magician who relies upon misdirection to
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Synchronous Decline of Peter Mansbridge and The CBC
I admit that I stopped being a regular viewer of the CBC years ago; I think the catalyst for my disaffection was its transparent policy of appeasement (under the pretext of balanced reporting) of the Harper regime which, of course, holds its funding strings. Especially evident in its flagship news
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Because
… I just couldn’t resist reposting this morning’s Star editorial cartoon. Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: "His Most Preposterous Policy Statement Yet"
As noted here the other day, young Tim Hudak, in another move that shows the caliber of his leadership of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, announced that student loans should be tied to student marks. This morning’s Star describes his proposal as silly and his most preposterous policy statement yet
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Scourge of the Undead
While there was much talk in the House of Commons yesterday about how to prevent a ‘zombie apocalypse,’ in Canada, Bob Hepburn has his own solution on how to deal with the scourge of the undead: hold a referendum on abolishing the Senate. Noting that it costs well over $100
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Mike Harris Redux
In his ongoing attempt to resurrect the ‘glory’ days of his close friend and mentor, former Ontario Premier Mike ‘the knife’ Harris, young Ontario Conservative Tim Hudak has a not-so-new-idea. A man, I deduce, not given to a great deal of introspection or critical thought, young Tim has apparently come
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Dire Warning!
Could this emergency broadcast really have been about unusual activity in our Senate? Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Timely Reminder From Linda McQuaig
Fanned by a corporate-dominated media, it is hardly a surprise that anti-union sentiment seems to be rampant today. Everywhere we look, there are articles decrying the ‘unchecked power’ of union ‘bosses’ and strident rallying for more ‘workplace democracy’ and ‘right-to-work legislation,’ thinly veiled euphemisms for the ultimate dismantling of unions,
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: "…a bombastic partisan apologist for the prime minister "
The above is one of the descriptions offered of the much beleaguered ‘PEI’ Senator Mike Duffy in a trenchant assessment written by the Star’s Tim Harper in today’s edition. Harper reminds us of the ease with which the Puffster abandoned whatever journalistic integrity he might have once possessed as soon
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Why Is This Man Smiling?
Could it have anything to do with the fact that he has made a successful career out of masquerades? First, of course, Mike Duffy donned the mask of a political reporter, pretending to be an objective seeker of the truth, initially for CBC and then later for CTV, all the
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Exploiting Mandela
In an age when everyone feels entitled to their own reality series because, well, because they are ‘special’ and entitled, I suppose I shouldn’t be appalled that that icon of integrity and reconciliation, Nelson Mandela, a man I revere, is now in the unfortunate position of seeing two of his
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: On Porcine Behaviour, A.K.A. Mike Duffy
You can run, Mike, but given your now well-known behaviour at the trough, I doubt that you can hide. Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Timely Reminder
Young Tim Hudak, the leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, probably commands much more press coverage than he deserves. He certainly has been the object of more than one of my own blog posts, in part because of the fascinating window he opens into the mind of that segment
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: ‘Paying’ For Their Crimes?
It doesn’t take a cynic to realize that justice can be anything other than even-handed. We all know, for example, that there is a disproportionate percentage of people populating North American jails who are from the underclass, both white and non-white. The ability to ‘buy’ justice by engaging high-priced counsel
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Hooray for Free Speech!
Unless, of course, that freedom is used to criticize Israel. Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Medical Marijuana – Part 2
The other day I wrote a post suggesting that policy formulation in the Harper government is conducted not in the measured and studied way most governments employ, but rather more than anything else from a knee-jerk ideological orientation. This is apparent most recently in Health Canada’s decision to license private
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Wouldn’t It Be Nice?
I have a confession to make: I am a lifelong Beach Boys’ fan. Their harmonies and their idyllic representation of the West Coast lifestyle captivated me as a youth, and still have a hold on me today. One of their signature songs, and certainly one of my favorites, is Wouldn’t
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Harper and Medical Marijuana
As my policy-analyst son has made abundantly clear to me, government policy formulation does not take place in a vacuum. Much time and deliberation goes into the devising of new policies or the revising of old ones. Like the butterfly effect, every change or innovation brings with it both anticipated
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