This week’s column: when abroad, behave
Dear Famous Canadians: Canadians behaving badly in the United States: you could practically write a book about the subject, couldn’t you? On the Right side of the spectrum, there was…
July 2017
A Reminder That ‘Science’ Can Be Bad As Well As Good …
Science should just be science, but unfortunately, a LOT of it is funded by different special interest groups. How are we supposed to know when we’re being informed proactively versus…
John Ibbitson’s Obscene Ode to Andrew Scheer
I realize that the Globe writer John Ibbitson has written some rotten columns before, most of them in praise of Stephen Harper.And I realize he works for a newspaper that…
Running in the Green.
If the federal New Democratic Party is now Green, where does the Green Party get to go? Looking at NDP MP Niki Ashton’s pricy green plan, you really wonder about…
Dunkirk (2017)
Reviewers have been so effusive in their praise for Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk that one suspects that something is very wrong here. The New York Times, for example, called it a…
USA Style Dark Money Has Come Into Alberta’s Politics
Alberta's laws on reforming Election Financing has come a long way since the Notley government came to office. We really needed to "clean up our act" on donor disclosures, contribution…
USA Style Dark Money Has Come Into Alberta’s Politics
Alberta’s laws on reforming Election Financing has come a long way since the Notley government came to office. We really needed to “clean up our act” on donor disclosures, contribution…
Time for the “International Left” to Take a Stand on Venezuela
Photo from Public Domain Venezuela is heading towards an increasingly dangerous situation, in which open civil war could become a real possibility. So far over 100 people have been killed…
By 2100, Refugees Would Be the Most Populous Country on Earth
Photo by Anthony Gale The UN Refugee Agency has announced the new figures for the world’s displaced: 65.9 million. That means that 65.9 million human beings live as refugees, asylum…
Mayweather vs McGregor: a Roman Spectacle of Greed and Vulgarity
We knew it was going to be vulgar. What we did not anticipate was that it would be ‘this’ vulgar. The opening press conference of a scheduled four city tour…
UCP Merger…a message from the this-could-get-ugly department
Jason Kenney is busy ticking off the boxes in his quest to be the next premier of Alberta: Become the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party—check. Maneuver Brian Jean (WR)…
Rafe & Scotty on Denman
A preceding article contains two comments from readers whom I regard highly. The contributions were to Overrun with dullards, bums, and hacks… Because they merit close attention, I present them…
Kelly, Meet Kelli. Oh, You’ve Already Met?
They’re both ambitious women. They’re both radical conservatives. Hey, they’re both doctors and they’ll say anything and walk all over anyone to get what they want. Ours is the ever…
The Return of Stuff Happens, week 27: The right moves; Spicer quits, comics cry.
Well, that was decisive. The Wildrose and the Progressive Conservatives — the Hatfields and the McCoys of Alberta politics — agreed to a merger on Saturday. And it wasn’t even…
why do we need to say black lives matter? a brief and partial history lesson
The African American experience in Los Angeles County, California: a brief and selected timeline of sorts.* From 1940-1960, thousands of African Americans migrated from Louisiana, Georgia, Texas, and other southern…
NINE VOLUMES OF MAYAN ICONOGRAPHY INCLUDING THE SPANISH INVASION
PRIMARY DOCUMENTS INDIGENOUS CIVILIZATIONS OF TURTLE ISLAND NINE VOLUMES OF MAYAN ICONOGRAPHY INCLUDING THE SPANISH INVASION Antiquities of Mexico : comprising fac-similes of ancient Mexican paintings and hieroglyphics, preserved in…
Careless or captured?
When you read or listen to resource industry advocates, especially ones masquerading as objective political pundits, compare their concerns in 2009 about burning natural gas to generate peak-demand electricity to…
What Would the Ancient Greeks Have Made of Donald Trump?
Good question and one best left to experts like Stanford prof, Josiah Ober, author and professor of political science and the classics. In Dr. Ober’s view, the Greeks would not…
This Could Send Trump Racing For the "Pardon Button" Or Maybe the Launch Codes
Can Robert Mueller indict Donald Trump? Ken Starr, the special counsel who tried to take down Bill Clinton, seems to think so. The New York Times using Freedom of Information…
Is Climate Change Even "News" Any More?
For the better part of 15 years I’ve been following news of developments in climate change, anthropogenic global warming. I subscribe to these news aggregators that every day deliver to…