[UPDATED FEBRUARY 8, 11, 2012]. If M.I.A. (aka Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam) gave TV viewers of the 2012 Super Bowl half-time show “that already famous middle finger” in order to spread her name and fame to a much wider audience that includes vaguely out-of-it anglophone white males over 65 years old, I am pleased to report […]
It has me taken a while to get into the latest Stephen Colbert intervention in the real world of US politics (in conjunction with his colleague, Jon Stewart – who recently claimed that both “t”s in his surname are silent, to give “Sewar” when said out loud). But I have now been drawn in by […]
If Google Analytics is to be believed – and it no doubt is, in some significant enough degree – the majority of visitors to this site arrive via “Search Engines,” looking for information on specific issues or subjects. We also have a discriminating flow of “Direct Traffic” and “Referring Sites,” which we value very highly […]
Bunting says I’m not doing any work for the cause over the holidays, just bothering him as he keeps the torch of the skeleton crew alight in the office. But here I am on Christmas Day wishing everyone who drops by Happy Holidays – and above all else, HAPPY SANTA CLAUS. Among many other strange […]
TORONTO, CANADA. The number one spot in the Globe and Mail list of its most popular stories on the last weekend before Christmas 2011 was held by a Gerald Caplan comment piece, headlined “Be very afraid: Stephen Harper is inventing a new Canada.” And I am wondering, well yes, of course, but is it true? […]
I see from an article in yesterday’s Toronto Star that Mitt Romney, current contender for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination among the Yankees to the south of us, “made the 12-hour drive from Boston to Grand Bend [Ontario] with the family dog strapped to the roof of his car,” in the summer of 1983. This […]
The estimable Bill Maher was surprised a few weeks ago to hear that the most loyal follower of the United States – the one other country of the world which has enthusiastically joined every foreign policy adventure Washington has concocted over the past 60 years – was not Canada. (He had maybe been paying too […]
Some will stress that the Occupy protests in Canada have been pale echoes of Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Oakland, etc. When the “Toronto-based freelance author, journalist and activist” Nick Fillmore writes about “Occupy’s impact … Spontaneous movement a catalyst and inspiration,” he urges that continuing “strong citizen-led action could result in a number of […]
[UPDATE NOV 3, 12 NOON ET: There are now reports that Prime Minister Papandreou will be dropping plans for a referendum on the Greek financial bailout, in response to domestic political pressures. I’ll comment further when this prospect becomes clearer. Meanwhile, I can only say that it does nothing to change my admiration for the […]
For those who still think the Central Canadian mind is worth pondering, two somewhat contradictory recent Globe and Mail opinion columns on the current state of Canadian federal politics are probably worth a bit of further attention : John Ibbitson’s “Harper’s moment to entrench Conservative politics has arrived,” in yesterday’s print edition, followed promptly today […]
