Thoughts on the GOP South Carolina Debate
Despite the GOP nomination contest being all but over, there is still some entertainment value to the sports team contests that are the seemingly never ending debates. What follows is…
bazie
Liberal voting reform endorsement reduces chances of NDP-Liberal merger
The question of a Liberal-NDP merger was something that was discussed quite openly following Harper’s ascent to a majority. Such poltical heavyweights as Jean Chretien even weighed in on the…
The SuperPAC charade is getting tiresome
Can we please drop this SuperPAC ruse already? It is the first election season post Citizens United and so these new political groups are allowed to collect unlimited, undisclosed amounts…
The appeal, and vacuousness, of sports team politics
Last Tuesday, the second game of the playoffs took place in New Hampshire with front runner Massachusetts Mitt leading the pack going into game three in South Carolina. For six…
Civil Unions vs Full Marriage Equality
Civil unions, as opposed to gay marriage, are often advocated for by the moderate right, and sometimes as a pragmatic solution on the left. The main idea is that civil…
The Left and Ron Paul
There is an ongoing debate amoung the left on how to view Ron Paul. Should we like him or hate him, support him or reject him? The fundamental distinction in…
The biggest loser in Iowa: the Tea Party
Among the Iowa winners were Mitt Romney (establishment candidate), with Rick Santorum (Evangelical candidate) trailing by 8 votes, then Ron Paul (Libertarian candidate). Trailing significantly was Newt Gingrich, an old…
Importance of Geography in the NDP Leadership Election
When choosing the next NDP leader, one question that can be raised is considerations for where the NDP leader is geographically based from. How much of a difference does this…
My blog: Reviewing 2011, Previewing 2012
Following in the custom of New Years, I take a look at the past year for this blog and set some goals for the coming year. Almost necessarily, this results…
Our fears of airplanes, and terrorism
Many of us have a fear of flying; it ranges from a mild discomfort to a paralyzing fear. For the most part, this fear is not rationally founded. On a…
The importance of likeability in the NDP leadership race
If there is anything that the last decade in Canadian politics has proven, it is that Canadians want a strong leader that can connect and be liked by the people.…
The expanding War on Terror: their hypocrisy, and ours
It is hard to imagine how the timing could have created a more poignant juxtaposition. At the same time as the Obama administration triumphantly withdraws from Iraq, Congress is set…
The religious nature of the Libertarian movement
In many ways, the modern libertarian movement is deeply religious. Not in the sense of believing some mystical metaphysical claims about the nature of the universe, but in its structure…
Culture Wars: The Harper Government’s ridiculous ban on the Burqa during the citizenship ceremony
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has just announced plan to ban the use of the burqa or niqab for new Canadians during the Oath of Citizenship. I was very disappointed not…
Iowa ABC GOP Nomination Debate Analysis
The following is an assortment of unordered commentary on the people, politics and policies from the Iowa ABC/Yahoo GOP nomination debate. Gingrich vs Romney et al: This was the first…
Transforming regional representation in democracy
First Past the Post Ballot For reasons purely of pragmatism, our democracies are actually representative democracies where we elect a relatively tiny portion of our population as leaders to represent…
A note on Mitt Romney’s Mormonism
GOP front runner Mitt Romney In the GOP presidential nomination contest, the long standing front-runner, Mitt Romney, has never managed to really break out of the low to mid twenties…
Sisterwives reframes the polygamy debate
It is always easier to dispel some characterization when it is given absolutely; not just as a generalization, not just as something that exists for some people, but as something…
Measuring the success of social movements: Occupy, Arab Awakening, the Tea Party, and Keystone XL
How do we measure the success or effectiveness of a social movement? Ultimately we probably wish to change our society in some way, or perhaps to resist the changes that…