A Current Affairs Quiz to Start Your Day
Just two simple questions this morning.1. Which continent is not essential for feeding mankind?2. Which continent is still not beset by the impacts of cyclical floods and droughts?Bonus Question3. Name…
The Mound of Sound
Killing Off Our Oceans
In the coming decade we're in for a rude reminder of something we've forgotten - how dependent civilization is on our oceans.A report will be released in a few days…
Obama Impersonator Backfires On GOP
A Republican forum in Louisiana hoped to get a few shots in at the Democratic president by hiring an Obama impersonator. It was all chuckles until the comic began making…
Let’em Eat – Geese
Urban areas in North America these days are plagued by masses of unwanted Canada geese - birds that have abandoned their migratory ways for the comforts or urban living. They…
A Gearhead in the 21st Century
I love driving, absolutely love it. Not the trip to the mall or voyage to the in-laws sort of driving. I'm talking about the sheer joy of negotiating an empty…
Causing Harm in the Name of Doing Good
Is the West taking away the best thing Afghans had going for them?Retired US foreign service officer Patricial McArdle contends that well-intentioned Western aid programmes are undermining Afghanistan's locavore tradition....few…
John Edwards, Nancy Grace, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann and Texas Governor Perry
And there you have all the fodder needed for Bill Maher's latest "New Rules"
Fixing America’s Economy In Under 2:15
I know this is beginning to sound like a broken record but, as Robert Reich explains in under 2 minutes, 15 seconds, America's economic future depends on restoring that country's…
Piracy, Anyone?
What's in a name? Very little. Look at my own British Columbia. Our province is governed by the Liberal Party of British Columbia. Only there's nothing remotely "liberal" about it.…
China’s New Climate, And Yours
Southern China has been enduring the worst drought in half a century but not any longer. Now the region is inundated by flood waters, it's newly engorged rivers, including the…
Dumb As Paint
Today's Dumb as Paint award goes out to Brock Anton for helping Vancouver Police by confessing to assaulting a police officer and destruction of property. Brock, be sure to ask…
Defending Canadian Labour
We've been warned. The Harper government's rash interventionism in Air Canada and Canada Post strikes has to be seen as a declaration of a war on organized labour in Canada.…
A Night Made for a Riot
It was a night made for a riot. By mid-afternoon radio stations were reporting throngs moving from the suburbs into downtown Vancouver. Many employers let their workers off early for…
Flaherty Issues "Stern Warning" To Americans
Harper minion, the Diminutive Jimbo Flaherty, is said by the Montreal Gazette to have given a "stern fiscal warning" to the United States.Tiny Jim, to take a Dickensian liberty, told…
Simple Minds In a Complex World
We in the West like to keep things simple, especially when those things relate to countries on the other side of the world. We like to reduce everything to basic…
For Women, The Worst Countries On Earth
There are plenty of countries where it's no blessing to be born female but there are some where it's bloody awful. The worst, the very worst country is - why…
First They Came For Our Slaves, Now They’ve Come For Our Coal.
Those goddamned Yankees! Far right Republican jackass, Senator Mitch McConnell, says the federal government is at war in the South again. "They have declared war, war on Kentucky's coal industry."…
America Shows Its Hand on Afghanistan
American negotiators are working out a deal that could allow US forces to remain in Afghanistan for decades. All this nonsense about an American withdrawal by 2014 was always just…
Was It the 60-Year Age Difference?
25-year old Crystal Harris has called off her engagement to 85-year old Hugh Hefner. They were to be married this Saturday but Crystal, it seems, changed her mind "after much…