There’s Good News and There’s Bad News. Freedom House Ratings, 2021.
Democracy is in decline around the world. Where it was strong it remains strong – with one glaring exception. Canada (98) again did very well in the ratings, no surprise…
Unknown
Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Ben Cohen points out some of the ways the Omicron variant deviates from what we’ve come to assume about COVID-19. And Colin Horgan…
Tuesday Night Cat Blogging
Leveled-up cats.
On lockdowns
Richard Raycraft reports on the absurdity that the Libs’ latest excuse for a pandemic support (the Canada Worker Lockdown Benefit) is available to precisely zero Canadians even as the Omicron…
Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Ben Cohen writes that we shouldn’t take a negative rapid test as license to stop taking every possible precaution to limit community…
Use Every Tool At Your Disposal
The Washington Post editorial board is urging president Joe Biden to take off the gloves in the fight against Covid-19 and, especially, the Omicron variant sweeping the nation. They want…
An Old Soldier’s Lament
You could say the United States military has gone to the dogs. It’s a top down problem. It’s a contagion that doesn’t stop at America’s borders. In today’s Tom Dispatch,…
A Nation Rotting from the Inside
I have an American cousin. Poorly educated, profoundly ignorant, a real Trump guy. Like a vivisectionist’s dog, he lovingly licks the hand wielding the scalpel. Like many of his Facebook…
The Faint Whiff of Change
In the last two weeks I’ve been struck by a growing awareness that something serious is underway in Antarctica. Three friends who have rarely, almost never, said much about the…
Polluter Pays. The Case for Taxing the Rich.
The now standard narrative is that the developed countries are to blame for the climate catastrophe. Some think that’s an unduly broad brush. The case for taxing the rich wherever…
Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Umair Haque is rightly frustrated that we haven’t learned and applied obvious lessons about how to fight COVID after two years, while also…
It’s the Christmas Season, right? Right?
It’s a messy Massie Christmas to you and yours. This year the Republican congressman from Kentucky sent friends and family this lovely Christmas photo. Looks like the little one has…
If the Library Isn’t Your Thing at the Moment, Here’s Something.
Make some time, grab a cocoa, settle into your favourite chair and check out the December issue of the MIT Technology Review. That’s December, 2020. It’s jam packed with ideas…
Another Term You’ll Have to Learn – "Breakthrough"
Breakthrough describes Covid infections among the fully vaccinated. It’s our new reality. In the United States, so-called breakthrough cases — infections among the vaccinated — were less common before Omicron,…
A New One for the Climate Books – "Atmospheric Lakes"
By now most of us are aware of atmospheric rivers that usually take the form of a rapid succession of deluges that can cause flash flooding and widespread devastation of…
Is It Time to Show Anti-Vaxxers the Door?
The British Columbia government’s Covid update page has some powerful data. To date, 89.2 per cent of eligible adults have received two vaccine shots. 16 per cent also have had…
Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Dr. Katharine Smart highlights the crucial choices which need to be made to avoid a calamitous fifth COVID-19 wave, while Chelsea Nash…
Pfizer Says…
Do you think you can stand another three years of Covid? Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) on Friday forecast that the COVID-19 pandemic would not be behind us until 2024 and said…
2024 – America’s Night of the Long Knives?
Three retired US generals have taken to the Washington Post warning of a potential coup in 2024. A number of today’s serving generals, they fear, could go rogue. The signs…