Another "New Normal" – Western Wildfires
NASA has announced another climate change-driven “new normal.” This time it’s the sharp increase in the number, size and intensity of western wildfires.NASA and U.S. Forest Service officials, who have…
The Mound of Sound
At Last, a Climate Change Winner
Climate change has a lot of losers but it also has a few winners. It’s good to learn that, among the winners, are the giant redwoods and sequoias of coastal,…
Canadian Lemmings
From the New Yorker, August 5th ed.
It Doesn’t Help to Call Oprah a "Cannibal"
The Swiss shopgirl at the centre of controversy for allegedly refusing to show Oprah Winfrey a purse, claiming she couldn’t afford it, is defending herself – clumsily. The woman denies…
It’s Santorum Again. He’s Back.
Rick Santorum is not a classy guy. In fact, he denounces the term “middle class” as Marxist. Here’s what he told an audience in Iowa: “Don’t use the term the…
Remember the Line About Horses and Barn Doors?
The Harper government has pulled the operating licence from the now bankrupt Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railroad. Apparently the Canadian Transportation Agency concluded that MM&A doesn’t have adequate third-party liability…
Arms Race Update – Japan Launches First Aircraft Carrier Since WWII
The Japanese navy has a new warship, the largest warship and first aircraft carrier it has built since WWII. The Japanese, sensitive to their past and current tensions in Asia-Pacific,…
Taking Back a Stolen Homeland – Scotland
Few things show inequality more than Land Registry records and, when it comes to that, Britain surely stands alone. In the thousand years since the Norman conquest, most of the…
The Last Waltz of Robert Mugabe
First the good news. Robert Mugabe is almost certainly on his final term as president of Zimbabwe. If he manages to serve his full, five-year stretch, he’ll be 94. Now…
A Hunted Woman
I’ve never been fond of those nature shows that get you to watch the beautiful gazelle going about its business and then pull back to let you see the pride…
Got a Gut Feeling About Climate Change? You Just Might.
A study by the University of Zurich has found heatwaves can get one’s bowels in an uproar. Patients with inflammatory bowel disease are at greater risk of relapse during heat…
Did Senator Pam Try to Cook Her Expenses Records?
Nothing says “guilty” more than getting caught tampering with the evidence. Will the defendant please rise? Yes, Ms. Wallin, that’ll be you. Apparently, Senate expense-scandal auditors, Deloittes, believe the senator…
"Likely" to Die in Prison
Let’s do the math. You’re 83. You just stood trial on 32-charges and were convicted of 31 of them, including eleven murders. Even if you were given just one year…
Stiglitz Casts the Bones and Reads the Entrails of Detroit,
Nobel laureate economist Joe Stiglitz argues that it’s vital not to get misled about the real significance of the bankruptcy of Detroit. Detroit’s most serious problems are confined to the…
Tony, Meet Steve
They’re both rabid rightwingers so you would have thought the man hoping to become Australia’s next prime minister, Tony Abbott, would know a thing or two about his Canadian counterpart,…
Volume, Volume, Volume!
If America is top at one thing, it’s mass incarceration. With but 5% of the global population, the U.S. has 25% of the global prison population. Its prison-industrial complex is…
Messiah is Back – He’s Here, He’s There, Over There Too
Only in Tennessee – or Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia maybe. A magistrate dealt with the case of a baby boy whose parents could not agree on the child’s last name. Child…
The Struggle For Democracy
One of our most annoying conceits is our glee at dissecting and critiquing democracy in other lands. To these critics I say, 1215. Remember that for 1215 is the date…
Arms Race Update – There Goes the Neighbourhood
Singapore’s RSS Swordsman When Obama announced America’s military “pivot” out of the Middle East and into Asia-Pacific, it was bound to shake up the neighbourhood – that plus China’s rapid…
Maybe What Vancouver Island Needs Isn’t Provincehood but Sovereignty Association
There’s been some talk lately about why Vancouver Island isn’t a Canadian province in its own right. The argument is that, if you look at the maritime provinces, we’re bigger,…