No Charges for Wallin?
Full disclosure – again – I knew, and worked with, Mike Duffy back in the 70s and have touched base with him a few times since. My best Ottawa Tory…
The Mound of Sound
Could Syria Become the 21st Century Sarajevo?
There were plenty of proxy wars during the Cold War only back then the principals had enough sense to avoid direct clashes. That was then, this is Syria where today…
The Real Barbarian Threat to Canada
Shifty Steve wants to outlaw barbaric practices in Canada. A lot of Canadian voters casting ballots for the Liberals, New Democrats or Greens want exactly the same thing.The Guardian’s ‘True…
Either Way, It’ll Be Like Swallowing Broken Glass
When things aren’t going Shifty Steve’s way he’s said to get very ornery. Apparently he’s got a special vocabulary, a lexicon he uses that you don’t hear in his evangelical…
Numbers That Can’t Be Fudged, Just Ignored.
These are hard numbers and observed facts even the most delusional climate change denialists can’t dispute. Our oceans have warmed by more than 1C from the pre-industrial era. Over the…
Winning All the Battles and Losing All the Wars
Now that Canada is becoming a vassal state to America’s military and foreign policy, perhaps this would be a good time to look back at how Head Office has been…
Playboy Goes PG
It began in 1953 with a nude pictorial of Marilyn Monroe. Now, 62 years later, Playboy magazine is going PG, no longer shall it publish nude images. Magazine executives admitted…
Will Turkey Become NATO’s First and the Muslim World’s Next Failed State?
NATO’s only Muslim member state, Turkey, has made great strides in developing a modern, even high-tech society. Turkey’s aerospace industry, for example, is highly advanced and may even soon field…
And You Think You’ve Got a Tough Commute.
The Chinese drive to modernize hasn’t always been very well thought out. After all, who was the engineer who came up with the idea of a 50-lane highway into Beijing?…
An Ex-Pat Canadian Sees Harper as "the Last Remnant of George w. Bush"
The Guardian has given a lot of coverage to Canada’s election campaign, much of it focusing on Stephen Joseph Harper, Shifty Steve. The latest is an op-ed from a Canadian…
Climate Change – Rumblin’ and Tumblin’ and Picking’ Up Speed
They’re drowning in South Carolina, seriously. Killer floods in the heart of Dixie. It’s the latest craze. The new jet stream parks a rain front overhead delivering a week-long soaking.…
Casting Pearls Before Swine or My Election Day Blues
“Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.” I…
Kudos to Tunisia.
Congratulations to Tunisia’s National Dialogue Quartet for their well-deserved Nobel Peace Prize, 2015. “Starting in 2011, the four members of the Quartet — the Tunisian General Labor Union, the Tunisian…
Keep Those Snow Shovels Handy
It’s unknown how this will translate on our side of the Atlantic this winter but Britain is bracing for four months of very heavy snowfall. British meteorologists have made the…
Global Food Security – Rubbing Salt in the Wounds of the Already Insecure
The Brits have a term for it, “chasing the sun.” This describes how Britain’s industrial agri-giants ensure that consumers will always find high-value products such as fresh strawberries on the…
Since When Did "Dumb Ass" Become a Credential?
That’s Mel on the Right Mel Arnold is not a scientist. Mel Arnold is a dumb ass. He’s running for the Cons in North Okanagan-Shuswap and he’s showing that he…
Looking for the Exit Door
So, what are you doing for the rest of the century? In the context of Canada and the Middle East that might be a question worth asking. Let’s start with…
Does TPP Sabotage Climate Change Action?
Clause 20 of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement sounds pretty good. “The 12 Parties agree to effectively enforce their environmental laws; and not to weaken environmental laws in order to encourage…
Marijuana (Users) "Infintely Worse" Than Cigarette Smokers
To Shifty Steve Harper’s little mind, marijuana is ‘infinitely worse’ than tobacco as a public health hazard. Of course Shifty’s lizard brain isn’t programmed to tell the truth. Fact is…
The Real Killer Will be Heat Stress
The death certificate may list kidney disease or heart failure but that could mask the real cause of death – heat stress. A New Zealand expert on the subject, Dr.…