All entries by this author

Captain Semrau does not deserve five years in jail for Afghan mercy killing

Jul 21st, 2010 | By | Category: In Brief

I rarely agree with Peter Worthington, the right-wing militarist journalist who has done so much for the Toronto Sun. But I think he is onto something in the case of Captain Robert Semrau. A native of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Captain Semrau was granted an “exemplary discharge” from the British army before joining the Canadian forces. […]



Why are the puritans still persecuting Lindsay Lohan?

Jul 7th, 2010 | By | Category: In Brief

Is it just me? Or are there others out there somewhere, who find it unbelievable, to say the least, that the 24-year-old Hollywood actress Lindsay Lohan has just been sentenced to 90 days in jail? Several years ago the excellent American journalist William Langewiesche (who now “resides in California and France”) wrote about a Washington […]



American politics as a perpetual election .. or Super Duper Tuesday 2010 : a view from the northern lights

Jun 8th, 2010 | By | Category: In Brief

“The radio crosses boundaries which stopped the press,” the near-great Canadian economic historian Harold Innis declared in the late 1930s, in a talk on “Canadian-American Relations” at the University of Maine. Television just stiffened the trend, starting in the 1950s. And now the Age of the Internet, starting in the 1990s, is crossing boundaries all […]



What is going on in Thailand anyway?

May 20th, 2010 | By | Category: In Brief

“When the demonstrations began in Bangkok in March,” a New York Times report tells us, “the protesters’ central demand was that the government step down, but the movement has splintered and the ultimate aims have become unclear.” You don’t have to spend too much time on the deeper background to the current troubles in Thailand […]



What does historic British election and new coalition mean for Canada in 2010?

May 11th, 2010 | By | Category: In Brief

One hundred years ago today, more or less, was apparently also a historic time in the United Kingdom. On May 6, 1910 (100 years from the date of the British election last week) George V had  become King on the death of his father, Edward VII. Meanwhile an election that took place from 15 January […]



Alinsky, Brooks, Clinton, and Obama: “outright fiction” on the American left

Mar 19th, 2010 | By | Category: USA Today

David Brooks is an American conservative journalist who even non-conservatives can read with interest. His March 4, 2010 column in the New York Times on “The Wal-Mart Hippies” has attracted some wider attention – and been reprinted, eg, in the March 6, 2010 print edition of the National Post in Canada.  It seems to me, […]



Is the end of the age of crazy tax cuts at hand?

Feb 7th, 2010 | By | Category: In Brief

Who just said: “I think the lesson of the last 25 years is that it doesn’t work …  Taxes are going to have to be raised. … The Republicans think their mission in life is to cut taxes. Sorry … game over. We’re now in the tax-raising business. And we’re going to be in the […]



Did Massachusetts vote again for change it still hasn’t seen?

Jan 20th, 2010 | By | Category: In Brief

“History has many cunning passages,” T.S. Eliot from St. Louis, Missouri said about 90 years ago (by which time he was already living in London, England). But having a Republican like Scott Brown deal “a devastating blow to President Obama’s domestic agenda Tuesday night by capturing the Senate seat of the late Edward M. Kennedy” […]



Donolo diaries, Byers ceasefire proposal, and Michael Ignatieff, anti-monarchist

Nov 8th, 2009 | By | Category: Ottawa Scene

These are not easy days for aspiring progressive voters in Canadian federal politics, at the edge of four by-elections that actually will happen on Monday, November 9. According to the October 29 EKOS poll, eg: “Stephen Harper’s federal Conservatives lead the second-place Liberals by a double-digit margin for the fourth week in a row, suggesting […]



All fired up and ready to go in Canada?

Sep 18th, 2009 | By | Category: In Brief

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2009. 2:00 PM EDT. As expected the Harper minority government’s ways and means budget motion sailed through the Canadian House of Commons easily this morning, with the support of the Bloc Québécois and the New Democrats. The vote was 224 Yea to 74 Nay, with only Liberals voting against. As a result, […]