Today’s News: Ratioed
To begin, I need to give a definition of “ratioed” – Merriam-Webster defines it as “A quantitative measure of how little they like your take.” A tweet is “ratioed” when…
September 2022
Pierre Poilievre and the Politics of Brutalization
“The word ‘brutalize’ is now employed quite wrongly to mean harsh or cruel treatment meted out by the strong to the weak…but in fact it means something subtler, namely the…
Noam Chomsky and Daniel Ellsberg on the death of Mikhail Gorbachev
An untitled mural by Georg Lutz, painted in 1990, depicts former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev driving though a crack in the Berlin wall. Photo by Ilias Katsouras/Flickr. Noam Chomsky and…
Shift from fossils to renewables will save $12 trillion by 2050
Middelgrunden offshore wind farm (40 MW) observed in Øresund. Photo by CGP Grey/Wikimedia Commons. fossil fuels with renewable energy will save countries at least US$12 trillion by 2050, an Oxford…
From the Bookmarks
What a week! Here are some palate cleansers I have been collecting: The game will miss these two ❤️@serenawilliams | @rogerfederer pic.twitter.com/G630i4BlSL — ESPN (@espn) September 15, 2022 That is…
The power of peasant farmers
A large farm growing a variety of foods in Vietnam. Photo by Dennis Jarvis/Wikimedia Commons. Tiny Engines of Abundance: A History of Peasant Productivity and Repression Jim Handy Fernwood, 2022…
Eating up the Hill: The evolution of the caf’s General Tso Chicken
You’re not going to get high-quality Chinese food from a Parliament Hill Cafeteria — you’d do better at a nearby mall food court or, better yet, walk down to Sommerset…
Canada’s climate behemoth
Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre wears a hoodie with the logo of Oil Sands Strong, a pro-energy advocacy group. Photo from Facebook. After a summer of unprecedented heatwaves, catastrophic flooding,…
What About the Code of Conduct?
I attended a two-hour seminar hosted by the town about Collingwood’s Code of Conduct last week. It was intended as an introduction to the policy for new candidates and a…
What To Do If Our Classrooms Aren’t Safe
I’m getting these types of questions over and over: What should I do if other students and the teachers won’t wear masks? What do I do if my child gets…
Weaponizing The Media
Most will have heard about the unpleasant contretemps between Global’s David Atkin and Pierre Poilievre when the latter announced he would not be taking any questions from the press at…
First Principles
Andrew Coyne tries to make the case for centrism: Justin Trudeau and Pierre Poilievre are far from twins, or (so far as I know) space aliens. Yet they, and the…
In a Land of Make Believe.
It is surreal. We live in a time of floods and fire, when Mother Nature raises her ire. We fight nonsensical wars. And we are living in a fairy tale.…
Corruption of the Soul
Two very different stories this week, from different countries, and yet there is a connection at their core. Both the DeSantis’ Martha’s Vineyard stunt and the Poilievre press conference freak-out…
Jason Kenney, working remotely by cellphone from London queue, tweets ostentatiously while waiting to bid farewell to Queen
“In queue for Queen, Premier Kenney signs order banning remote work option for civil servants.” University of Alberta political scientist Jared Wesley (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). In fact, there was…
Woke schmoke
Under this definition, I’m woke. So is pretty much every family member and friend. What the fuck is wrong with being aware of injustice? Nothing. And if you do something…
On not Grasping for the Good
I’m taking a university course on Asian Wisdom, which I’m really enjoying. My prof told a story about Buddha that concludes that we should only tell others of a better…
It looks like we’re stuck with Chuck III
And so we say goodbye – a very, very long goodbye – to Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God Queen of Canada and her other realms, Defender of…
Eating on the road: A smashburger in Muskoka
I’m always on the lookout for a good smashburger in my travels, and during my summer visit to Muskoka I was pointed to the Fare Food Co. It’s a food…