The cull continues. The deaths mount. Do the continuing failures of those who govern America take precedence over the battle with covid-19? Does pestilence allow a time-out for protest? And what of the other three horsemen? Is famine reserved for other parts of our world? Is the war with the
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Babel-on-the-Bay: Scorched earth for Beijing.
There is a very simple answer for the problem of Beijing coming down so hard on Hong Kong. It means that the leaders in Beijing are breaking their bond. Their promises are hollow. Leaders who betray their own are not honourable people. The answer is to deny them the very
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Needed but not essential.
We are talking about hockey here. And yes, I confess, I am one of those long-forgotten Toronto Maple Leaf fans. I remember as a youngster I walked by that sainted temple built by Conn Smythe at Carlton and Church on the way to and from school. I remember celebrating with
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Have a happy insurrection.
From Hong Kong to Washington, from Los Angeles to Minneapolis, it is a time of insurrection. It boils over with the night and it rests and renews in the day. It is us versus them. It is authority versus anarchy. It is young versus old. It is rich versus poor.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Trump will not go gentle into that good night.
Welsh poet Dylan Thomas was talking about older people and death in that often-quoted poem. It is much to far ahead of the election to make a confident prediction but I can cheerfully suggest what might happen when Joe Biden beats Trump in November. When all avenues for dispute are
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: In the war of the sexes, we are all losers.
How do we hate this pandemic? Let us count the ways. Looking at the pictures of what was going on at Trinity Bellwoods Park in Toronto last weekend gave you a smile and a frown. It was a young crowd, doing what young people do. It was natural and understandable
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Mr. Trump’s Stupid Wars.
It is hard to say what the Americans have done wrong to deserve this. They have the best equipped standing army in the world and they elect a guy like Donald Trump as commander-in-chief. It’s enough to make you cry. That jerk could not understand the strategy for a snowball
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Toronto Star: A legacy forsaken.
Friday evening dinner in my household as a child was often fish and chips, wrapped in pages of newsprint torn from the Toronto Star, to keep your dinner warm. In that sense, I grew up with the Toronto Star. I was probably still too young when conservative premier Leslie Frost
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The future is ours.
As the song asks, “How ya gonna keep ‘em down on the farm, after they’ve seen Paree?” That was a song that many believed after the First World War. It is also a lament for those politicians who think they can give the public greater freedoms and then expect to
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: What is the new normal?
People are talking about a new normal—whenever this damn pandemic has run its course. No, we are not talking about the normal when we still shy from contact with people in fear of covid-19. We are talking about a time when we will look back on a history we do
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The killing ground at the LTCs.
The cull continues. Just what is the purpose of our long-term care (LTC) facilities? The figures are shocking. We sent in the army. All the army got was covid-19. Britain’s Economist asked around, checking covid-19 deaths in LTC facilities in European countries. The people at the Economist were shocked to
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Harry Who?
It is a different world for poor Harry Windsor. He cut himself off from the trappings of royalty with surgical precision. Now he is staring up from a prone position in the self-centred world of Hollywood. No honours, no special branch protection and no money. In California, there is a
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Can Chuckles make a comeback?
The conservative party and the news media have written off acting conservative party leader Andrew Scheer much too soon. When he resigned late last year, the unwritten proviso was that the party thought they could get someone better. There might be four or five people vying for the honour of
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Panic in the pandemic.
The problem is that these so-called experts keep changing their minds. They tell us to wear a mask and then they say, ‘Don’t bother.’ Now they want us to wear a mask again. Maybe they should draw us pictures. It is not that we are slow or just plain dumb.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Debt walls and other delusions.
Having always admired the work of Toronto author Linda McQuaig, I enjoyed her opinion piece in the Toronto Star the other day. She was suggesting that we should not listen to the deficit hawks. It must be a measure of my admiration that we tend to agree on the subject.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Pirates of the Pandemic.
The gloom and doom writers have it all wrong. You do realize, do you not, that there are business bandits who are making a killing because of the pandemic. These are the ones shedding crocodile tears as they make another billion. Who says we are all in this together? It
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Who’s voting for stupid?
The ignorant and the gullible are on the march in America. They are coming to his rallies and buying his snake oil. Donald Trump has his eye on the prize: the November election. That is quite a prize for a serial killer who has already helped the pandemic take the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Planes, Trains and Trucks.
If you listen to some analysts, it would seem that Canada’s economy is based on airlines. That was a mistake that came down to us because of the Second World War. In putting Canada on a war footing, the ubiquitous DC-3 aircraft took responsibility for high-speed travel while railways became
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: When our world is on hold.
Every morning when waking up to this pandemic, I challenge myself to remember what day it is. I never realized how confining a person to their home could be so cruel. I work hard at keeping alert and interested in our world. Some days the newspaper crossword is a challenge
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: An autopsy or a resuscitation?
An interesting question was raised in the Toronto Star the other day. There was an opinion piece by Bob Hepburn proposing a national commission on the reconstruction of the Canadian economy. This suggestion was based on some thinking by Greg Sorbara, a former Ontario treasurer, and Michael Mendelson, former Ontario
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