Archive for August 2006

Last of the summer wine .. who’s hottest: Paris Hilton or Beyonce Knowles?

Aug 29th, 2006 | By | Category: Entertainment, Ottawa Scene

With the serious summer of 2006 now in its very last gasps it is time for a concluding burst of wild abandon, before settling back into the post-Labour-Day grind. And I have been asked to (briefly) discuss who is the hottest – Paris Hilton or Beyonc Knowles? Other names could be added. Osama bin Laden […]



Who are the Tamil Tigers .. and how important are they in the real war on terrorism?

Aug 25th, 2006 | By | Category: Countries of the World

This week, on August 23, under the intriguing headline “TAMILS SAID THEY WERE GOING TO STAG PARTY,” the Toronto Globe and Mail cast some light on a current brand of alleged international terrorism that does not involve Islamist fantasies, Al-Qaida, or the Middle East. Here as elsewhere, Canada has distinguished itself from the elephant next […]



Caledonia war party drags on .. and what does it say about democracy today?

Aug 20th, 2006 | By | Category: Key Current Issues

[UPDATED AUGUST 23]. Along with everything else this waning summer, the free and democratic people in Canada’s most populous province of Ontario must still worry about what the influential political newsletter Inside Queen’s Park has just called a “dangerously festering dispute,” between the Six Nations Iroquois of the Grand River and assorted governments and non-aboriginal […]



UK-US airline terror threat.. are the Brits really wiser in these foolish things?

Aug 16th, 2006 | By | Category: USA Today

The foiled British terror threat that put places as far away as northern California “ON ALERT” last week is bound to remind Canadians of their own foiled terror threat only two months back. Yet last summer “Islamist” terrorists of some sort actually did bomb the London transit system. And that, among other things, gives the […]



Iroquois origins of modern Toronto

Aug 5th, 2006 | By | Category: Heritage Now

It used to be said that modern Toronto began in the late 18th century, when John Graves Simcoe pitched Captain Cook’s “canvas house” more or less in the middle of the present city downtown, on behalf of the British empire on which the sun never dared to set. Nowadays many who take an interest in […]



Castro’s not dead yet .. but maybe Cuba should finally become part of Canada anyway?

Aug 2nd, 2006 | By | Category: Countries of the World

No doubt it is just the summer heat. But the news that Fidel Castro has just appointed his brother Raul as temporary custodian of Cuba, while Fidel recovers from surgery, has set off its own brand of crazed speculation in the true north. TV reports from across the border say that CNN has been interviewing […]