DSK walks
In probably his most humiliating moment since becoming Manhattan's DA, Cyrus Vance Jr has dropped all seven charges against Dominique Strauss Kahn in the allegation that he raped a hotel…
US politics
Analyzing the Tea Party
A new study by professors David Campbell and Robert Putnam tracking the origins of the so-called Tea Party movement in America made a bit of a splash recently, after highlights…
Book Review "Broken Words" Understanding the grip Neo-Cons have on evangelicals
As the author of a blog I get occasional emails asking me to review a book or promote a particular cause. In most cases I decline, and I've never agreed…
Enter stage right — WAY right — Rick Perry
Just as former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty -- probably the only guy who's close enough to the centre that he could actually beat Barack Obama in next year's presidential race…
A Vote for “Rick Parry” is a Vote for a Better America Tomorrow!
Stephen Colbert answers the question, “What will you do with all that unrestricted SuperPAC money?” with the launch of a TV commercial urging voters in Iowa to cast their ballots…
Latest Fed decision, and de Tocqueville on bombastic simpletons
The US Fed dropped its usual pretentiousness and the technocratic language often used in its statements on interest rate decisions and was remarkably clear in yesterday's decision, in which it…
UK lights up — is Canada next?
While no act of law enforcement, and no austerity measure, can justify the kind of rioting that has happened in the UK the last few days, one cannot help but…
When "Free Trade" ain’t free
In the absence of any long term prospect for a Free Trade Area of the Americas, Canada has decided to go it alone and try for bilateral agreements. This started…
The other shoe drops in the States
Finally, at least one of the bond rating agencies in the United States has owned up to its hypocrisies -- and slapped down the country's long standing credit rating, from…
The Debt Deal and Defense Spending
Defense spending factors into the recent deal to avert the entirely political debt "crisis" in a couple of ways. Firstly, amazingly, the deal actually increases defense spending in a certain…
Market Craps on Debt Ceiling Deal
Funny that shortly after the U.S. Congress passed the largest – and arguably most catastrophically stupid – deficit reduction package in history, the market promptly reacted by taking a nosedive.…
"the marriage vow": more racist myths about american slavery
Earlier this year, I blogged about a dangerous, racist myth about US history: that the southern states seceded from the union not because of slavery but because of "state's rights".…
dear u.s.: tax corporations, tax the rich, end the useless wars. there, problem solved.
Letter to the Globe and Mail, July 30:It's remarkable how in the current debate about the U.S. debt ceiling, the extravagance of American military spending is seldom even mentioned. In…
Ross Perot, the Tea Party: Why Are Third Party Politics In the US So Crazy?
As radical as they think that they are, the Tea Party follows a pattern of attempts to create a third party in the US political duopoly - which, let's face…
A not so clever move in a broken political game
Previously: A clever move in a broken political game Unlike a couple weeks ago, the Aug 2nd deadline really, really, is approaching fast. There was a time when playing empty…
All the "easy" oil and gas may be gone, but still …
While most regions of Canada have imposed moratoriums on "fracking," using jackhammers and / or high pressure water injections to get out natural gas, one province -- British Columbia --…
The Platinum Debt Solution
While in all probability America’s so-called “debt ceiling” will be raised next week – just as it routinely has been for the last 74 times since 1962 – the utterly…
Where to build the so-called "Road to Nowhere"? There’s really no where else to put it
Now this is interesting ... the "Canadian Transit Company," which sounds like a coalition of the urban public transit providers in Canada but is in fact the Canadian face of…