No Dog in That Fight, But I Still Care About the Results
As a Canadian, I can only watch US politics from afar, albeit with unease. My comments on events and issues there are those from an armchair observer who has no…
Ian Chadwick
Trump, Ozymandias, and the Hubris of Ambition
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair! wrote Percy Bysshe Shelley in his 1817 poem, Ozymandias, the ancient king who called himself in the poem, the ” king of…
Council Screws Collingwood Residents. Again.
Like many other residents in council chamber yesterday, I was deeply disappointed but not surprised by our council’s decision yesterday to continue with staff’s anti-resident/anti-environment plan to deforest Sixth Street…
The Very Model of Bureaucratic Inefficiency
Here is the textbook model of bureaucratic inefficiency and council sluggishness that deserves a satirical Gilbert and Sullivan song of its own: Collingwood is conducting a “speed limit survey” through…
Review: The Design of Books
Like with so many other technologies in our lives — computers, cars, bread machines, flushing toilets, DVD players, convection ovens — most consumers don’t know or appreciate how books are…
Christofascists Make Their Move in Oklahoma
The MAGA pseudo-Christians in the USA have recently been making bold moves toward implementing their oppressive theocracy and making Gilead a reality in their states. Louisiana required one of the…
The Litter That’s Killing Everything and Everyone
Four and a half trillion. That’s how many cigarette butts are estimated to be littered every year on our streets, sidewalks, parks, downtowns, parking lots, lawns, and everywhere else smokers…
Donald Trump and the Art of Victimhood
Persecution. It’s a deeply-ingrained core component of the myth of Christian history, and well-weaponized in modern times by rightwing politicians who depend on the support from both the faithful and…
Pro-Car Planning is Destroying Collingwood’s Environment
I warned you: Council would support the anti-resident/anti-environment/pro-vehicle attitude that pervades town hall. I warned you they would deforest Sixth Street to make it a bigger, faster speedway for vehicles.…
A 30-Year-Old Warning About Rising Fascism
Convicted felon and insurrection supporter Donald Trump claimed in a media conference after his trial that, because the justice system works, Americans are “living in a fascist state.” It’s not…
May 30: The Day Justice Prevailed
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! He chortled in his joy. Thirty-four criminal charges and found guilty for every one of them. Thirty four! Of course, I don’t have to tell…
Traffic Calming: Not My Job Say Town Staff
No residents have been successful in three years in meeting all the town’s absurdly stringent requirements for investigation of the installation of even rudimentary traffic calming in their neighbourhoods. That’s…
The Anti-Environmentalists in Town Hall are at it Again
WTF is wrong with town hall these days? Why do they dislike trees so much? Last week town staff presented another plan to make Sixth Street even more of a…
The Rise of the New Fascists and Their Threat to Democracy
I wonder if this was how my father felt in England, watching the rise of fascism in Europe in the 1920s and ’30s. By the time of my father’s 20th…
The Death of Truth in the Trump Era
The ongoing criminal trial of Donald Trump (the first one; others are to follow) continues to expose the difference between what he and his followers believe and anything related to…
On the Bay’s Libertarian Piffle
Less (sic) taxes is, for On the Bay‘s publisher David Loopstra, a “solution” for the problems of inflation. It’s certainly not the solution for correct grammar, where he should have…
Why Are Canada’s Conservatives Opposed to Everything Good?
Canada used to be known worldwide as a nation of nice people. Canadians were thought of as polite, cheerful, compassionate, caring, respectful, honest, and helpful. We said please and thank…
Review: Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
Maybe I’m just old and jaded, but after watching the 2023 movie, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, I couldn’t figure out why the film wasn’t in WalMart’s $5 bin…
CBC Strives for Supermarket Tabloid Status
As a source of credible journalism, CBC used to be one of the standards by which other media measured themselves. It was reliable, honest, and responsible. Oh, how far CBC…
Aptos vs Calibri
Did you notice the change? Microsoft has made the typeface Aptos the new default for its Office programs, replacing the venerable Calibri after 17 years. Aptos has been rolled out…