Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Zania Stamataki warns that we can’t afford to treat vaccines as a magic bullet against the dangers of the coronavirus when public health regulations remain needed to limit its spread and severity. Brishti Basu examines the reasons for both concern about the Delta
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The Disaffected Lib Mk. II: It’s Hot Even Where It’s Supposed To Be Not
For most of my considerable life heatwaves were not associated with the far north. Over the past few years that has changed even to the point of wildfires spreading high inside the Arctic Circle. The Siberian town of Verkhoyansk just set a record 118 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s 47.8 degrees Celsius.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib Mk. II: Of Course It’s Dysfunctional, Junior. You Wouldn’t Have It Any Other Way.
Yeah, Sure. Building the case for an early election, prime minister Trudeau today complained that parliament is afflicted by “toxicity” and “obstruction.” Hard to tell what he’s complaining about. Toxicity and obstruction are inherent in a first-past-the-post electoral system where something over 30 per cent can land you a
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: On Bill C-6 – Conversion Therapy
Bill C-6's next step is on to the Senate once the House of Commons holds a third reading vote. I expect the usual suspects like Senator Plett will do their level best to muddy the waters and confuse things. Let's take a closer look at what the uproar is really
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – The Canadian Press reports on new Leger polling showing that over two-thirds of Canadians want to see COVID-19 protections remain in place – even as Scott Moe and Jason Kenney barge ahead in slashing public health measures. Mark Lautens warns against treating
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to start your week. – Josh Taylor reports on contact tracing which has revealed that “fleeting contact” can be enough to result in the spread of the COVID-19 Delta variant. And Chris MacIntyre reports on some of the Yukon’s largest outbreaks yet even in the face of widespread
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib Mk. II: Can Joe Biden Finally Bury Milt Friedman?
American economist, Milt Friedman, captured the somewhat limited imaginations of Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and our own Brian Mulroney and they, in turn, ushered in the era of free market globalism – the neoliberal order. Friedman was convinced that free markets were the solution to just about everything. Think
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Let’s Talk A Bit About "Gender Ideology"
Over at The Economist, we have a somewhat simplistic article blathering away about how there's a backlash happening against "Gender Ideology". I'm not going to dissect the article in detail, because there's a more important point that needs to be made here. The concept of "Gender Ideology" is fundamentally a
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – As Jason Kenney and Scott Moe rush to slash public health protections including mask mandates, Gavin Leech et al. study how important masking has been in slowing the spread of COVID-19. Sarah Bridge, Ioanna Roumeliotis and Joseph Loiero highlight how rules which
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib Mk. II: The Picture of Madness
The New Normal The American southwest has a problem that most residents prefer to avoid. The region is getting pistol-whipped by climate change, a deadly combination of severe heatwaves and megadrought. Las Vegas may be the area’s poster boy. Las Vegas’s population is booming and the city is sprawling into
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib Mk. II: Bercow Defects to Labour
As former Speaker of the British House of Commons, John Bercow became a celebrity on both sides of the Atlantic. First elected to represent the riding of Buckingham in 1997, Bercow went on to preside as Speaker from 2009 to 2019 which included the tumultuous Brexit years. Now this
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Joe Vipond, Kashif Perzeda and Danielle Cane write that Canada’s failure to talk about the airborne transmission of COVID-19 (or the public health implications of what we’ve learned) is making it difficult for people to protect themselves and their communities. Gabrielle Douaud et
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Musical interlude
Metric – Blindness
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – CBC News reports on the expert response to deaths caused by the spread of the Delta COVID-19 variant in a Calgary hospital – including needed warnings that vaccinations aren’t a bulletproof line of defence against it. And Mary Van Beukesom discusses how the
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib Mk. II: Something Amazing Could Be Unfolding Before Our Eyes
Over the past two decades the American southwest has been hit by droughts. That hasn’t stopped the region from growing with the arrival of newcomers, especially retirees from the northern states. The droughts – well, they come and they go. Until now. Researchers know that this region, the southwest
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Doubling Down on Racism – The Chris Champion Edition
Over at the Dorchester Review, we find one Chris Champion doubling down on his position that the "Indian Residential Schools (IRS) really weren't all that bad". The dust-up on Twitter starts a few days ago, but culminates in a series of posts like this one, depicting students "having an
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Jennifer Yang and Kenyon Wallace discuss how the Delta variant makes the COVID-19 pandemic far more dangerous than it had been before – even as far too many governments barge ahead with the elimination of public health measures. The Globe and Mail’s
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib Mk. II: When Your Entire Planet is a "Heat Island."
In an amazingly brief period of time, the Earth is retaining more of the man-generated heat, double the amount in 2005. The amount of heat Earth traps has roughly doubled since 2005, contributing to more rapidly warming oceans, air and land, according to new research from NASA and the National
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Tavia Grant writes that a year and half of experience have confirmed that the most important element in reducing the workplace spread of COVID-19 is ensuring adequate ventilation – but that public health rules have utterly failed to reflect that knowledge. Mickey Djuric
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