The Ukraine war—a boon for the Prairies
War mostly bings death, destruction and suffering, but it also brings profits for some. In the case of the current war in the Ukraine, much profit will be brought to…
Russia
Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Sarah Bartsch et al. study the costs and benefits of face mask use, and conclude that even without factoring in improvements to public…
Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – The Associated Press reports on the continued disparity in COVID-19 vaccinations between countries which is exacerbating the risk of new and more severe…
Putin’s apologists
Russia’s war-mongering president, Vladimir Putin, has many admirers in the West. Various notable European politicians have paid homage, including the leader of France’s far right National Rally party, Marine Le…
Nuclear War Not Humanity’s Only Option
Aside from the insane invasion of democratic Ukraine by the Russians, there’s another pending catastrophe in store for humanity anywhere between this afternoon and the next 5000 years. Destruction from…
Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – The Max Planck Society explores how COVID-19 has developed to hide out and mutate within the human body. Tami Luhby discusses how even…
Chilling Words
Ever since Putin started massing troops along Ukraine’s eastern border, I’ve been wondering exactly what Russia’s objectives really were. Put aside the propaganda from Russia about Ukraine posing some kind…
Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Carly Weeks examines why so many Canadian children still haven’t been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. John Loeppky asks that we not eliminate the…
Is the UCP suggesting it’s time to show Russia a thing or two by halting the TMX pipeline expansion?
Will members of all Canadian political parties soon demand that we halt the TMX pipeline expansion project? I ask because, with the current great power tension in Ukraine likely to…
Why post-Brexit, post-Imperial Britain should build Yachty McYachtface, and build it now!
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s big idea to spend hundreds of millions of pounds building a new royal yacht to serve as a floating trade show venue is an excellent project…
There are better ways for Alberta’s only New Democrat to spend her time than calling for more Canadian troops on Russia’s doorstep
Last week, Heather McPherson, New Democrat Member of Parliament for Edmonton Strathcona, was sounding as belligerent as any Alberta Conservative on the topic of what she termed “Russia’s aggression against…
Russia, Fascism & The West
Whatever problems Russia has, and every country has problems, as does Russia, two things are clear: Russia is not trying to take over the world. Davos and Washington are doing…
Despite COVID-19, 15,000 people join Fight for Equity rally against racism at Alberta Legislature
A mostly youthful throng estimated at more than 15,000 people braved the coronavirus pandemic yesterday evening to join the Fight for Equity rally against racism at the Alberta Legislature in…
Oil Capitals Hunker Down
To Calgarians, the city is starting to feel like a punching bag. Its primary industry suffers one body blow after another. Oil prices crashed at the end of 2014 as…
From Emperors to Emperors and Tsars to Tsars—Plus ça change
The French proverb plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose (the more things change, the more they stay the same) most aptly describes what has been happening at the…
Remember when Canada was about to become ‘a global energy powerhouse’? So how’d that work out?
Anybody remember Stephen Harper’s plan to turn Canada into “an energy superpower”? That was in July 2006, a dream articulated in Mr. Harper’s first speech abroad as Canada’s prime minister.…
The Cartel Still Rules … Sort of
It isn’t easy to convince nominally free-market Albertans that monopoly and government interference in the market made us rich, but of course they did. Nothing has contributed more to the…
The EU Declares War
I apologize for the alarmist headline. The European Union hasn’t actually declared war, more a case of having recognized a war, a shadow war. Vera Jourova, Vice President of the…
The Quality and the Rabble in American Government
The health of democracy, indeed government generally, often rests more with the quality of a country’s civil servants than with the quality of its politicians and their associates. Rarely have…
Making sense of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
What has become clear is that Canadian and American media are manufacturing consent, and presenting the Russian invasion of Ukraine outside of its historical context. The act of invasion is…