This must be the divine intervention that American Catholics have been praying for. Having a younger brother who is (in his order of importance) Republican, Roman Catholic, an American citizen and a retired business professor, we have absolutely no sympathy for the current conundrum he faces. It seems that he has been struggling with choosing […]
Continue readingTag: American politics
Babel-on-the-Bay: You betcha it’s the Trump team!
The leaders of America’s Republican Party have already picked the team that will take on the world when it wins the November election. They are betting on billionaire Donald Trump and the former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin. And here you thought that the Republicans would want to temper Trump’s tirades with a more politically acceptable […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Time for Republicans to act grown-up.
Sitting here in Canada and looking south gives us an overview of American politics. It is only recently that there has been a lot of cringing from what we are seeing. Republican candidate Donald Trump brings an entirely new depth of despair to the race for the U.S. Presidency. He seems to have too few […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Life in a world without heroes.
There are no longer heroes in North America. Small children used to look up to police in their uniforms and want to emulate them. Now they fear them. And it is the fault of the police themselves. The police have placed themselves beyond our reach. They have made a sham of the controls society should […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Is America destroying the dream?
A reader asked recently why we were ignoring the current American political scene. It is not that we are not following what is going on. We just feel sad about it. It is a travesty caught up in the guise of democracy. In our book My American Mother (written in 1992) the principle character gives […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: What do Trump, Ford, Harper have in common?
If you think the front runner for the Republican Party nomination for American President is a joke, you did not understand Toronto’s former Mayor Rob Ford either. And Stephen Harper has his own place in Hell next to both of them. All three show signs of being misanthropes—which means they
Continue readingcenterandleft: Born to (be able to) Run
Today, Prime Minister Stephen Harper made news by pledging to outlaw travel to areas of the world that are “ground zero for terrorist activity.” These are places that are, according to the Prime Minister, “the most dangerous on earth, where governance is non-existent and violence is widespread and brutal.” The
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Trump trumps rational (?) Republicans.
Politics in America is sometimes like a badly edited Hollywood movie. It is not always rational. The recent introduction of Donald Trump as a candidate for the Presidential nomination of the Republican Party is reminiscent of Ross Perot’s wild attempts at the American presidency in the late 1990s. After all,
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: One of Justin Trudeau’s better moves.
It makes sense to make nice with the United States. It is surprising for many Canadians when that becomes necessary. Not since Prime Minister John Diefenbaker pissed off President John Kennedy have relations with the Americans been more in the dumpster. Not only has Prime Minister Stephen Harper been a
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Bearing bad news for NDP’s Tom Mulcair.
George Lakoff is an American who thinks. The UCLA Berkeley professor was in Toronto last week. We missed a chance to meet him. He is reported to have told his audience there is no such thing as the political centre. That must have been bad news for the New Democrats
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Mandatory Church Attendance?
I’m sorry. As Johnny Carson used to say, “I do not make these things up, folks, I merely report them.” Perhaps Americans have far more in common with that theocracy in Iran than they realize? Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Meanwhile, South Of The Border
Ah yes, that land whose political representatives make our elected reprobates look like shining exemplars. For this edition of The Dark Side, we return to the ongoing saga of Gordon Klingenschmitt (a.k.a. Dr. Chaps), recently elected as a Republican State Legislator in Colorado. A man with many demons (which he
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: If there is Will, he will find a way.
Not being a regular reader of the Washington Post, we might not have read many columns by George F. Will. It was only when Toronto’s National Post picked up one of his commentaries last weekend that we had the fun of trying to figure out how his mind works—or maybe
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: A friendly note to the American Congress.
Hey you jerks, please do not do that for us. We do not want the Keystone XL pipeline either. Canadians who care are firmly against any pipelines that try to pump bitumen to the sea. That tar sands stuff is three times as polluting as West Texas crude oil. Why
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: That was another good year.
The New Year came and went and it was such a busy time for political comment that we missed commenting on the past year. And that year needs a look. Babel-on-the-Bay set some records. Readership is up. In 365 days, there were 365 commentaries. Other sites are asking for our
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Which twin has the Toni?
During a career in public relations in Canada, you kept an eye on what was happening in PR south of the border as well as the Canadian market. You always wanted to be aware of what firms were doing for their clients. A firm watched over the last 60 years
Continue readingreeves report: Hamburg, Illinois man charged selling live Asian carp
A HAMBURG, ILLINOIS man has been charged with possession and distribution of live bighead and silver carp, a felony under United States law. On October 7, 2014, Randall E. Watters was arrested and charged in Calhoun County in the state’s southwest for the unlawful possession and sale of more than
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Bully Pulpit of the Paul’s.
This is not the Apostle Saint Paul under discussion here. Libertarian extremists Ron Paul and his son Randal Paul are something else. The senior Paul is still the cantankerous fanatic who took his pre-Tea Party Libertarian followers to seek the American Presidency in 1988 and tried in both 2008 and
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: There are liars and damn liars.
The Woodrow Wilson Institute based at the Smithsonian in Washington is an honoured institution recognizing the only American President to have earned a PhD. It seems a shame that its name is being besmirched by the cant of the tar sands exploiters and the sham of Prime Minister Harper’s energy
Continue readingreeves report: Fracking impact report due early May
Fracking well in USA. A panel report on the potential environmental impacts of shale gas exploration, extraction and development in Canada has been finalized but will not see the light of day until after May 1, 2014. In 2011, then federal Environment Minister Peter Kent asked the Council of Canadian
Continue reading